196 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
“ And foul and fierce 
All winter drives along the darkened air.” 
“When dark December shrouds the transient day, 
And stormy winds are howling in their ire, 
Why com’st not thou? . . . Oh, haste to pay 
The cordial visit sullen hours require !” 
“ Winter will oft at eve resume the breeze, 
Chill the pale morn, and bid his driving blasts 
Deform the day delightless.” 
“ Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire, 
With whom you might converse, and by the fire 
Help waste the sullen day.” 
But our prevalent association with winter, in 
the northern United States, is with something 
white and dazzling and brilliant ; and it is time 
to paint our own pictures, and cease to borrow 
these gloomy alien tints. One must turn 
eagerly every season to the few glimpses of 
American winter aspects: to Emerson’s “Snow- 
storm,” every word a sculpture ; to the admira- 
ble storm in “ Margaret ;” to Thoreau’s “ Win- 
ter Walk,” in the “Dial;” and to Lowell’s 
“First Snowflake.” These are fresh and real 
pictures, which carry us back to the Greek An- 
thology, where the herds come wandering down 
from the wooded mountains, covered with snow, 
and to Homer’s aged Ulysses, his wise words. 
falling like the snows of winter. 
Let me add to this scanty gallery of snow 
