Snow-Bound

A free download from www.dertz.in

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Snow-Bound, by John Greenleaf
Whittier
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Snow-Bound
A Winter Idyll
Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
Illustrator: Harry Fenn, Engraved by A. V. S. Anthony and W. J.
Linton
Release Date: December 30, 2006 [EBook #20226]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
SNOW-BOUND ***
Produced by Louise Hope, David Newman, Chuck Greif and the

Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

SNOW-BOUND

SNOW-BOUND
A Winter Idyl

By JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
_With Illustrations_
[Illustration: Portrait]
Boston
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
Late Ticknor &
Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co.
1872
Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the years 1865 and 1867, by

JOHN G. WHITTIER,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court

of the District of Massachusetts.
[Illustration: Publisher's Device]
In the present edition of "Snow-Bound," the Illustrations are drawn by
Mr. HARRY FENN from sketches made by him during a visit to the
scene of the poem. The engraving has been done by Mr. A. V. S.
ANTHONY, under whose supervision the book has been prepared, and
Mr. W. J. LINTON.
The Publishers are confident that the drawing, engraving, and printing
will commend themselves to the approval of the critic and the
connoisseur; while to those unfamiliar with the _locale_ of the poem,
the following note from the author will be the best guaranty of the
artists' fidelity.
_It gives me pleasure to commend the illustrations which accompany
this edition of "Snow-Bound," for the faithfulness with which they
present the spirit and the details of the passages and places that the
artist has designed them to accompany._
J. G. W.
T o
_The Memory_

O f

The Household It Describes,
_This Poem Is Dedicated_
B y
The Author.

"As the Spirits of Darkness be stronger in the dark, so Good Spirits
which be Angels of Light are augmented not only by the Divine light of
the Sun, but also by our common VVood Fire: and as the Celestial Fire
drives away dark spirits, so also this our Fire of VVood doth the same."
COR. AGRIPPA, _Occult Philosophy_, Book I. chap. v.
"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow; and,
driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight; the whited air

Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the
farm-house at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the
courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit

Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of
storm."
EMERSON.
[Illustration]
SNOW BOUND.
The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray,

And, darkly circled, gave at noon
A sadder light than waning moon.

Slow tracing down the thickening sky
Its mute and ominous
prophecy,
A portent seeming less than threat,
It sank from sight
before it set.
A chill no coat, however stout,
Of homespun stuff
could quite shut out,
A hard, dull bitterness of cold,
That checked,
mid-vein, the circling race
Of life-blood in the sharpened face,
The
coming of the snow-storm told.
The wind blew east: we heard the

roar
Of Ocean on his wintry shore,
And felt the strong pulse
throbbing there
Beat with low rhythm our inland air.
Meanwhile we did our nightly chores,--
Brought in the wood from
out of doors,
Littered the stalls, and from the mows
Raked down the
herd's-grass for the cows;
Heard the horse whinnying for his corn;

And, sharply clashing horn on horn,
Impatient down the stanchion
rows
The cattle shake their walnut bows;
While, peering from his
early perch
Upon the scaffold's pole of birch,
The cock his crested
helmet bent
And down his querulous challenge sent.
[Illustration]
Unwarmed by any sunset light
The gray day darkened into night,
A
night made hoary with the swarm
And whirl-dance of the blinding
storm,
As zigzag wavering to and fro
Crossed and recrossed the
wingéd snow:
And ere the early bedtime came
The white drift piled
the window-frame,
And through the glass the clothes-line posts

Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts.
[Illustration]
So all night