A Winter's Rime

(In a churchyard in Northern Ireland) Through the broken and barren trees Winter exhales its coldest breeze From the wintry breath of northern seas That can chill the warmest soul. Thus in the churchyard by the sea Nigh one broken and barren tree Lies cold a soul once warm to me Beneath the winter’s rime. As the heart of winter doth unfold I feel its touch, so dark and cold, For I yearn at night to yet behold That soul once warm to me. But in earthen depths doth she lie E’er below the moon and starlit sky As yet unto her grave I wander by And despair the winter’s rime. O’ the winter wails upon the still With its bleak and bitter chill That conjures from the nightly nil A soul once warm to me!