Winter Flowers

The summer queen has many flowers
  To deck her sunny hair,
And trailing grasses, pure and sweet,
  To scent the heavy air;
And upward through the misty sky
  There is a glory too,
Of floating clouds and rifts of gold
  And depths of smiling blue.
Yet winter, too, can boast a wealth
  Of flowers pure and white;
A kingly crown of frosted gems—
  A wreath of sparkling light;
So bright and beautiful, indeed,
  It were a wondrous sight
To see a world of fragile flowers
  Sprung up within a night.
And sometimes there are cast'es, too,
  Of glittering ice and snow,
Piled high upon our window-panes
  'Neath curtains hanging low;
And they are like the castles fair
  Our day-dreams build for aye;
A frozen mist that one warm breath
  May quickly drive away.
And yet, how beautiful they are,
  These flowers of our breath;
That bloom when not a leaf is left
  To mourn the summer's death.
And oh! how wondrous are the things
  That God has given the earth;
The day that brings to one a death
  Smiles on another's birth.

Form: Ballad Comments

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