October Snow
Swiftly the blizzard stretched a frozen arm
From out the hollow night –
Stripping the world of all her scarlet pomp,
And muffling her in white.
Dead white the hills; dead white the soundless plain;
Dead white the blizzard's breath –
Heavy with hoar that touched each woodland thing
With a white and silent death.
In inky stupor, along the drifted snow,
The sluggish river rolled –
A numb black snake caught lingering in the sun
By autumn's sudden cold.
~~
Lew Sarett (1888-1954)
from The Box of God, 1922
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]
Lew Sarett biography
A wonderful poet who seems to be overlooked in a lot of schools nowadays. Let’s not kill off this kind of poetry by not reading it! I barely found one of his books. Seems like a miracle.
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