Читать книгу English Verse - Raymond Macdonald Alden - Страница 42

Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,

The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger than dreams that fulfil us in sleep with delight;

The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops and branches that glittered and swayed

Such wonders and glories of blossomlike snow, or of frost that out-lightens all flowers till it fade,

That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land, nor the night than the day, nor the day than the night,

Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring: such mirth had the madness and might in thee made,

March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms that enkindle the season they smite.

(Swinburne: March.)