III. Juniperus Virginiana. Cedar.

WINTER.

The winter has come, and the skaters are here

With a falchion of steel

On each manly heel,

To strike the ice with a stroke of fear;

And to make the victim the story tell,

With a voice as clear as a tinkling bell.

The winter has come, and he howls at the door,

And puffing his cheeks,

He whistles and shrieks,—

A shriek of ill-will to the suffering poor,

That maketh the widow clasp her sons,

And huddle together her shiv’ring ones.

The winter has come, and the sorrow besides,

And the poor man’s breast

Can know of no rest,

While his life’s troubled torrent onward glides,

But when ’tis exhausted, the poor will share

A place with the rich, and no winter is there.

Philadelphia, December, 1840.