Note 27 — Chapter III
Reading edition
What is the subtle fascination that lurks in such bits of winter poetry as the following, collected by the writer out of his reading?
"Yesterday the sullen year Saw the snowy whirlwind fly."—Gray.
"All winter drives along the darkened air."—Thomson.
"High-ridged the whirled drift has almost reached The powdered keystone of the churchyard porch; Mute hangs the hooded bell; the tombs lie buried."—Grahame.
"Alas! alas! thou snow-smitten wood of Troy, and mountains of Ida."—Sophocles.
"O hard, dull bitterness of cold."—Whittier.
"And in the narrow house o' death Let winter round me rave."—Burns.
"The mesmerizer, Snow, With his hand's first sweep Put the earth to sleep."—Robert Browning.
"And the cakèd snow is shuffled From the plough-boy's heavy shoon."—Keats.