TRUE EXPRESSIONS WINTER IN THE COUNTRY
WINTER MEMORIES
Within the circuit of this plodding life There enter moments of an azure hue , Untarnished fair as is the violet Or anemone , when the spring stew them By some meandering rivulet , which make The best philosophy untrue that aims But to console man for his grievances . I have remembered when the winter came , High in my chamber in the frosty nights , When in the still light of the cheerful moon , On the every twig and rail and jutting spout , The icy spears were adding to their length Against the arrows of the coming sun , How in the shimmering noon of winter past Some unrecorded beam slanted across
The upland pastures where the Johnwort grew ; Or heard , amid the verdure of my mind , The bee ' s long smothered hum , on the blue flag Loitering amidst the mead ; or busy rill , Which now through all its course stands still and dumb Its own memorial , - purling at its play Along the slopes , and through the meadows next , Until its youthful sound was hushed at last In the staid current of the lowland stream ; Or seen the furrows shine but late upturned , And where the fieldfare followed in the rear , When all the fields around lay bound and hoar Beneath a thick integument of snow . So by God ' s cheap economy made rich To go upon my winter ' s task again .
Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862
PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE 79