Lines

I

   The cold earth slept below,

      Above the cold sky shone;

And all around, with a chilling sound,

   From caves of ice and fields of snow,

   The breath of night like death did flow

      Beneath the sinking moon.

II

   The wintry hedge was black,

      The green grass was not seen,

The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast,

   Whose roots, beside the pathway track,

   Had bound their folds o'er many a crack

      Which the frost had made between.

III

   Thine eyes glowed in the glare

      Of the moon's dying light;

As a fen-fire's beam on a sluggish stream

   Gleams dimly, so the moon shone there,

   And it yellowed the strings of thy raven hair,

      That shook in the wind of night.

IV

   The moon made thy lips pale, beloved—

      The wind made thy bosom chill—

The night did shed on thy dear head

   Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie

   Where the bitter breath of the naked sky

      Might visit thee at will.