Classic Poem

Thin , subtle, woven fine,
Pictures quick dismissed;
Wind-blown, rapid, sober shine,
Fickle, changing mist.

Round the tree-boles, barren, slim,
Round the branches bare,
Windy snow-waves sinuous swim,
Ride the snow-foamed air.

On his gray, sad throne of cloud
Sits the north wind bold,
Has his frosty claims allowed,
Rules with wand of cold.

Sifted fine, and still more fine,
Weaving transient webs,
Images of transient shine,
Snow-mist flows and ebbs.

Fierce and fiercer blows the wind,
Sifts, and lifts, and sifts,
Thickens where soft heaps have thinned,
Scatters ridged drifts.

Atom, atom, and wind-life,
World-scheme on world-scheme, —
Whither tends the pauseless strife,
Flake and gusty gleam?