Winter Cheer
By Hattie Whitney
Good Housekeeping, December 8, 1888, p. 65.

http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/winter-cheer-poemmdash1888.html

Lost, lost is the light of Autumn’s bequeathing:
No more the late sunflower sleepily nods
To the breeze in the corn-plumes a lullaby breathing,
And lazily swaying the flower-bean pods.

All shorn of their grace are the elms and the willows:
The winds through the locust boughs gustily blow.
The sun has gone down under turbulent billows–
There’s wrath in the west, and the fire says “snow.”

But let the wind blow through the fields bleak and lonely,
Where fell the June sunshine all golden and soft:
‘Twill find the dry stubble and brown brambles only:
The corn’s in the crib, and the hay’s in the loft.

And let the rain pour—not a wisp of the clover,
Nor spray of the meadow is left to be lost,
For the tempest to beat and the snow to drift over,
For blast of the hail and for blight of the frost.

And oh, the red light where the fore-stick is burning,
And back-log is cheerily glowing, could shame
The tints of the leaves when the forest was turning
From cool ocean-green into amber and flame.

And deep-hearted closets are filled with the favors
Pomona bestowed in her kindliest care–
The richest of tints and the sweetest of flavors
In rare-ripe and damson and pippin and pear.

And cellar and store-rooms are filled to o’erflowing,
And granaries burst with the barley and wheat;
Our cottage is snuggest when weird winds are blowing,
So let the winds wail, and so let the storm beat.

Commentary: As we are in the middle of winter, I felt this poem appropriate. I love all the seasons (except spring), but I particularly enjoy snowy weather. I’m from North Carolina, so we don’t get it often, thus I love being able to watch the New England blizzards and listen to the wind howl here. I also, like most, love being cozy in bed and the time I get to spend with friends and family around the holidays as aspects of the winter season. This poem matches how I feel about the season and illustrates that certain human sentiments about nature may never change.