ted a

THE EAEEE1V

O l the snow the beautiful snow

Filling the sky and the earth below —

Over the housetops over the street

Over the heads of the people you meet —

Dancing Flirting Skimming along

Beautiful snow it can do nothing’wrong

Flying to kiss a fair lady’s cheek

Clinging to lips in a frolicsome freak —

Beautiful snow from the heaven above

Pure as an angel and fickle as love

O I the snow the beautiful snow I

How the flakes gather and laugh as they go

Whirling about in its maddening fun

It plays in its glee with every one

Chasing Laughing Hurrying by

It lights up the face and it sparkles the eye —

And even the dogs with a bark and a bound

Snap at the crystals that eddy around —

The town is alive and its heart in a glow

To welcome the coming of beautiful snow

How the wild crowd goes swaying along

Hailing each other with humor and song

How the gay sledges like meteors flash by

Bright for the moment then lost to the eye

Ringing Swinging Dashing they go

Over the crust of the beautiful snow

Snow so pure when it falls from the sky

To be trampled in mud by the crowd rushing by

To be trampled and tracked by the thousands of

feet

Till it blends with the filth in the horrible street

Once I was pure as the snow—but I fell

Fell like the snow flakes from Heaven—to

hell —

Fell to be trampled as filth of the street —

Fell to be scoffed to be spit on and beat 1

Pleading Cursing Dreading to die

Selling my soul to whoever would bujq

Dealing in shame for a morsel oi bread

Hating the living and fearing the dead

Merciful God I have I fallen so low 1

And yet I was cnce like the beautiful snow

Once I was fair as the beautiful snow

With an eye like its crystals a heart like glow

Once 1 was loved for my innocent grace—

Flattered and sought for the charm of my face

Father Mother Sister all

God and myself I have lost by my fall

The veriest wretch that goes shivering by

Wilt take a wide sweep lest I wander too nigh

For all that is on or about me I know snow

There is nothing that’s pure but the beautiful

How strange it should be that this beautiful snow

Should fall on a sinner with nowhere to go 4

How strange it would be when the night comes

again

If the snow and the ice stuck my desperate

brain I

Fainting Freezing Dying alone

Too wicked tor prayer too weak for my moan

To be heard in the crash of the crazy town

Gone mad in their joy of the snow’s coming

To lie and die in my terrible woe down

With a bed and a shroud of the beautiful snow

The Dall