| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | February 22 | | The Twenty-second of February | | By William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | | PALE is the February sky, | |
| And brief the mid-day’s sunny hours; | |
| The wind-swept forest seems to sigh | |
| For the sweet time of leaves and flowers. | |
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| Yet has no month a prouder day, | 5 |
| Not even when the summer broods | |
| O’er meadows in their fresh array, | |
| Or autumn tints the glowing woods. | |
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| For this chill season now again, | |
| Brings, in its annual round, the morn | 10 |
| When, greatest of the sons of men, | |
| Our glorious Washington was born. | |
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| Lo, where, beneath an icy shield, | |
| Calmly the mighty Hudson flows! | |
| By snow-clad fell and frozen field, | 15 |
| Broadening, the lordly river goes. | |
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| The wildest storm that sweeps through space, | |
| And rends the oak with sudden force, | |
| Can raise no ripple on his face, | |
| Or slacken his majestic course. | 20 |
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| Thus, ’mid the wreck of thrones, shall live | |
| Unmarred, undimmed, our hero’s fame, | |
| And years succeeding years shall give | |
| Increase of honors to his name. | | | | |
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