| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | The Cross of Snow | | By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | | IN the long, sleepless watches of the night, | |
| A gentle face—the face of one long dead— | |
| Looks at me from the wall, where round its head | |
| The night lamp casts a halo of pale light. | |
| Here in this room she died; and soul more white | 5 |
| Never through martyrdom of fire was led | |
| To its repose; nor can in books be read | |
| The legend of a life more benedight. | |
| There is a mountain in the distant West | |
| That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines | 10 |
| Displays a cross of snow upon its side. | |
| Such is the cross I wear upon my breast | |
| These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes | |
| And seasons, changeless since the day she died. | | | | |
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