| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | Birds of Passage | Flight the Second.
Snow-Flakes |
| | | OUT of the bosom of the Air, | |
| Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, | |
| Over the woodlands brown and bare, | |
| Over the harvest-fields forsaken, | |
| Silent, and soft, and slow | 5 |
| Descends the snow. | |
| |
| Even as our cloudy fancies take | |
| Suddenly shape in some divine expression, | |
| Even as the troubled heart doth make | |
| In the white countenance confession, | 10 |
| The troubled sky reveals | |
| The grief it feels. | |
| |
| This is the poem of the air, | |
| Slowly in silent syllables recorded; | |
| This is the secret of despair, | 15 |
| Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, | |
| Now whispered and revealed | |
| To wood and field. | | | | |
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