The countryside is sweet tonight –
Sunset comes discreet tonight –
The Chapel rings with choirs tonight –
My heart is flecked with fires tonight!
I know inside there is a maiden
Who holds fast the veil of virgin,
For whom I sit, in patience waiting
For matrimonial mating.
She will be fair, she will be true,
We’ll both give up our selfish slough –
Every day she’ll bring me joy
Because her needs are good employ.
We’ll put our love before ourselves
With smiles to comfort that which delves
From what we might agree upon
Since, while they fade, we carry on.
Those churchfolk cheerful pour outside
Amidst the Christmas fairy lights,
Watched from hill by I on bench,
And I by love’s excitement clenched.
Take heart, my heart! Remain steadfast
Until the final laychild pass –
For love ne’er lacked strained hope in tow,
But offers cargo worth the snow.
The ice pelts down in biting sheets –
Oh! How my snot runs down the streets,
My hands chap blue, my face raws red,
My mind frozen from chill and dread.
But love, nay, its lofty prospect,
Shall give me warmth, till I expect
A woman that faith and honor steer
To come my way, to draw me near.
Alas! They all have come and gone,
To leave me, once again, alone,
To face the vapors, midnight ghosts
Who swing about the dimmed lampposts.
The snow, it falls in heavy drifts
That weigh upon my heart – so stiff
It beats – like footsteps stumbling dull
Through hollow chest and swelling skull.
Every year, fate remains the same:
Unapproached, unfulfilled, laid lame
By those who can’t, or feel no need –
Is there one who even holds my creed?
The blizzard lightens up its scorn
To hail the violet sun of morn
With owls a-hooting, deer prance on
Across the sparkling drifts of dawn.
Black branches scatter water drips
That trickle o’er my jagged lips
In wait for mortal angel meet
‘Til I freeze dead against my seat.
Morning's Early Dark 