winter's soul

''ye winter gusts that round my casement blow and pile in drifts the palid demon snow; ye cruel frosts, that numb with poison breath a suff'ring world, and serve the will of death! grant me, ye gods , a dome of crystal glass, through whose clear surface sun and stars might blaze, ...

''here let me dwell, and in december sing midst balmy zephyrs of eternal spring! ... through mossy meads a limped stream might run, ... a floral train the rolling green might bear, ... unusual flow'rs the well plac'd urns might fill, ... here might the studious mind at ease expand, nor fear the woes that fret a wintery land. ...

''but see--alas--the pleasing picture fades--and icy field displaces the vernal shades! yet when indeed does life reward or please with truer things than visions such a these? our struggling years too little bliss could own were they confin'd to genuine joys alone! ... though changing seasons o'er the mead may roll, spring reigns perpetual in the smiling soul!''

h.p.lovecraft, a winters wish.