Pray to What Earth Does This Sweet Cold Belong

Henry David Thoreau 1817 (Concord) – 1862 (Concord)



Pray to what earth does this sweet cold belong,
Which asks no duties and no conscience?
The moon goes up by leaps, her cheerful path
In some far summer stratum of the sky,
While stars with their cold shine bedot her way.
The fields gleam mildly back upon the sky,
And far and near upon the leafless shrubs
The snow dust still emits a silver light.
Under the hedge, where drift banks are their screen,
The titmice now pursue their downy dreams,
As often in the sweltering summer nights
The bee doth drop asleep in the flower cup,
When evening overtakes him with his load.
By the brooksides, in the still, genial night,
The more adventurous wanderer may hear
The crystals shoot and form, and winter slow
Increase his rule by gentlest summer means.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
139

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEDFGHIJKLGMNO
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 753
Words 136
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 17

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. more…

All Henry David Thoreau poems | Henry David Thoreau Books

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