Page:Howells, Stops of Various Quills, 1895 079.jpg

 Howells, Stops of Various Quills, 1895 079 large a.jpg

Impression

SPITEFUL snow spit through the bitter day

In little stinging pellets gray,

And crackling on the frozen street

About the iron feet,

Broad stamped in massy shoes

Sharpened and corked for winter use,

Of the huge Norman horses plump and round,

In burnished brass and shining leather bound,

Dragging each heavy fetlock like a mane,

And shaking as they pull the ponderous wain

With wheels that jar the ground

In a small earthquake, where they jolt and grind,

And leave a span-wide track behind: