Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/170



All night, all day, in dizzy, downward flight,
 * Fell the wild-whirling, vague, chaotic snow,
 * Till every landmark of the earth below,

Trees, moorlands, roads, and each familiar sight Were blotted out by the bewildering white.
 * And winds, now shrieking loud, now whimpering low,
 * Seemed lamentations for the world-old woe

That death must swallow life, and darkness light.

But all at once the rack was blown away,
 * The snowstorm hushing ended in a sigh;
 * Then like a flame the crescent moon on high

Leaped forth among the planets; pure as they, Earth vied in whiteness with the Milky Way:
 * Herself a star beneath the starry sky.