Soft handfuls of the fair white snow

 

Photo by Kimberly Higgins Crawford     Snow at Skaneateles  New York

Last day of January - and for me, this has been a very long January.   First real snowstorm, too.

Here's a poem by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, one that hearkens back to the Middle Ages:

January -

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

 

For January I give you vests of skins,

And mighty fires in hall, and torches lit;

Chambers and happy beds with all things fit;

Smooth silken sheets, rough furry counterpanes;

And sweetmeats baked; and one that deftly spins

Warm arras; and Douay cloth, and store of it;

And on this merry manner still to twit

The wind, when most his mastery the wind wins.

Or issuing forth at seasons in the day,

Ye'll fling soft handfuls of the fair white snow

Among the damsels standing round, in play:

And when you all are tired and all aglow,

Indoors again the court shall hold its sway,

And the free Fellowship continue so.

Photo by Teresa Cero Thacker      Snow on red berries  Baltimore MD