The Frost Spirit

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1. He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes
2. You may trace his footsteps now
3. On the naked woods and the blasted fields and the
4. brown hill's withered brow.
5. He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees
6. where their pleasant green came forth,
7. And the winds, which follow wherever he goes,
8. have shaken them down to earth.
9.  
10. He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes!
11. from the frozen Labrador,
12. From the icy bridge of the Northern seas, which
13. the white bear wanders o'er,
14. Where the fisherman's sail is stiff with ice, and the
15. luckless forms below
16. In the sunless cold of the lingering night into
17. marble statues grow
18.  
19. He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes
20. on the rushing Northern blast,
21. And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed as his
22. fearful breath went past.
23. With an unscorched wing he has hurried on,
24. where the fires of Hecla glow
25. On the darkly beautiful sky above and the ancient
26. ice below.
27.  
28. He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes
29. and the quiet lake shall feel
30. The torpid touch of his glazing breath, and ring to
31. the skater's heel;
32. And the streams which danced on the broken
33. rocks, or sang to the leaning grass,
34. Shall bow again to their winter chain, and in
35. mournful silence pass.
36. He comes,--he comes,--the Frost Spirit comes!
37. Let us meet him as we may,
38. And turn with the light of the parlor-fire his evil
39. power away;
40. And gather closer the circle round, when that
41. fire-light dances high,
42. And laugh at the shriek of the baffled Fiend as
43. his sounding wing goes by!
44.  
45. 1830.