Classic Poem

Snowflakes drifting wan and dreary;
Dark the night and loud the storm.
In the chamber here, how cheery,
Dry and lonely, still and warm!

And I muse upon the settle,
By the pleasant crackling glow,
And I hear the humming kettle
Singing songs of long ago;

While the cat beside me sitting
Warms her paws before the blaze,
And the flames that dance in flitting
Weave a spell upon my gaze.

Many a long-forgotten story
Rises dim from vanished years:
Filing past, in faded glory,
Masquerades and disappears:

Lovely women beckoning sweetly
With a wise, mysterious smile,
Merry harlequins that fleetly
Laugh and pirouette the while;

And the marble statues, gleaming
From afar, their greeting send,
Where the flowers of fable, dreaming
In the moonlight, wave and bend.

And enchanted castles gliding
Pass, and rock, and are no more;
And the armoured knights come riding
With the gallant squires of yore.

For a moment sweet they hover,
And are gone like shadows vain —
Ah! the kettle's boiling over,
And poor pussy howls with pain.