=Discussion.= 1. What picture does the first stanza give you? 2. Compare this picture with that found in the first ten lines of “The Snow Storm,” page 78, and with that given in the third, fourth, and fifth stanzas of “Midwinter,” page 82. 3. To what does “her” refer in the second line? 4. Explain how “the troubled heart” makes “confession in the countenance.” 5. How does the poet fancy “the troubled sky” reveals its grief? 6. What is “the poem of the air”? 7. What are the “silent syllables” in which “the poem of the air” is recorded? 8. What is “whispered and revealed”? =Phrases= cloud-folds, 80, 2 cloudy fancies, 80, 7 secret of despair, 80, 15 cloudy bosom, 80, 16 MIDWINTER JOHN T. TROWBRIDGE The speckled sky is dim with snow, The light flakes falter and fall slow; Athwart the hilltop, rapt and pale, Silently drops a silvery veil; And all the valley is shut in By flickering curtains gray and thin. But cheerily the chickadee Singeth to me on fence and tree; The snow sails round him as he sings, White as the down on angels’ wings. I watch the snow flakes as they fall On bank and brier and broken wall; Over the orchard, waste and brown, All noiselessly they settle down, Tipping the apple boughs and each Light quivering twig of plum and peach. On turf and curb and bower roof The snowstorm spreads its ivory woof; It paves with pearl the garden walk; And lovingly round tattered stalk And shivering stem its magic weaves A mantle fair as lily leaves. The hooded beehive, small and low, Stands like a maiden in the snow; And an old door slab is half hid Under an alabaster lid. All day it snows; the sheeted post Gleams in the dimness like a ghost; All day the blasted oak has stood A muffled wizard of the wood; Garland and airy cap adorn The sumac and the wayside thorn, And clustering spangles lodge and shine In the dark tresses of the pine. The ragged bramble, dwarfed and old, Shrinks like a beggar in the cold; In surplice white the cedar stands, And blesses him with priestly hands. Still cheerily the chickadee Singeth to me on fence and tree; But in my inmost ear is heard The music of a holier bird; And heavenly thoughts as soft and white As snowflakes on my soul alight, Clothing with love my lonely heart, Healing with peace each bruiséd part, Till all my being seems to be Transfigured by their purity. NOTES AND QUESTIONS =Biography.= John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916) was an American author. His home was in Cambridge, Mass., within the shadow of Harvard College. At one time he was one of the editors of _Our Young Folks’ Magazine_. “Midwinter” and “Darius Green and His Flying Machine” are two of his poems most widely known.