The First Snow-Fall

Last night was the first snowfall of more than 6 flurries that I have seen since I moved near Austin, Texas four and a half years ago.  It has been very cold here the past few days - below freezing all that time and very windy.  That is also unusual for this location.

As I was on my doorstep taking this picture this morning, I thought back to when I was a pup - probably no more than 7 or 8 years old.  My parents were members of the Oak Grove Grange in Poughkeepsie, NY back then.  I remember at one Christmas program I was given the task of standing on the big stage all by myself and reciting the following:

The snow had begun in the gloaming, 

And busily all the night 

Had been heaping field and highway 

With a silence deep and white. 

Every pine and fir and hemlock 

Wore ermine too dear for an earl, 

And the poorest twig on the elm-tree 

Was ridged inch deep with pearl.

From sheds new-roofed with Carrara 

Came Chanticleer's muffled crow, 

The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, 

And still fluttered down the snow. 

Side Notes:  

1. The city of Carrara is in the Tuscany area of Italy and is famous for some of the world's finest marble, called Carrara, taken from nearby quarries and used by sculptors from Michelangelo to Henry Moore. 
   
2. Chanticleer is a rooster: used as a proper name in medieval fables.

Back when I recited this snippet of poetry, I new that Chanticleer was a rooster but I was not aware that Carrara referred to marble from Carrara.  I could most likely be forgiven for that since I was just a child - LOL!

What I did not know at that time, perhaps purposely designed by my parents is that this snippet of poetry was only about the first third of the poem "The First Snow-Fall" by James Russell Lowell.  I learned this bit of  information when I inherited my mother's school book of poetry titled Magic Casements which was published in 1928.  It is a wonderful compilation of poetry.  In fact, that's where I found The Deacon's Masterpiece, or The Wonderful "One-Hoss Shay."  

The remainder of "The First Snow-Fall" follows:  

I stood and watched by the window 

The noiseless work of the sky, 

And the sudden flurries of snow-birds, 

Like brown leaves whirling by. 

I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn 

Where a little headstone stood; 

How the flakes were folding it gently, 

As did robins the babes in the wood. 

Up spoke our own little Mabel, 

Saying, 'Father, who makes it snow?' 

And I told of the good All-father 

Who cares for us here below. 

Again I looked at the snowfall, 

And thought of the leaden sky 

That arched o'er our first great sorrow, 

When that mound was heaped so high. 

I remembered the gradual patience 

That fell from that cloud like snow, 

Flake by flake, healing and hiding 

The scar of our deep-plunged woe. 

And again to the child I whispered, 

'The snow that husheth all, 

Darling, the merciful Father 

Alone can make it fall! ' 

Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her; 

And she, kissing back, could not know 

That my kiss was given to her sister, 

Folded close under deepening snow. 


--James Russell Lowell   

God is always in control.  That is especially comforting in these days.

Blessings,

Mary