Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/531

And the lofty calla stands in state,
At the nuptials gay, to officiate,
 And the march æolian swells,
And the proud narcissus bows and bends,
And all the hosts of the flowery friends
 Rejoice with the golden bells.

Clang little red bells, lightly swung,
Ring what larger bells have rung,
 Danger's swift alarm;
For old Jack Frost in his armor cold
Is coming to-night with his armies bold,
 And he brings but death and harm.
O loveliest, frailest, tenderest,
You will he have though he spare the rest;
 List to the timely knell,
Come in from the threatening, frosty air;
Let the light of the coming morn declare,
 What the stricken cannot tell!

Toll little white bells, to and fro,
Sadly and slow, softly and low,
 Clappers of purest gold;
For the ghosts of dead blossoms are everywhere,
The beautiful and sweet and fair,
 The icy shrouds enfold,
Like a fragment bright of the vanished Spring
Is the greenhouse warm, where your bright bells ring
 From your little leafy towers,
Where safely kept from the frost and cold,
Through the cheerless winter the buds unfold,
 Of the tender, tropical flowers.

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