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Frost pictures.
 

The fairy fragments of some Arctic scene,
I see to-night; blank wastes of Polar snow,
Ice-laden boughs, and feathery pines that lean
     Over ravines below.
 

Black, frozen lakes, and icy peaks blown bare,
Break the white surface of the crusted pane,
And spear-like leaves, long ferns, and blossoms fair,
     Linked in a silvery chain.
 

Draw me, I pray thee, by this slender thread,
Fancy, thou sorceress, bending, vision-wrought,
O'er that dim well, perpetually fed
     By the clear springs of thought!
 

Northward I turn, and tread those dreary strands,
Lakes where the wild-fowl breed, the swan abides;
Shores where the white fox, burrowing in the sands,
     Harks to the droning tides.