Hyvaa Joulua!
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier’s feet
Delated, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come see the north wind’s masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curvers his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like from invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the famer’s lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer’s sighs; and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.
The Snow-Storm
Ralph Waldo Emerson
~ by shantam on December 24, 2007.
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Tags: abstract expressionism, Advent, American Holidays/Traditions, American Naturalist Poets, American naturalists, American Poetry, Ancient civilizations, archetypal imagery, art, Art&Poetry, beauty, books, Celts in Scandinavia, ceremonies & rituals, Christimas, Christmas poetry, community, contemporary art, cosmos, creativity, culture, Divine Harmony, drawing, Earth Festivals, eco-literacy, ecology, entertainment, environmental artist, environmentalism, Epiphany, Eros, family, Feast of the Epiphany, Festival of Christmas, festivals, Festivals and their Meaning, Finnish Holidays, fire festivals, food, friends, Global Traditions/Holidays, Goethe, Goodwill, harmony, holidays, humanity, Hyvaa Joulua!, ice, idealism, life, Light & Darkness, light over the darkness, Literary coterie, literature, Mid-Winter traditions, nativity symbolism, natural history, Nature as a Metaphor, Nature traditions, Painting, Peace, Peace Upon Earth, pine boughs, pluralism, Poetics, poetry, Poets, Pre-Christian peoples, psychological symbolism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, religious holidays & traditions, snow crystals, snowflakes, spirituality, Sun-Soul, symbolic Life, symbolism, the course of the Sun, the Divine, traditions, travel, truth, watercolor paintings, winter, winter landscapes, Winter Poem, Winter Solstice, Wisconsin artists, Wisconsin writers, writing
Happy Christmas, my friend.
Dear Plum-
Merriest Wishes to You and your Family this Holiday! Happiest and Most Prosperous New Year too- you have been quite the creative demon-ness lately I’ve noticed!
Oregon has got to be spectacular during this season, and I hope you are nourishing yourself in all its beauty (do post more of those amazing photos).. maybe a holiday there some year would be in order!
Wishing You a Bright and Happy Christmas- Hauskaa Joulua!
*t