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Down the wintry mountain Like a cloud they come, Not like a cloud in its silent shroud When the sky is leaden and the earth all dumb, But tramp, tramp, tramp, With a roar and a shock, And stamp, stamp, stamp, Down the hard granite rock, With the snowflakes falling fair Like an army in the air Of white-winged angels leaving Their heavenly, homes, half grieving, And half glad to drop down kindly upon earth so bare: With a snort and a bellow Tossing manes dun and yellow, Red and roan, black and gray, In their fierce merry play, Though the sky is all leaden and the earth all dumb— Down the noisy cattle come! Throned on the mountain Winter sits at ease: Hidden under mist are those peaks of amethyst That rose like hills of heaven above the amber seas. While crash, crash, crash, Through the frozen heather brown, And dash, dash, dash, Where the ptarmigan drops down And the curlew stops her cry And the deer sinks, like to die— And the waterfall's loud noise Is the only living voice— With a plunge and a roar Like mad waves upon the shore, Or the wind through the pass Howling o'er the reedy grass— In a wild battalion pouring from the heights unto the plain, Down the cattle come again! |