BEAUTIFUL SNOW.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1180, 20 October 1882, Page 2

BEAUTIFUL SNOW.

i Oh i The snow, the beautiful snow, Filling the sky and the earth below ; Over the housetops, over the street, I Over the heads oi the people you meet, i Dancing, flirting, skimming along ; ’ Beautiful snow I It can do nothing wrong j Flying to kiss a fair lady's cheek, (Hinging to lips in a frolicsome freak ; j Beatiful snow from the Heavens above, ! Pure as an angel, gentle as love ! i Oh The snow, the beautiful snow, I How the flakes gather and laugh as they go, ' Whirling about in their maddening fun, It p ays in its glee with everyone— Chasing, laughing hurrying by, It lights on the face and sparkles the eye. And the dogs, with a bark and a bound, Snap at the crystals that eddy around— The town is alive and it’s heart’s in a glow To welcome the coming of the beautiful snow. How widely the crowd goes swaying along, Hailing each other with humour and song! How the gay sledges like meteors flash by, Bright for a moment, then lost to the eye ; Ringing, swinging, dashing they go, Over the crust of the beautiful snow— Snow so pure when it falls from the sky, As to make one regret to see it lie, ! To i>e trampled and tracked by the thousands of feet, | Till it blci»d< with the tilth of the street. ! Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell, | Fell like the snowflakes from Heaven to hell; ; Fell to be trampled as filth in the street; Fell to be scoffed, to be spit on and beat, I Pleading, cursing, dreading to die, j Selling my soul to whoever would buy ;

Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread, Hating the living, and fearing the dead. Merciful God Have I fallen so low? And yet I was once like the beautiful snow. Once I was fair a< the beautiful snow. With an eye like its crystal, a heart like its glow ; once I loved for my innocent grace— Flatter, d and sought for the charms of my face ; Father, inothe*-. sister, and all, God. ;ir '‘.-if. I have lest by iny fall: The ’...1 .- 'I wn-trli that goes shivering by Wj.l m. ■ . a ai ie swoop, lest I wander too nigh, h ih .r -.r above me, I know Tlier- s ! diking so pure as the beautiful enow. lii,.*. strange i» <hould he that this beautiful enow Should f ill <n> a siii ’c r with nowhere to go; How strange it should be, when night comes again, If the s:u>w i.-id the ice '-truck my desperate brain ; Fainting, freezing, 'lying alone. Too wicked for prayer, too weak for a moan To be heard in the street of the crazy town, Gone mad in the joy of the enow coining down To be and to die in'my terrible woe, With a bed and a ahruud of the beautiful snow. ; Helpless and foul as the trampled snow, Sinner, despair not 1 Christ stoopoth low i To rescue the soul that is lost in its sin, ! And to raise it to life and enjoyment again. | Groaning, bleeding, dying for thee, i The crucified hung on the accursed tree, ! His accents of mercy fell soft on thine ear—- ! Is there mercy for me? Will he heed my way er ? : Oh God I In the stream that for sinners did flow, ; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.