Ton van Kempen: Winter

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(1807-1882)

 

The Cross of Snow

IIn the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face — the face of one long dead —
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changingscenes

And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

Winter 2010

Photos: Ton van kempen

Poem: H.W. Longfellow

fleursdumal.nl poetry magazine

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