When I was a little girl my father used to recite poetry to my brother and me whenever the spirit moved him. Last night's snow brought to mind one he used to declaim with gusto:
The First Snow-Fall
by James Russell Lowell
The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
There were many more verses, all highly dramatic, none of which I can remember. What I remember best is how my father recited when he was feeling particularly silly:
"The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping up piles of snowflakes,
Tall, dark and white."
We all thought that was hilarious as it parodied a phrase used to characterize movie stars as "tall, dark and handsome."
Life was simpler then.
