The Frozen Cascade

The summer stream that left the level glades 
And dashed away in jubilant cascades
     Among the great gray oaks, 
     And over the moss-green rocks,
Leaps, laughing at her frolic escapades!
     The idlest loiterer who invokes
     A coy muse, toying with the dainty locks
Of fern or columbine, knows this the haunt
Of regnant beauty, and his smooth tones vaunt
Her throne and bath with living velvet lined,
And dim arcades in purple vinery twined;
But when the frost-king kisses wood and river
He moans, “She’s dead!” and vanishes with a shiver!
     But thou of better faith
     Believe not in her death,
Nor in her banishment from this
Her chosen haunt.

                         Stayed by that fallen branch
     Along the slippery precipice,
Behold where, down successive ledges,
Fringed with dark ferns along their jutting edges,
     Like a suspended avalanche,
The brook hangs frozen! What strange arabesques
     Stare blankly through their gorgon locks,
Between stalagmite columns icy white,
Fantastically carved, and that unite
With clear stalactite pendants from the rocks,
And build weird colonnades of mimic larches
Flashing with broken rainbows when the sun
From its low noon fills full, to over-run,
The urns of graven, alabaster borne
On the white shoulders of young naiadès
     Or leaned against the knees
Of caryatés that sustain those arches,—
Nymphs turned to rock in their suspended marches,—
Forms wrung by Beauty from the icy scorn
Of the destroyer, whom her charms compel,
Even in his utter wrath, to serve her well!

And hark! Behind those wrinkled icicles,
Those pearly organ-pipe of Winter’s fane,
A low, melodious murmur sinks and swells,
A silvery tinkling as of fairy bells,
And a rich gurgle, like laughters in the train
          If elfin revelers, fill the sparkling air
     With a new song,—the unconquerable joy
Of the imprisoned Naiads dancing there,
     With all their summer mirth, no frosts destroy
          Nor bitter gales constrain;—
Followers of deathless Beauty, these unseen
          Behind their icy screen.
Sing to the endless reign
          Of their victorious Queen!