James Russell Lowell - The First Snowfall lyrics

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 From sheds new-roofed with Carrara Came Chanticleer's muffled crow The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down And still fluttered down the snow I stood and watched by the window The noiseless work of the sky And the sudden flurries of snow-birds Like brown leaves whirling by I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn Where a little headstone stood; How the flakes were folding it gently As did robins the babes in the wood Up spoke our own little Mabel Saying, 'Father, who makes it snow?' And I told of the good All-father Who cares for us here below Again I looked at the snowfall And thought of the leaden sky That arched o'er our first great sorrow When that mound was heaped so high I remembered the gradual patience That fell from that cloud like snow Flake by flake, healing and hiding The scar of our deep-plunged woe And again to the child I whispered 'The snow that husheth all Darling, the merciful Father Alone can make it fall! ' Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her; And she, kissing back, could not know That my kiss was given to her sister Folded close under deepening snow