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The Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Hyperion
The Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Hyperion Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VII. Lives of Scholars THE forebodings of the Baron proved true. In the afternoon the weather changed. The western wind began to blow, and drew a clo... more »ud-veil over the face of Heaven, as a breath does over the human face in a mirror. Soon the snow began to fall. Athwart the distant landscape it swept like a white mist. The storm-wind came from the Alsatian hills, and struck the dense clouds aslant through the air. And ever faster fell the snow, a roaring torrent from those mountainous clouds. The setting sun glared wildly from the summit of the hills, and sank like a burning ship at sea, wrecked in the tempest. Thus the evening set in ; and winter stood at the gate wagging his white and shaggy beard, like an old harper chanting an old rhyme : — " How cold it is ! how cold it is!" " I like such a storm as this," said Flem- ming, who stood at the window, looking outinto the tempest and the gathering darkness. " The silent falling of snow is to me one of the most solemn things in nature. The fall of autumnal leaves does not so much affect me. But the driving storm is grand. It startles me; it awakens me. It is wild and woful, like my own soul. I cannot help thinking of the sea; how the waves run and toss their arms about, — and the wind plays on those great sonorous harps, the shrouds and masts of ships. Winter is here in earnest! How the old churl whistles and threshes the snow! Sleet and rain are falling too. Already the trees are bearded with icicles; and the two broad branches of yonder pine look like the white mustache of some old German baron." "And to-morrow it will look more wintry still," said his friend. " We shall wake up and find that the frost-spirit has been at work all night building Gothic cathedrals on our windows, just as the Devil built the Cathedra...« less