Where’s Peace?  I start, some clear-blown night,
  When gaunt stone walls grow numb an’ number,
An’ creakin’ ‘cross the snow-crus’ white,
  Walk the col’ starlight into summer; 60
Up grows the moon, an’ swell by swell
  Thru the pale pasturs silvers dimmer
Than the last smile thet strives to tell
  O’ love gone heavenward in its shimmer.

I hev been gladder o’ sech things
  Than cocks o’ spring or bees o’ clover,
They filled my heart with livin’ springs,
  But now they seem to freeze ’em over;
Sights innercent ez babes on knee,
  Peaceful ez eyes o’ pastur’d cattle, 70
Jes’ coz they be so, seem to me
  To rile me more with thoughts o’ battle.

Indoors an’ out by spells I try;
  Ma’am Natur’ keeps her spin-wheel goin’,
But leaves my natur’ stiff and dry
  Ez fiel’s o’ clover arter mowin’;
An’ her jes’ keepin’ on the same,
  Calmer ‘n a clock, an’ never carin’
An’ findin’ nary thing to blame,
  Is wus than ef she took to swearin’. 80

Snow-flakes come whisperin’ on the pane
  The charm makes blazin’ logs so pleasant,
But I can’t hark to wut they’re say’n’,
  With Grant or Sherman ollers present;
The chimbleys shudder in the gale,
  Thet lulls, then suddin takes to flappin’
Like a shot hawk, but all’s ez stale
  To me ez so much sperit-rappin’.

Under the yaller-pines I house,
  When sunshine makes ’em all sweet-scented, 90
An’ hear among their furry boughs
  The baskin’ west-wind purr contented,
While ‘way o’erhead, ez sweet an’ low
  Ez distant bells thet ring for meetin’,
The wedged wil’ geese their bugles blow,
  Further an’ further South retreatin’.

Or up the slippery knob I strain
  An’ see a hundred hills like islan’s
Lift their blue woods in broken chain
  Out o’ the sea o’ snowy silence; 100
The farm-smokes, sweetes’ sight on airth,
  Slow thru the winter air a-shrinkin’
Seem kin’ o’ sad, an’ roun’ the hearth
  Of empty places set me thinkin’.

Beaver roars hoarse with meltin’ snows,
  An’ rattles di’mon’s from his granite;
Time wuz, he snatched away my prose,
  An’ into psalms or satires ran it;
But he, nor all the rest thet once
  Started my blood to country-dances, 110
Can’t set me goin’ more ’n a dunce
  Thet hain’t no use for dreams an’ fancies.

Rat-tat-tat-tattle thru the street
  I hear the drummers makin’ riot,
An’ I set thinkin’ o’ the feet
  Thet follered once an’ now are quiet,—­
White feet ez snowdrops innercent,
  Thet never knowed the paths o’ Satan,
Whose comin’ step ther’ ’s ears thet won’t,
  No, not lifelong, leave off awaitin’, 120

Why, hain’t I held ’em on my knee? 
  Didn’t I love to see ’em growin’,
Three likely lads ez wal could be,
  Hahnsome an’ brave an’ not tu knowin’? 
I set an’ look into the blaze
  Whose natur’, jes’ like theirn, keeps climbin’,
Ez long ‘z it lives, in shinin’ ways,
  An’ half despise myself for rhymin’.