The russet ferns toss in the chilly rain,
The dense cloud-fragments break along the hill;
The golden-rod is gone, the bees are still;
The screaming seagulls toil across the main,
And, like poor ship-wrecked souls, seek peace again.
The lonely waves beat on the lonely shore,
And hark! far out—the desolate ocean’s roar!
Shrill winds among the naked trees complain,
What time I walk deserted ways. Behold!
It is the dreariest time of heart and year—
The promise broken and the faith grown cold! ….
Still, still does each feel underneath the tear
A something stirring, veined with fire and gold—
The deathless heart of Spring, beating with cheer.
“The Spent Year” printed under its original title “December” in an unidentified publication. Clipping courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.
“The Spent Year” as it appears in Ella Higginson’s When the Birds Go North Again (1898).