In Winter Months: (Rondeau)

IN winter months, when skies hang low,
And earth is wrapped in shrouding snow;
When naked branches, creaking, sway,
Stirred by chill winds on their slow way,
Our thoughts turn back to long ago.

No more for us the cold winds blow,
No more the dark days shorter grow;
Nor time nor change can make us stay
In winter months.

Again our spring-time seems to glow
With all the joy that youth can know;
And bleak December flees away,
Usurped by memory’s blithesome May :
How blest to cheat our worn hearts so
In winter months !