Is it snow or snowdrops' shimmer 
Whitens thus the bladed grass, 
With a faint aërial glimmer,-- 
Spring or winter, which did pass? 
For the sky is dim and tender 
With an evanescent light, 
And the fading fields are white, 
White with snow or snowdrops, under 
The fair firstling stars of night. 


Little robin, softly, cheerly 
Piping on yon wintry bough, 
Why have all the fields that pearly 
Iridescence, knowest thou? 
Did old Winter, grim and hoary, 
Aim a parting dart at Spring 
As she fled on azure wing, 
Or did she with rainbow glory 
In his face her snowdrops fling?