The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter/Winter in Summer
WINTER IN SUMMER
All in a bleak December
My heart had summer-time;
Crouched by the glowing ember,
We found an Eden's clime.
The storm that shook the casements
Made laughter in my ears;
No frown thy gloom, December,
Sweet rain that was not tears.
All in the month of roses
My heart is like to die;
Now winter's gloom encloses,
We thought it passed us by;
And so my young companions
Fall laughing back from me:
For dreary melancholy
Is no good company.
O who can smile in summer,
When winter rules their heart?—
When pleading Ups grow dumb, or
Clasped hands fall apart?
White cheeks more chill than snowing.
Dull eyes so full of rain.
Pale lips that part for sighing,
Where is your summer's gain?
Or who'd weep in December,
Whose heart with summer glows?
O who would e'er remember
Bare branches, or the rose?
Smooth cheeks flush pink as blossoms,
Red lips and laughter rhyme;
O would June were December,
I wot 'twas summer-time.