Frost-work

These winter nights, against my window-pane
Nature with busy pencil draws designs
Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines,
Oak-leaf and acorn and fantastic vines,
Which she will make when summer comes again—
Quaint arabesques in argent, flat and cold,
Like curious Chinese etchings....By and by,
I in my leafy garden as of old,
These frosty fantasies shall charm my eye
In azure, damask, emerald, and gold.