When Horae’s icy sheets blanket the dale And branches shed their frozen tears, When Earth is covered with her icy veil, We mortals run from Time’s cold sneers.
Yet let us not run from such cold deceived As our tears turn to wintry pearls;
Let winter's denizens weather each mead,
Although no budding fruit unfurls.
For while Ida still wears her wintry veil And hearths can heat but never warm, Apollo’s burning car should freely sail
And light the laurel, however shorne.
Although within this wilderness cold stays Earth's blooms and no sweet flowers show, From Olympus, I hear a muse’s lays And see Helicon's streams still flow.
Notes
Horae: Goddesses of the seasons
Streams of Helicon: The streams flowing on Mount Helicon, the abode of the muses
Ida: Sacred mountain mentioned in Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid
David Gosselin is a poet, translator, and linguist based in Montreal. He is the founder of The Chained Muse poetry website and the founder of the New Lyre Podcast.