Explore "The Optimist" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The fields were bleak and sodden. / Not a wing / Or note enlivened the depressing wood; / A soiled and sullen, stubborn snowdrift stood / Beside the roadway. Winds came muttering / Of storms to be, and brought the chilly sting / Of icebergs in their breath. Stalled cattle mooed / Forth plaintive pleadings for the earth's green food. / No gleam, no hint of hope in anything.
The sky was blank and ashen, like the face / Of some poor wretch who drains life's cup too fast / Yet, swaying to and fro, as if to fling / About chilled Nature its lithe arms of grace, / Smiling with promise in the wintry blast, / The optimistic Willow spoke of spring.