Explore "A Calendar of Sonnets" by Helen Hunt Jackson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white; / And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still; / No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill, / And willow stems grow daily red and bright. / These are the days when ancients held a rite / Of expiation for the old year's ill, / And prayer to purify the new year's will: / Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight, / Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste, / And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed / The ardent summer's joy to have and taste; / Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed, / To reckon clear the new life's sterner need; / Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!