LOUD and low in the chimney The squalls suspire;Then like an answer dwindles And glows the fire, And the chamber reddens and darkens In time like taken breath.
Near by the sounding chimney The youth apart Hearkens with changing colour And leaping heart, And hears in the coil of the tempest The voice of love and death.
Love on high in the flute-like And tender notes Sounds as from April meadows And hillside cotes;But the deep wood wind in the chimney Utters the slogan of death.