And in the frosty season, when the sun
          Was set, and visible for many a mile
          The cottage windows blazed through twilight gloom,
          I heeded not their summons: happy time
          It was indeed for all of us--for me
          It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud                   430
          The village clock tolled six,--I wheeled about,
          Proud and exulting like an untired horse
          That cares not for his home. All shod with steel,
          We hissed along the polished ice in games
          Confederate, imitative of the chase
          And woodland pleasures,--the resounding horn,
          The pack loud chiming, and the hunted hare.
          So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
          And not a voice was idle; with the din
          Smitten, the precipices rang aloud;                        440
          The leafless trees and every icy crag
          Tinkled like iron; while far distant hills
          Into the tumult sent an alien sound
          Of melancholy not unnoticed, while the stars
          Eastward were sparkling clear, and in the west
          The orange sky of evening died away.
          Not seldom from the uproar I retired
          Into a silent bay, or sportively
          Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng,
          To cut across the reflex of a star                         450
          That fled, and, flying still before me, gleamed
          Upon the glassy plain; and oftentimes,
          When we had given our bodies to the wind,
          And all the shadowy banks on either side
          Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still
          The rapid line of motion, then at once
          Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
          Stopped short; yet still the solitary cliffs
          Wheeled by me--even as if the earth had rolled
          With visible motion her diurnal round!                     460
          Behind me did they stretch in solemn train,
          Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watched
          Till all was tranquil as a dreamless sleep.