Late these afternoons, yellow sunlight reflected through the clear, cold air.

November 25. 


This is November of the hardest kind, —
bare frozen ground

covered with pale-brown
or straw-colored herbage,

a strong, cold, cutting
northwest wind

which makes you seek
to cover your ears,

a perfectly clear
and cloudless sky.

***

You are surprised,
late these afternoons,

a half an hour perhaps before sunset,
after walking in the shade

or on looking round from a height,
to see the singularly bright

yellow light of the sun
reflected from pines, especially pitch pines,

or the withered oak leaves,
through the clear, cold air,

the wind, it may be, blowing
strong from the northwest.

***

A very great collection of crows
far and wide on the meadows,

evidently gathered by this cold
and blustering weather.

They flit before you in countless numbers,
flying very low 

on account of the strong northwest wind
that comes over the hill,

and a cold gleam reflected
from the back and wings of each,

as from a weather-
stained shingle.

November 25, 1857, November 25, 1858 & November 25, 1860