The unrelenting steel-cold scream of a jay

The unrelenting 

steel-cold scream of a jay,

unmelted,

never flows into a song,

a sort of wintry trumpet

screaming cold.

Hard, tense, frozen music,

like the winter sky itself;

the blue livery of winter's band.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 12, 1854

The scream of the jay
wholly without sentiment
a true winter sound.

February 2, 1854