The Cross of Snow lyrics

In the long, sleepless watches of the night,

A gentle face--the face of one long dead--

Looks at me from the wall, where round its head

The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.

Here in this room she died, and soul more white

Never through martyrdom of fire1 was led

To its repose; nor can in books be read

The legend of a life more benedight.

There is a mountain in the distant West

That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines

Displays a cross of snow upon its side.

Such is the cross I wear upon my breast

These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes

And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

1. In 1861, Frances Appleton’s dress caught fire, and although Longfellow reacted quickly, he was unable to extinguish the flames before she was very badly burned.

• Artist:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow