Death of the Year

From the Omaha Daily Bee, January 3, 1914. By Lilian Lauferty.

When the snows grow bold and the stars are cold,
And the Winter night-winds prey,
When the ice holds fast and the world is cast
In a mold of white and gray;

Then the gloaming falls on the sky’s soft walls,
And the lights of the dark are hung,
While the hushed year lies under brooding skies
Where the censer moon is hung,

Then the silence speaks over plains and peaks,
And the hush of life draws near,
’Til the screaming wail of the wind and hail
Sounds the death song of the year.