Page 56, 57 & 58: Poem- Beautiful Snow

Note - I immediately recognised this poem as one I read before. I think I had read it in school or something like that. Anyway, I can see why the writer of the diary copied it from wherever they read it as it is a beautiful poem. When I googled it I found it was quite famous and by J. W. Watson. It was written in 1870. I copied it out word for word though and found that the wording in the diary was different to versions I found elsewhere. I am thinking the writer of the diary must have changed some lines in the poem from the original version. I notice that there is a Scripture reference at the bottom. In my mind I have pictured a scenario where the writer of the diary has edited the poem and added Scripture to use it as a reading for church, or devotion for family, or teaching aid for something. Of course I have nothing to back up this theory other than the fact that they have changed the poem. Still it is a lovely poem.

Page 56, 57 & 58: Poem- Beautiful Snow

Beautiful Snow

Oh! The snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and the earth below,
Over the housetops, over the streets,
Over the heads of people you meet.
Dancing____ Flirting_______ Skimming along.
Beautiful snow! It can do no wrong;
Flying to kiss a fair lady's cheek,
Clinging to lips in frolicsome freak;
Beautiful snow from heaven above,
Pure as an angel, gentle as love!

Oh, the snow, the beautiful snow,
How the flakes gather and laugh as they go
Whirling about in maddening fun:
Chasing_____ Laughing____ Hurrying by.
It lights on the face and it sparkles the eye;
And the dogs with a bark and a bound
Snap at the crystals as they eddy around;
The town is alive, and its heart is aglow,
To welcome the coming of beautiful snow!

How wild the crowd goes swaying along,
Hailing each other with humour and song;
How the gay sleighs like meteors flash by,
Bright for a moment, then lost to the eye:
Ringing______ Swinging_________ Dashing they go,
Over the crest of the beautiful snow;
Snow so pure as it falls from the sky,
To be trampled in time by the crowd rushing by -
To be trampled and tracked by thousands of feet
Till it blends with the filth in the horrible street.

Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell,
Fell like the snowflakes from heaven to hell;
Fell to be trampled as filth in the street,
Fell to be scoffed, to be spit on and beat;
Pleading_____ Cursing______ Dreading to die,
Selling my soul to whoever would buy;
Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,
Hating the living and fearing the dead.
Merciful God! I have fallen so low!
And yet I was once like the beautiful snow..

Once I was fair as the beautiful snow,
With an eye like a crystal, a heart like its glow;
Once I was loved for my innocent grace--
Flattered and sought for the charms of my face!
Father_____ Mother_____ Sisters--all,
God and myself I have lost by my fall:
The veriest wretch that goes shivering by,
Will make a wide sweep lest I wander too night,
For all that is on or above me I know,
There is nothing so pure as the beautiful snow.

How strange it should be that this beautiful snow
Should fall on a sinner with nowhere to go!
How strange it should be when the night comes again
If the snow and the ice struck my desperate brain!
Fainting____Freezing______ Dying alone,
Too wicked for prayer, too weak for a moan
To be heard in the streets of the crazy town,
Gone mad in the joy of snow coming down:
To be and to die in my terrible woe,
With a bed and a shroud of the beautiful snow.

Downtrodden and foul as the trampled snow,
Sinner, despair not! Christ stoopeth low,
To rescue the soul that is lost in sin,
and raise it to life and enjoyment again.
Groaning__ Bleeding____ Dying for sinners like thee,
The Crucified hung on the cursed tree!
“Thy sins are forgiven”____ “Go and sin no more”.
O God! in the stream that for sinners did flow,
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Luke 10:47, John 2:11