Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By William HamiltonHayne

1260 The Southern Snow-Bird

I SEE a tiny fluttering form

Beneath the soft snow’s soundless storm,

’Mid a strange noonlight palely shed

Through mocking cloud-rifts overhead.

All other birds are far from sight,—

They think the day has turned to night;

But he is cast in hardier mould,

This chirping courier of the cold.

He does not come from lands forlorn,

Where midnight takes the place of morn;

Nor did his dauntless heart, I know,

Beat first above Siberian snow;

And yet an arctic bird he seems;

Though nurtured near our southern streams,

The tip of his small tail may be

A snow-storm in epitome.