In this excerpt from "The First Snowfall" by James Russell Lowell, which lines cont The snow had begun in the gloaming, And busily all the night Had been heaping field and highway With a silence deep and white Every pine and fir and hemlock Wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm-tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl. From sheds new-roofed with Carrara Came Chanticleer's muffled crow, The stiff rails softened to swan's-down, And still fluttered down the snow. I stood and watched by the window The noiseless work of the sky, And the sudden flurries of snowbirds, Like brown leaves whirling by ?