Keep Warm by Inner Fires, and Rest in Peace

January
by Helen Hunt Jackson

O Winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire,
 What loss is theirs who from thy kingdom turn
 Dismayed, and think thy snow a sculptured urn
 Of death! Far sooner in midsummer tire
 The streams than under ice. June could not hire
 Her roses to forego the strength they learn
 In sleeping on thy breast. No fires can burn
 The bridges thou dost lay where men desire
 In vain to build. O Heart, when Love's sun goes
 To northward, and the sounds of singing cease,
 Keep warm by inner fires, and rest in peace.
 Sleep on content, as sleeps the patient rose.
 Walk boldly on the white untrodden snows,
 The winter is the winter's own release.