The Clear Vision

I did but dream. I never knew

  What charms our sternest season wore.

Was never yet the sky so blue,

  Was never earth so white before.

       

        Till now I never saw the glow         

Of sunset on yon hills of snow,

 

And never learned the bough’s designs

Of beauty in its leafless lines.

Did ever such a morning break

  As that my eastern windows see?   

Did ever such a moonlight take

  Weird photographs of shrub and tree?

O Earth! with gladness overfraught,

  No added charm thy face hath found;

Within my heart the change is wrought,

  My footsteps make enchanted ground.

                                              ~John Greenleaf Whittier