Slowly the snow falls, flake on flake:
listen, a cradle rocks so gently.
A baby cries, with tiny thumb in mouth;
an old dame sings with chin in hand.
The old dame sings:—“Around thy little bed
roses and lilies grow, a lovely garden.”
The baby in the cradle falls asleep:
the snow falls slowly, flake on flake.
It will be perceived that it is not only the child in age whose
illusions are touched on. The wider symbolism is at once apparent.
From the sixteen poems included in “_The Last Walk_,” we may perhaps
quote one that illustrates Pascoli’s tendency to parable.