Ice-Skaters

FOUNDED IN 1912 BY HARRIET MONROB

VOLUME XCVII NUMBER 2

NOVEMBER 1960

ELDER OLSON

ICE-SKATERS

Snow-hills all about,

And snowy woods; and snow

Falling: a full moon's out;

The river's frozen; across

Its avenue of ice

Vivid skaters swirl

POBTRY

In the cold, in the moon's light.

Look, look: the young, the old,

Set moving by delight.

- The whole town's on the ice!

Whirling in a gay

Preposterous ballet.

Look, the strides, the glides,

Cossack-leaps, dervish-twirls,

Clown-tumblings, clown-falls!

Racers, rapt in speed

As in an ecstasy,

Swerving in a flash of sleet;

Lovers, hand in hand,

Enchanted by their own

Music without sound,

And the older pairs,

A little clumsy now,

But merry as waltzing bears,

And children, intently

Scuffing foot by foot,

Stiffly rocking in and out,

All intricately winding in a Christmas-colored maze

With Lord, what a racket! till the hills

Go wild with echoes, bellow like mad bulls

RLDER OLSON

And in the dark ravines

Beneath the crystal floor

Fish quiver, and wave their fins.

The town clock chimes the hour

Unheeded: let it chime,

Time has lost its power.

What monkey-shines, what fun!

Flesh is no burden now,

It never lay so lightly on the bone.

The body too can be

Spirit, when set free

By pure delight of motion

Without destination;

Shows its own fantasy,

Wit, and imagination.

Is this the being Lear could call

A poor, bare,

Forked animal?

Strike that out; say this,

That in a harsh season,

Above a dark abyss,

The mortal creature

Rejoiced in its own nature;

Revelled, itself the reason.

-Why, life's a carnival! Snow

Falls like confetti now;

The moon, in comic mood,

Turns to a grotesque

Snowball; hides in cloud;

Comes back in a clown's mask.

The skaters swirl and swirl;

All their motions cry

It is joy, sheer joy,

That makes the atoms dance

And wings the flying stars

And speeds the sun upon his golden course.