Winter Wonderland!!!

Winter is a great time of year! Although it is very cold outside, the world turns a beautiful shade of white! I love it when the trees are covered in heavy white snow! The animals seem to love it too; my neighbor's dog adores running around fast and playing in the snow! I make it a point to put on my warm gloves and jacket and go outside to play with my favorite puppy!


Winter also reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost

An Old Man's Winter Night

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him -- at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off; -- and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon, such as she was,
So late-arising, to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man -- one man -- can't keep a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It's thus he does it of a winter night.

From "Mountain Interval", 1916



Vocabulary
Frost (noun) - a degree or state of coldness sufficient to cause the freezing of water.
Pane (noun) - one of the divisions of a window or the like, consisting of a single plate of glass in a frame.
Tilt (verb) - to lean, incline, slope, or slant.
Creak (verb)- to make a sharp, harsh, grating, or squeaking sound.
Clomp (verb) - to walk heavily and clumsily.
Concern (verb) - to trouble, worry, or disquiet.
Consign (verb) - to transfer to another's custody or charge; entrust
Icicle (noun) - a pendent, tapering mass of ice formed by the freezing of dripping water.
Jolt (verb) - to jar, shake, or cause to move by or as if by a sudden rough thrust; shake up roughly.
Farm (noun) - a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood.
Countryside (noun) - a particular section of a country, esp. a rural section.


Grammar - Adjectives
There are several descriptive adjectives in the paragraph from above! Can you find them?

Winter is a ______ time of year! Although it is _______ ______ outside, the world turns a ________shade of _______! I love it when the trees are covered in ________ ______ snow! The animals seem to love it too; my neighbor's dog adores running around _______ and playing in the snow! I make it a point to put on my _______ gloves and jacket and go outside to play with my ________ puppy!