snow † in the long, sleepless watches of the night a gentle face — the face of one long dead looks at me from the wall, where round its head the night-lamp casts a halo of pale light here in this room she died, and soul more white never through martyrdom of fire was led to its repose; nor can in books be read the legend of a life more benedight * there is a mountain in the distant West that, sun-defying, in its deep ravines displays a cross of snow upon its side such is the cross i wear upon my breast these eighteen years, through all the changing scenes and seasons, changeless since the day she died ~ † Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Cross of Snow" (circa 1879) (Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vol. II. Ticknor and Company, Boston : 1886) *Benedight is an obsolete, poetic Middle English term meaning "blessed" or "consecrated". illustration : Mount of the Holy Cross, White River National Forest, Eagle County, Colorado rendered by chat-gpt 5.5
