Gathering in pools of frost The worms of winter grow Sunlight paid its final cost And trudged a way through snow Toward a fair and southern land Where welcome still was warm Far from northern wolf and man Who stayed to fight the storm The glists of moon lick frozen stone And shine upon the cold When the worms of winter hold the throne Life cannot grow old Not much was left of bone and blood When winter's worms were done A feast of flesh for darkness flood The coffin weighs a ton And spilled upon the barren fields Of lonely pine and oak In death's season nature bleeds As winter's hands they choke The glists of moon lick frozen stone And shine upon the cold When the worms of winter hold the throne Life cannot grow old And when I watched the cloudless stars That cover heaven's field I'll watch them with you from afar 'Til autumn sheds my leaves