The Word in the Snow (Part One)

PART I: The Word in the Snow

This all began one Christmas morn
When snow lay on the ground:
The island like an empty page,
The bells the only sound.

Behind a maid, a fisher came
As through the snow she led;
From time to time she twisted round
Or blithely turned her head…

So bending at her slender waist
A word in snow she wrote –
Then with a glance and flick of hair,
Away the maid did float.

The fisher trudged in heavy boots,
Each print a dungeon lock;
And when he stumbled on the word,
His legs were clamped with shock.

There gazing on those strokes in white,
His heart was set aflame:
The word he read a message sent –
The letters spelled his name.

From then, the fisher Gilliat
Did dream of Deruchette:
His name there writ upon the snow
He never would forget.

But by the spring the butterfly
Had fluttered back to play:
The winter snows seemed long ago,
His name melted away.

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As promised, a preview of the first of Charlie's illustrations! This is the first section in the ballad after the Prologue, describing how the fisherman Gilliat fell in love with the beautiful maid Deruchette. Stay tuned for more previews of the illustrations and the ballad in the coming days...