On the last day of December, I went out in the fog
with Sorrow as my companion.
The River serene, was greener than tears-
the timid woods were bare
and the hemlocks were black in the fog..

High in the hills the fog broke up.
Tatters burned silver by the inland valleys
under a low sun and a cerulean sky.
We drove through winter-gold pastures
drunk on primrose-flavored air..

"Sorrow, why do you follow me?"said I,
He said, "Because you forget
everything that is dear to you.
It passes into my keeping
and I remind you when the time is right..

"Some day when summer hangs green in all the trees
you will sell me your heart for a handful of winter-gold
or a coin-sized slice of silver fog
and you'll call it a good bargain."

In a high place where mountains peered over the rim of the world
and the cloud-shadows were so vast they had no shape
I turned to him in the booming wind and said,
"Old friend -oh old friend o' mine
remind me once again?"

Sorrow placed his hand on my shoulder
and in my ear he whispered
the Name...