four o'clock
Florence . Nov. 9th 1819 It is only four o'clock ; but it is winter and the sun has already set : there are no clouds in the clear , frosty sky to reflect its slant beams , but the air itself is tinged with a slight roseate colour which is again reflected on the snow that covers the ground . I live in a lone cottage on a solitary , wide heath : no voice of life reaches me . I see the desolate plain covered with white , save a few black patches that the noonday sun has made at the top of those sharp pointed hillocks from which the snow , sliding as it fell , lay thinner than on the plain ground : a few birds are pecking at the hard ice that covers the pools -- for the frost has been of long continuance . -LSB- 2 -RSB- I am in a strange state of mind .