Human beings often find a certain kinship with love and nature. Each has a season of newness and innocence, a season of growth and maturation, a season of reflection and repose, and a season that embraces "sleep." In the seasons or life of love, "winter" is a metaphorical view of love between two people who have experienced the wealth of each passing day in a long season of life, and now one of them is beginning to drift into a deep and wide ocean of slumber. "Come close to me, my strength, my life; let not winter's touch enter between us . . . Speak to me of your glory, obscure the elements beyond the door, and sing the song of remembrance. . . Stoke the ashes, light the fire. . . Come close to me . . . . . . how deep and wide the ocean of slumber."