The subject propofed. Addrefs to the Earl of WIL MINGTON. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of the feafon, various forms defcribed. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the fnows: A Man perishing among them; whence reflexions on the wants and miseries of human life. The wolves defcending from the Alps and Appenines. A wintry-evening defcribed; as spent by philofophers; by the country people; in the city. Froft. Aview of Winter within the polar circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflexions on a future ftate.
EE, WINTER comes, to rule the varied year,
Sullen, and fad, with all his rifing train;
Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms. Be these my theme,
Thefe, that exalt the foul to folemn thought,
And heavenly mufing. Welcome, kindred glooms! 5
Cogenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot,
Pleas'd have I, in my chearful morn of life,
When nurs'd by careless folitude I liv'd,
And fung of Nature with unceasing joy,
Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough domain; 10
Trod the pure virgin-fnows, myself as pure;
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burft;
Or feen the deep fermenting tempeft brew'd,
In the grim-evening fky. Thus pafs'd the time,
Till thro' the lucid chambers of the south
Look'd out the joyous SPRING, look'd out, and fimil'd.
To thee, the patron of her first essay,
The Muse, O WILMINGTON! renews her fong.
Since has the rounded the revolving year:
Skimm'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne, 20
Attempted thro' the Summer-blaze to rife;
Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale;
And now among the wint❜ry clouds again,
Roll'd in the doubling storm, fhe tries to foar;
To fwell her note with all the rushing winds;
To fuit her founding cadence to the floods;
As is her theme, her numbers wildly great:
Thrice happy! could she fill thy judging ear
With bold description, and with manly thought.
Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone,
And how to make a mighty people thrive:
But equal goodness, found integrity,
A firm unshaken uncorrupted foul
Amid a fliding age, and burning strong,
Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal,
A steady spirit regularly free;
Thefe, each exalting each, the statesman light
Into the patriot; thefe, the public hope
And eye to thee converting, bid the Mufe
Record what envy dares not flattery call.
Now when the chearless empire of the sky
To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields,
And fierce Aquarius stains th' inverted year;
Hung o'er the fartheft verge of heaven, the fun
Scarce fpreads o'er aether the dejected day.
Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot
His ftruggling rays, in horizontal lines,
Thro' the thick air; as cloth'd in cloudy storm,
Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the fouthern sky;
And, foon-defcending, to the long dark night,
Wide-shading all, the proftrate world refigns.
Nor is the night unwifh'd; while vital heat,
Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forfake.
Meantime, in fable cincture, fhadows vast,
Deep-ting'd, and damp, and congregated clouds, 55
And all the vapeury turbulence of heaven
Involve the face of things. Thus Winter falls,
A heavy gloom oppreffive o'er the world,
Thro' Nature fhedding influence malign,
And roufes up the feeds of dark disease.
The foul of Man dies in him, loathing life,
And black with more than melancholy views.
The cattle droop; and o'er the furrowed land,
Fresh from the plough, the dun-difcoloured flocks,
Untended spreading, crop the wholesome root.
Along the woods, along the moorish fens,
Sighs the fad Genius of the coming ftorm;
And up among the loofe disjointed cliffs,
And fractur❜d mountains wild, the brawling brook
And cave, presageful, fend a hollow moan,
Refounding long in liftening Fancy's ear.
Then comes the father of the tempest forth, Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obfcure Drive thro' the mingling skies with vapour foul; Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods, 75 That grumbling wave below. Th' unfightly plain Lyes a brown deluge; as the low-bent clouds Pour flood on flood, yet unexhausted still Combine, and deepening into night, shut up The day's fair face. The wanderers of heaven, Each to his home, retire; fave thofe that love To take their pastime in the troubled air, Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool. The cattle from th' untafted fields return,
And ask, with meaning lowe, their wonted ftalls, 85 Or ruminate in the contiguous fhade.
Thither the houfhold feathery people croud,
The crefted cock, with all his female train,
Penfive, and dripping; while the cottage-hind
Hangs o'er th' enlivening blaze, and taleful there 90
Recounts his fimple frolic: much he talks,
And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows
Without, and rattles on his humble roof.
Wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swell'd,
And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread,
At last the rous'd-up river pours along:
Refistless, roating, dreadful, down it comes,
VOL. I.
From the rude mountain, and the moffy wild,
Tumbling thro' rocks abrupt, and founding far ;
Then o'er the fanded valley floating spreads,
Calm, fluggish, filent; till again, constrain'd
Between two meeting hills, it bursts away,
Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream;
There gathering triple force, rapid, and deep,
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through.
Nature! great parent! whose unceafing hand 106
Rolls round the seasons of the changeful year,
How mighty, how majestic, are thy works!
With what a pleasing dread they swell the foul!
That fees aftonish'd! and astonish'd fings!
Ye too, ye winds! that now begin to blow,
With boisterous fweep, I raise my voice to you.
Where are your ftores, ye powerful beings! fay,
Where your aërial magazines referv'd,
To fwell the brooding terrors of the storm?
In what far-distant region of the sky,
Hufh'd in deep filence, fleep ye when 'tis calm?
When from the pallid sky the fun defcends, With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb Uncertain wanders, stain'd; red fiery streaks Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds Stagger with dizzy poife, as doubting yet Which master to obey: while rifing flow, Blank, in the leaden-colour'd east, the moon
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns.
Seen thro' the turbid fluctuating air,
The stars obtufe emit a fhivered ray;
Or frequent seem to fhoot athwart the gloom,
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze.
Snatch'd in short eddies, plays the wither'd leaf; 130
And on the flood the dancing feather floats.
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