THE NEW YORK PUBLIC HIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
Tune 1.1778 Publish'd as the Act directs by Murray N°32 Fleet Street, London.
EE, WINTER Comes, to rule the varied year,
Sullen and fad, with all his rifing train;
Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms. Be thefe my theme, These 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 cheerful morn of life, When nurs'd by careless folitude I liv'd,
And fung of Nature with unceafing joy,
Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough domaine; 10 Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure; Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent bufft; Or feen the deep fermenting tempeft brew'd,
In the grim evening sky. Thus pass'd the time, Till thro' the lucid chambers of the fouth Look'd out the joyous SPRING, look'd out, and smil'd,
To thee, the patron of her firft effay,
The Mufe, O WILMINGTON! renews her fong. Since has the rounded the revolving year :
Skim'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne, 20 Attempted thro' the Summer-blaze to rise;
Then fwept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale; And now among the wintry clouds again, Roll'd in the doubling storm, she 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 fhe fill thy judging ear With bold defcription, and with manly thought.
These, 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 cheerlefs empire of the sky To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields, And fierce Aquarius, ftains th' inverted year; Hung o'er the fartheft verge of heaven, the sun Scarce fpreads thro' ether the dejected day.
Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot His ftruggling rays, in horizontal lines,
Thro' the thick air; as cloath'd in cloudy ftorm, Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky; And, foon-descending, to the long dark night, Wide-fhading all, the proftrate world refigns. Nor is the night unwish'd; while vital heat, Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forfake. Mean-time, in fable cincture, shadows vaft, Deep-ting'd and damp, and congregated clouds, And all the vapoury 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 discolour'd flocks,
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