The ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed. Address to the earl of WILMINGTON. First approach of Winter. According to the natural coarse of the season; various størms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the shows: A Man perishing among them; whence reflections on the wants and miseries of human life. The wolves descending from the Alps and Apennines. A winterevening described: as spent by philosophers; by the country people; in the city. Frost. A view of Winter within the polar Circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflections on a future state.

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WINT E R.

SEE, WINTER comes, to rule the varied

year,

Sullen and sad, with all his rising train; Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms. Be these my theme,

These, that exalt the soul to solemn thought, And heavenly musing.

Welcome, kindred

Cogenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot,
Pleas'd have I, in my chearful morn of life,
When nurs'd by careless solitude I liv'd,
And sung of Nature with unceasing joy,
Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough

domain; Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure;

Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent

burst;

Or seen the deep fermenting tempest brew'd, In the grim evening sky. Thus pass'd the

time,

Till thro' the lucid chambers of the south 15 Look'd out the joyous SPRING, look'd out and smil'd.

To thee, the patron of this first essay, The Muse, O WILMINGTON! renews her

song.

Since has she rounded the revolving year: Skim'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne,

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Attempted through the summer-blaze to rise; Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale;

And now among the wintry clouds again, Roll'd in the doubling storm, she tries to soar; To swell her note with all the rushing winds; 25 To suit her sounding cadence to the floods; As is her theme, her numbers wildly great s Thrice happy! could she fill thy judging ear With bold description, and with manly thought. Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone, 30, And how to make a mighty people thrive: But equal goodness, sound integrity,

A firm unshaken uncorrupted soul

Amid a sliding age, and burning strong,

Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal, 35 A steady spirit regularly free;

These, each exalting each, the statesman

light

Into the patriot; these, the public hope
And eye to thee converting, bid the Muse
Record what envy dares not flattery call. 40

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 farthest verge of heaven, the

sun

Scarce spreads o'er] aether the dejected day. 45 Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot His struggling rays, in horizontal lines,

Thro' the thick air; as cloath'd in cloudy

storm,

Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky;

And, soon-descending, to the long dark night, 50 Wide-shading all, the prostrate world resigns. Nor is the night unwish'd; while vital heat, Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forsake. Mean-time, in sable cincture, shadows vast, Deep-ting'd and damp, and congregated clouds,

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And all the vapoury turbulence of heaven
Involve the face of things. Thus Winter falls,
A heavy gloom oppressive o'er the world,
Thro' Nature shedding influence malign,
And rouses up the seeds of dark disease.
The soul of Man dies in him, loathing life,
And black with more than malancholy views.
The cattle droop; and o'er the furrowed land,
Fresh from the plough, the dun discolour'd
flocks,

Untended spreading, crop the wholesome

Along the woods, along the moorish fens,
Sighs the sad Genius of the coming storm;
And up among the loose disjointed cliffs,
And fractur'd mountains wild, the brawling
brook

And cave, presageful, send a hollow moan, 70
Resounding long in listening Fancy's ear.

THEN Comes the father of the tempest forth,

Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obscure

Drive thro' the mingling skies with vapour

foul;

Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the

woods, 75 That grumbling wave below. Th'unsightly plain