W IN TE R.

The ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed. Address to the earl of WILMING.

TON. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of the feafort, various forms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the fnoris: 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 defcribed: as spent by philofopbers; by the coun. try people; in the city. Froft. A view of Winter within the polar Circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflections on a future fiate.

SEE

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,
These, that exalt the soul to folemn thought,
And heavenly musing. 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 solitude I liv'd,
And sung of Nature with unceasing joy,
Pleas'd have I wander'd thro'your rough domain; 10
Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure;
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burft;
Or feen the deep fermenting tempest brew'd,
In the grim evening sky. Thus pass’d the time,
Till chro' the lucid chambers of the south

IS
Look'd out the joyous SPRING, look'd out and smild:

To thee, the patron of this first essay,
The Muse, O WILMINGTON! renews her fong: -
Since has the rounded the revolving year:
1.5

Skira's

Skim'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne, 20
Attempted through the summer-blaze to rife;
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 soar;
To swell her note with all the rushing winds; 25
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, 30
And how to make a mighty people thrive:
But equal goodness, found 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 publick hope
And eye to the converting, bid the Muse
Record what envy dares not Aattery call.

Now when the chearless empire of the lky
To Capricorn the Centaur-Archer yields,
And fierce Aquarius, ftains th' inverted year;
Hung o'er the farthest verge of heaven, the sun
Scarce Spreads o'er ether the dejected day.
Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual foot

His