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-defcending, to the long dark night,
Wide-fhading all, the proftrate world refigns.
Nor is the night unwifh'd; while vital heat,
Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forfake.
Mean time, in fable cincture, fhadows 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 shedding 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,
Untended spreading, crop the wholesome root.
Along the woods, along the moorish fens,
Sighs the fad Genius of the coming storm;
And up among the loofe disjointed cliffs,
And fractur'd mountains wild, the brawling brook
And cave, prefageful, fend a hollow moan,
Refounding long in liftening Fancy's ear. 70
THEN comes the father of the tempeft forth, Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obfcure
Drive thro' the mingling fkies with vapour foul;
Dash on the mountain's brow, and fhake the woods,
That grumbling wave below. Th' unfightly plain 75
Lies 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 80
To take their paftime in the troubled air,
Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool.
The cattle from th' untafted fields return,
And afk, with meaning lowe, their wanted stalls,
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 takeful there
Recounts his fimple frolick: much he talks,
And much he laughs, nor recks the ftorm that blows Without, and rattles on his humble roof.
WIDE O'er the brim, with many a torrent swell'a, And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erfpread,
At last the rous'd-up river pours along:
Refiftlefs, roaring, dreadful, down it comes,
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 a way,
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! whofe unceafing hand Rolls round the seasons of the changeful year, 106 How mighty, how majeftic, are thy works! With what a pleafing dread they fwell 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 aerial magazines referv'd, To swell the brooding terrors of the storm? In what far-diftant region of the sky,
Hufh'd in deep filence, fleep you when 'tis calm?
WHEN from the palid sky the fun defcends, With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb Uncertain wanders, ftain'd; red fiery ftreaks Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds Stagger with dizzy poize, as doubting yet Which mafter to obey: while rising 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 ftars obtufe emit a fhivering ray;
Or frequent feem to shoot athwart the gloom,
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze.
Snatch'd in fhort eddies, plays the wither'd leaf;
And on the flood the dancing feather floats.
With broadened noftrils to the sky upturn'd,
The confcious heifer fnuffs the storiny gale.
Even as the matron, at her nightly task,
With penfive labour draws the flaxen thread,
The wasted taper and the crackling flame
Foretel the blaft. But chief the plumy race,
The tenants of the sky, its changes speak.
Retiring from the downs, where all day long
They pick'd their fcanty fare, a blackening train
Of clamorous rooks thick-urge their weary flight, 140
And feek the clofing shelter of the grove.
Affiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl
Plies his fad fong. The cormorant on high
Wheels from the deep, and fcreams along the land.
Louds fhrieks the foaring hern; and with wild wing The circling fea-fowl cleave the flaky clouds. Ocean, unequal prefs'd, with broken tide
And blind commotion heaves; while from the fhore, Eat into caverns by the reftiefs wave,
And forest-rustling mountain, comes a voice,
That folemn-founding bids the world prepare.
Then iffues forth the ftorm with fudden burft,
And hurls the whole precipitated air,
Down, in a torrent. On the paffive main
Defcends th' ethereal force, and with strong guft
Turns from its bottom the discolour'd deep.
Thro' the black night that fits immense around,
Lafh'd into foam, the fierce conflicting brine
Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn;
Meantime the mountain-billows, to the clouds
In dreadful tumult fwell'd, furge above furge,
Burst into chaos with tremendous roar,
And anchor'd navies from their stations drive,
Wild as the winds across the howling waste
Of mighty waters: now th' inflated wave
Straining they fcale, and now impetuous shoot
Into the fecret chambers of the deep,
The wintry Baltick thundering o'er their head.
Emerging thence again, before the breath
Of full exerted heaven they wing their course,
And dart on diftant coafts; if some sharp rock,
Or fhoal infidious break not their career,
And in loose fragments fling them floating round. 175
NOR lefs at land the loofened tempeft reigns. The mountain thunders; and its sturdy fons Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they fhade. Lone on the midnight steep, and all aghaft, The dark way-faring stranger breathless toils, And, often falling, climbs against the blaft. Low waves the rooted foreft, vex'd, and fheds
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