WINTER.

ARGUMENT.

THE subject proposed. Address to the Earl of Wilming ton. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of the season, various storms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the snows; a man perishing among them; whence reflections on the wants and miseries of human life. The wolves descending from the Alps and Appenines. A winter evening describ ed: 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.

WINTER.

SEE, Winter comes, to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad, with all his rising train,
Vapours, and clouds, and storms.

theme,

Be these my

These! that exalt the soul to solemn thought
And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms!
Congenial horrors, hail! With frequent foot,
Pleas'd have I, in my cheerful 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 through your rough domain ;

Trod the pure virgin snows, myself as pure;
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrents burst;
Or seen the deep fermenting tempest, brew'd,
In the grim evening sky. Thus pass'd the time,
Till, through the lucid chambers of the south
Look'd out the joyous Spring; look'd out, and smil'd.
To thee, the patron of her first essay,

The muse, O Wilmington! renews her song.
Since has she rounded the revolving year;

Skimm'd the gay Spring; on eagle pinions borne,
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;
To suit her sounding 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, sound integrity,
A firm, unshaken, uncorrupted soul,
Amid a sliding age, and burning strong,
Not vainly blazing, for thy country's weal;
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.
Now, when the cheerless 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 through ether the dejected day.
Faint are his gleams; and ineffectual shoot
His struggling rays in horizontal lines,
Through the thick air, as, cloth'd in cloudy storm,
Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky,
And, soon descending, to the long dark night,
Wide-shading all, the prostrate world resigns.
Nor is the night unwish'd, while vital heat,
Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forsake.
Meantime, in sable cincture, shadows vast,