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,
Thefe! that exalt the foul to folemn thought,
And heavenly mufing. Welcome, kindred glooms! 5
Congenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot,
Pleas'd have I, in my chearful 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 domain; 10
Trod the pure virgin-fnows, myself as pure ;
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burft;
Or feen the deep fermenting tempeft brew'd,
In the grim evening fky. Thus pafs'd the time,
Till thro' the lucid chambers of the fouth
15
Look'dout the joyous SPRING, look'd out, and fmil'd.
To thee, the patron of her first essay, 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 through the Summer-blaze to rife; Then swept o'er Autumn with the fhadowy gale; And now among the wintry clouds again,
Roll'd in the doubling ftorm, fhe 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 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, found integrity,
A firm unfhaken uncorrupted foul
Amid a fliding age, and burning ftrong,
Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal,
A steady spirit regularly free;
Thefe, each exalting each, the ftatefinan 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 chearless empire of the sky
To Caprica-n the Centaur Archer yields,
And fierce Aquarius, ftains th' inverted year;
Hung o'er the fartheft verge of heaven, the fun
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 storm,
Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky;
And, foon-defcending, to the long dark night, 50
Wide-shading 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, shadows vast,
Deep-ting'd and damp, and congregated clouds, 55
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 wholefome root. 65
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 listening Fancy's ear.
THEN Comes the father of the tempeft forth,
Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obscure
Drive thro' the mingling fkies with vapour foul;
Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods,
That grumbling wave below. The unfightly plain 76
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, 80
Each to his home, retire; fave those that love
To take their pastime in the troubled air,
Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool.
The cattle from the untafted fields return,
And ask, with meaning lowe, their wonted ftalls, 85
Or ruminate in the contiguous fhade.
Thither the houfhold feathery people crowd,
The crested cock, with all his female train,
Penfive, and dripping; while the cottage-hind
Hangs o'er th' enlivening blaze, and taleful there 90
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'd, And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread, At laft 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 away, Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream; There gathering triple force, rapid, and deep, 104 It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through.
NATURE! great parent! whose unceasing hand Rolls round the Seafons of the changeful year, How mighty, how majestic, 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 sweep, I raise my voice to you.
Where are your ftores, ye powerful beings! fay,
Where your aërial magazines referv’d,
To fwell the brooding terrors of the ftorm? 115 In what far-diftant region of the sky,
Hufh'd in deep filence, fleep ye when 'tis calm ?
WHEN from the pallid fky the fun defcends, With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb Uncertain wanders, ftain'd; red fiery streaks Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds Stagger with dizzy poife, as doubting yet Which mafter to obey: while rifing 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 stars obtufe emit a fhivered 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; 130
And on the flood the dancing feather floats.
With broadened noftrils to the fky up-turn'd,
The conscious heifer fnuffs the ftormy gale.
Even as the matron, at her nightly task,
With penfive labour draws the flaxen thread,
The wafted taper and the crackling flame
Foretell the blaft. But chief the plumy race,
The tenants of the sky, its changes speak.
VOL. I.
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