A ftronger glow fits on the lively cheek
Of ruddy fire and luculent along
The purer rivers flow; their fullen deeps,
Transparent, open to the fhepherd's gaze,
And murmur hoarfer at the fixing frost.
WHAT art thou, froft? and whence are thy keen flores Deriv'd, thou fecret all-invading power,
Whom even th' illufive fluid cannot fly?
Is not thy potent energy, unseen,
Myriads of little falts, or hook'd, or shap'd
Like double wedges, and diffus'd immense
Thro' water, earth, and ether? Hence at eve,
Steam'd eager from the red horizon round,
With the fierce rage of Winter deep fuffus'd,
An icy gale, oft fhifting, o'er the pool
Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career
Arrefts the bickering ftream. The loofened ice, 725
Let down the flood, and half diffolv'd by day,
Ruftles no more; but to the fedgy bank
Faft grows, or gathers round the pointed ftone,
A crystal pavement, by the breath of heaven
Cemented firm; till, feiz'd from shore to fhore, 730
The whole imprison'd river growls below.
Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects
A double noife; while, at his evening watch,
The village dog deters the nightly thief;
The heifer lows; the distant water-fall
Swells in the breeze; and, with the hafty tread
Of traveller, the hollow-founding plain
The full ethereal round,
Infinite worlds disclosing to the view,
Shines out intenfely keen; and, all one cope 740
Of starry glitter, glows from pole to pole.
From pole to pole the rigid influence falls,
Thro' the ftill night, inceffant, heavy, strong,
And feizes Nature faft. It freezes on ;
Till morn, late-rifing o'er the drooping world, 745
Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears
The various labour of the filent night:
Prone from the dripping eave, and dumb cascade,
Whofe idle torrents only feem to roar,
The pendant icicle; the froft-work fair,
750
Where tranfient hues, and fancy'd figures rife ;
Wide-spouted o'er the hill, the frozen brook,
A livid tract, cold-gleaming on the morn;
The foreft bent beneath the plumy wave;
And by the froft refin'd the whiter fnow,
Incrufted hard, and founding to the tread
Of early fhepherd, as he penfive feeks
His pining flock, or from the mountain top,
Pleas'd with the flippery furface, fwift defcends.
ON blithfome frolicks bent, the youthfulfwains, 760 While every work of Man is laid at reft, Fond o'er the river crowd, in various sport And revelry diffolv'd; where mixing glad, Happiest of all the train! the raptur'd boy Lashes the whirling top. Or, where the Rhine 765
Branch'd out in many a long canal extends,
From every province fwarming, void of care,
Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep,
On founding skates, a thousand different ways,
In circling poife, fwift as the winds, along,
gay land is maddened all to joy.
The then
Nor less the northern courts, wide o'er the fnow,
Pour a new pomp. Eager, on rapid fleds,
Their vigorous youth in bold contention wheel
The long-refounding courfe. Mean-time, to raise 775
The manly ftrife, with highly blooming charms,
Flush'd by the season, Scandinavia's dames,
Or Ruffia's buxom daughters glow around.
PURE, quick, and fportful, is the wholesome day;
But foon elaps'd. The horizontal fun,
780
Broad o'er the fouth, hangs at his utmost noon :
And, ineffectual, ftrikes the gelid cliff:
His azure glofs the mountain ftill maintains,
Nor feels the feeble touch. Perhaps the vale
Relents a while to the reflected ray;
Or from the forest falls the cluster'd fnow,
Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam
Gay-twinkle as they fcatter. Thick around
Thunders the sport of those, who with the gun,
And dog impatient bounding at the shot,
Worfe than the feafon, defolate the fields;
And, adding to the ruins of the year,
Diftrefs the footed or the feathered game.
BUT what is this? Our infant Winter finks,
Divested of his grandeur,' fhould our eye
Aftonifh'd fhoot into the Frigid Zone;
Where, for relentlefs months, continual night
Holds o'er the glittering waite her starry reign.
THERE, thro' the prifon of unbounded wilds,
Barr'd by the hand of Nature from escape,
Wide-roams the Rutan exile. Nought around
Strikes his fad eye, but defarts loft in fnow;
And heavy-loaded groves; and folid floods,
That ftretch, athwart the folitary vast,
Their icy horrors to the frozen main;
And chearless towns far-diftant, never blefs'd,
Save when its annual courfe the caravan
Bends to the golden coaft of rich * Cathay,
With news of human-kind, Yet there life glows;
Yet cherish'd there, beneath the fhining wafte, 8ro
The furry nations harbour: tipt with jet,
Fair ermines, fpotlefs as the fnows they prefs;
Sables, of gloffy black; and dark-embrown'd,
Or beauteous freakt with many a mingled hue,
Thonfands befides, the coftly pride of courts. 815
There, warm together prefs'd, the trooping deer
Sleep on the new-fallen fnows; and, scarce his head
Rais'd o'er the heapy wreath, the branching elk
Lies flumbering fullen in the white abyfs.
The ruthless hunter wants nor dogs nor toils, 820
Nor with the dread of founding bows he drives
The fearful flying race; with ponderous clubs,
As weak against the mountain-heaps they push
Their beating breast in vain, and piteous bray,
Helays them quivering on th' enfanguin'd fnows, 825
And with loud fhouts rejoicing bears them home.
There thro' the piny forest half-abforpt,
Rough tenant of these shades, the shapeless bear,
With dangling ice all horrid, ftalks forlorn ;
Slow-pac'd, and fourer as the storms increase, 830
He makes his bed beneath th' inclement drift,
And, with stern patience, scorning weak complaint,
Hardens his heart against affailing want.
WIDE o'er the fpacious regions of the north, That fee Bootes urge his tardy wain, 835
A boisterous race, by frosty * Caurus pierc'd,
Who little pleasure know and fear no pain,
Prolific fwarm. They once relum'd the flame
Of loft mankind in polish'd slavery funk,
Drove martial + horde on horde, with dreadful fweep Refistless rushing o'er th' enfeebled fouth,
The North-Weft Wind.
The wandering Scythian-Clansi
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