Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

These ever open to my ravished eye;

A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust.
But if to that unequal; if the blood,

In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid
That best ambition; under closing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,

And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin,
Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song;
And let me never, never, stray from thee!

THE SEASONS.

WINTER.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Subject proposed. Address to the Earl of Wilmington. 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 Apennines. A Winter-evening described: 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. Be these my theme;
These, that exalt the soul to solemn thought,
And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms!
Congenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot,
Pleased have I, in my cheerful morn of life,
When nursed by careless solitude I lived,

And sang of Nature with unceasing joy,

Pleased have I wandered through your rough domain; Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure;

Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burst;

Or seen the deep-fermenting tempest brewed
In the grim evening-sky. Thus passed the time,
Till through the lucid chambers of the south
Looked out the joyous Spring; looked out, and smiled.
To thee, the patron of her first essay,

The muse, O Wilmington! renews her song.

Since has she rounded the revolving year:

Skimmed 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,
Rolled 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 skilled 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 the inverted year;

« ZurückWeiter »