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
Cogenial 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, myfelf as pure;
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burst;
Or feen the deep fermenting tempeft brew'd,
In the grim evening fky. Thus pass'd the time,
'Till thro' the lucid chambers of the fouth,
Look'd out the joyous SPRING, look'd out and fmil'd.
To thee, the patron of this first effay,
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 fwept o'er Autumn with the fhadowy gale;
And now among the wintry clouds again,
Roll'd in the doubling storm, she 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 fhe fill thy judging ear
With bold defcription, 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 strong,
Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal,
A fteady fpirit-regularly free ;
Thefe, each exalting each, the ftatesman light
Into the patriot; thefe, 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 fky
To Capricorn the Centaur-Archer yields,
And fierce Aquarius, stains th' inverted year;
Hung o'er the fartheft verge of heaven, the fun
Scarce fpreads o'er 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 fouthern sky;
And, foon-descending, 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 cin&ture, fhadows vaft,
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 fhedding 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 difcoloured flocks,
Untended fpreading, crop the wholesome root.
Along the woods, along the moorish fens,
Sighs the fad Genius of the coming ftorm;
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 tempest forth, Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obfcure
Drive thro' the mingling skies with vapour
Dash on the mountain's brow, and fhake the woods,
That grumbling wave below. Th' unfightly plain
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; save those that love
To take their pastime in the troubled air,
Or fkimming flutter round the dimply pool.
The cattle from th' untafted fields return,
And ask, with meaning lowe, their wanted stalls,
Or ruminate in the contiguous fhade.
Thither the houshold 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 taleful there
Recounts his fimple frolic: much he talks,
And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows
Without, and rattles on his humble roof.
WIDE o'er the brim, with many a torrent_fwell'd, And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erfpread, At laft the rous'd-up river pours along : Refiftlefs, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, From the rude mountain, and the mosfy 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 ftream ;.
There gathering triple force, rapid, and deep, 104
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through.
NATURE! great parent! whofe unceafing hand
Rolls round the Seafons of the changeful year,
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 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 storm?
In what far-diftant region of the sky,
Hufh'd in deep filence, fleep you when 'tis calm ?
WHEN from the palid fky the fun defcends,
With many a fpot, that o'er his glaring orb
Uncertain wanders, ftain'd; red fiery streaks
Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds
Stagger with dizzy poize, as doubting yet
Which mafter to obey: while rifing flow,
Blank, in the leaden-colour'd eaft, the moon
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns.
Seen thro' the turbid fluctuating air,
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