AUTUMN.

The western sun withdraws the shorten'd day; Magnificent and vast, are heaven and earth.
And humid Evening, gliding o'er the sky, Order confounded lies; all beauty void;
In her chill progress, to the ground condensed Distinction lost; and gay variety
The vapours throws. Where creeping waters ooze, One universal blot; such the fair power
Where marshes stagnate, and where rivers wind Of light, to kindle and create the whole.
Cluster the rolling fogs, and swim along Drear is the state of the benighted wretch,
The dusky-mantled lawn. Meanwhile the Moon Who then, bewilder'd, wanders through the dark,
Full-orb'd, and breaking through the scatter'd Full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge;
clouds,

Nor visited by one directive ray,
Shows her broad visage in the crimson'd east. From cottage streaming, or from airy hall.
Turn'd to the sun direct, her spotted disk, Perhaps impatient as he stumbles on,
Where mountains rise, umbrageous dales descend, Struck from the root of slimy rushes, blue,
And caverns deep, as optic tube descries, The wildfire scatters round, or gather'd trails
A smaller earth, gives us his blaze again, A length of flame deceitful o'er the moss:
Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day. Whither decoy'd by the fantastic blaze,
Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop, Now lost and now renew'd, he sinks absorb’d,
Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime. Rider and horse, amid the miry gulf:
Wide the pale deluge floats, and streaming mild While still, from day to day, his pining wife
O'er the sky'd mountain to the shadowy vale, And plaintive children his return await,
While rocks and floods reflect the quivering gleam, In wild conjecture lost. At other times,
The whole air whitens with a boundless tide Sent by the better Genius of the night,
Of silver radiance trembling round the world. Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane,

But when half blotted from the sky her light, The meteor sits; and shows the narrow path,
Fainting, permits the starry fires to burn That winding leads through pits of death, or else
With keener lustre through the depth of heaven; Instructs him how to take the dangerous ford.
Or near extinct her deadend orb appears,

The lengthen'd night elapsed, the Morning shines
And scarce appears, of sickly beamless white; Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright,
Oft in this season, silent froin the north Unfolding fair the last autumnal day.
A blaze of meteors shoots; ensweeping first And now the mounting sun dispels the fog;
The lower skies, they all at once converge

The rigid hoar frost melts before his beam;
High to the crown of heaven, and all at once And hung on every spray, on every blade
Relapsing quick, as quickly reascend,

Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round.
And mix, and thwart, extinguish, and renew, Ah, see where, robb’d and murder'd, in that pit
All ether coursing in a maze of light.

Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatch'd,
From look to look, contagious through the crowd, Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night,
The panic runs, and into wondrous shapes And fix'd o'er sulphur: while, not dreaming ill,
The appearance throws: armies in meet array, The happy people, in their waxen cells,
Throng'd with aërial spears, and steeds of fire; Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes
Till the long lines of full extended war Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoiced
In bleeding fight commix'd, the sanguine flood To mark, full flowing round, their copious stores.
Rolls a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven. Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends;
As thus they scan the visionary scene,

And, used to milder scents, the tender race,
On all sides swells the superstitious din, By thousands, tumble from their honey'd domes,
Incontinent; and busy frenzy talks

Convolved, and agonizing in the dust.
Of blood and battle; cities overturn'd,

And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring,
And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk, Intent from flower to flower? for this you toild
Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame; Ceaseless the burning Summer heats away?
Of sallow famine, inundation, storm;

For this in Autumn search'd the blooming waste,
Of pestilence, and every great distress; Nor lost one sunny gleam? for this sad fate?
Empires subversed, when ruling fate has struck O Man! tyrannic lord! how long, how long
The unalterable hour: e'en Nature's self Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage,
Is deem'd to totter on the brink of time.

Awaiting renovation ? when obliged,
Not so the man of philosophic eye,

Must you destroy ? of their ambrosial food
And inspect sage; the waving brightness he Can you not borrow; and, in just return,
Curious surveys, inquisitive to know

Afford them shelter from the wintry winds;
The causes, and materials, yet unfix'd,

Or, as the sharp year pinches, with their own
Of this appearance beautiful and new. Again regale them on some smiling day?

Now black, and deep, the night begins to fall, See where the stony bottom of their town
A shade immense! Sunk in the quenching gloom, Looks desolate, and wild; with here and there

beams;

A helpless number, who the ruin'd state Their hollow moments undelighted all ?
Survive, lamenting weak, cast out to death. Sure peace is his; a solid life, estranged
Thus a proud city, populous and rich,

To disappointment, and fallacious hope:
Full of the works of peace, and high in joy, Rich in content, in Nature's bounty rich,
At theatre or feast, or sunk in sleep,

In herbs and fruits whatever greens the Spring, (As late, Palermo, was thy fate) is seized When heaven descends in showers or bends the By some dread earthquake, and convulsive hurld bough, Sheer from the black foundation, stench-involved, When Summer reddens, and when Autumn Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame.

Hence every harsher sight! for now the day, Or in the wintry glebe whatever lies O'er heaven and earth diffused, grows warm, and Conceal'd, and fattens with the richest sap: high;

These are not wanting; nor the milky drove, Infinite splendour! wide investing all.

Luxuriant, spread o'er all the lowing vale; How still the breeze! save what the filmy thread Nor bleating mountains; nor the chide of streams, Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain. And hum of bees, inviting sleep sincere How clear the cloudless sky? how deeply tinged Into the guiltless breast, beneath the shade, With a peculiar blue! the ethereal arch

Or thrown at large amid the fragrant hay; How swell'd immense! amid whose azure throned Nor aught besides of prospect, grove, or song, The radiant sun how gay! how calm below Dim grottos, gleaming lakes, and fountain clear. The gilded earth! the harvest-treasures all Here too dwells simple Truth; plain Innocence Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms, Unsullied Beauty; sound unbroken Youth, Sure to the swain; the circling fence shut up;

Patient of labour, with a little pleased; And instant Winter's utmost rage defied. Truth ever blooming; unambitious Toil; While, loose to festive joy, the country round Calm Contemplation, and poetic Ease. Laughs with the loud sincerity of mirth,

Let others brave the flood in quest of gain,
Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-strung youth And beat, for joyless months, the gloomy wave.
By the quick sense of music taught alone, Let such as deem it glory to destroy
Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance, Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek ;
Her every charm abroad, the village-toast, Unpierced, exulting in the widow's wail,
Young, buxom, warm, in native beauty rich, The virgin's shriek, and infant's trembling cry.
Darts not unmeaning looks; and, where her eye Let some, far distant from their native soil,
Points an approving smile, with double force, Urged or by want or harden'd avarice,
The cudgel rattles, and the wrestler twines. Find other lands beneath another sun.
Age too shines out; and, garrulous, recounts Let this through cities work his eager way
The feats of youth. Thus they rejoice; nor think By legal outrage and establish'd guile,
That, with to-morrow's sun, their annual toil The social sense extinct; and that ferment
Begins again the never ceasing round.

Mad into tumult the seditious herd,
Oh, knew he but his happiness, of men Or melt them down to slavery. Let these
The happiest he! who far from public rage, Insnare the wretched in the toils of law,
Deep in the vale, with a choice few retired, Fomenting discord, and perplexing right
Drinks the pure pleasures of the Rural Life. An iron race! and those of fairer front,
What though the dome be wanting, whose proud But equal inhumanity, in courts,
gate,

Delusive pomp and dark cabals, delight;
Each morning, vomits out the sneaking crowd Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile,
Of flatterers false, and in their turn abused? And tread the weary labyrinth of state.
Vile intercourse! what though the glittering robe While he, from all the stormy passions free
Of every hue reflected light can give,

That restless men involve, hears, and but hears, Or floating loose, or stiff with mazy gold, At distance safe, the human tempest roar, The pride and gaze of fools! oppress him not? Wrapp'd close in conscious peace. The fall of kings, What though, from utmost land and sea purvey'd, The rage of nations, and the crush of states, For him each rarer tributary life

Move not the man, who, from the world escaped, Bleeds not, and his insatiate table heaps In still retreats and flowery solitudes, With luxury, and death? What though his bowl To Nature's voice attends, from month to month, Flames not with costly juice; nor sunk in beds, And day to day, through the revolving year; Oft of gay care, he tosses out the night, Admiring, sees her in her every shape; Or melts the thoughtless hours in idle state? Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart; What though he knows not those fantastic joys Takes what she liberal gives, nor thinks of more. That still amuse the wanton, still deceive! Hle, when young Spring protrudes the bursting A face of pleasure, but a heart of pain;

Show me;

Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale And emulous to please him, calling forth
· Into his freshen'd soul; her genial hours The fond parental soul. Nor purpose gay,
He full enjoys; and not a beauty blows, Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns;
And not an opening blossom breathes in vain. For happiness and true philosophy
In Summer he, beneath the living shade,

Are of the social, still, and smiling kind.
Such as o'er frigid Tempè wont to wave,

This is the life which those who fret in guilt, Or Hemus cool, reads what the Muse, of these, And guilty cities, never knew; the life, Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung; Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt, Or what she dictates writes: and, oft an eye When Angels dwelt, and God himself, with Man! Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year.

Oh Nature ! all-sufficient! over all ! When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world, Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works! And tempts the sickled swain into the field, Snatch me to Heaven; thy rolling wonders there, Seized by the general joy, his heart distends World beyond world, in infinite extent, With gentle throes; and, through the tepid gleams Profusely scatter'd o'er the blue immense, Deep musing, then he best exerts his song.

their motions, periods, and their laws E’en Winter wild to him is full of bliss. Give me to scan; through the disclosing deep The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste, Light my blind way: the mineral strata there; Abrupt and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth, Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world ; Awake to solemn thought. At night the skies, O'er that the rising system, more complex, Disclosed, and kindled, by refining frost, Of animals; and higher still, the mind, Pour every lustre on the exalted eye.

The varied scene of quick-compounded thought, A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure, And where the mixing passions endless shift; And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing These ever open to my ravish'd eye; O'er land and sea imagination roams;

A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust! Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind, But if to that unequal; if the blood, Elates his being, and unfolds his powers; In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.

That best ambition; under closing shades, The touch of kindred too and love he feels; Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook, The modest eye, whose beams on his alone And whisper to my dreams. From Thee begin, Ecstatic shine; the little strong embrace Dwell all on Thee, with Thee conclude my song; Of prattling children, twined around his neck, And let me ncver, never stray from Thee!

TU inter.

Horrida cano
Bruma gelu.

ARGUMENT.

The subject propneed. Address to the Earl of Wilntington. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of the Season, various Suorms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the Snows: a Man perishing anong them; whence reflections on the Wants and Miseries of Human Life. The Wolves descending from the Alps and Appe. ninen 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 retlections on a Future State.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

comes alone, and unregarded by the world, may

hope for your notice and esteem. Happy if I can, SIR SPENCER COMPTON.

in any degree, merit this good fortune: as every

ornament and grace of polite learning is yours, Sir,

your single approbation will be my farne. The Author of the following Poem begs leave I dare not indulge my heart by dwelling on your to inscribe this, his first performance, to your name public character; on that exalted honour and inand patronage: unknown himself, and only intro- tegrity which distinguish you in that august asduced by the Muse, he yet ventures to approach sembly where you preside, that unshaken loyalty you, with a modest cheerfulness; for, whoever to your sovereign, that disinterested concern fur attempts to excel in any generous art, though he his people which shine out, united, in all your be

am,

haviour, and finish the patriot. I am conscious A firm, unshaken, uncorrupted soul, of my want of strength and skill for so delicate an Amid a sliding age, and burning strong, undertaking; and yet, as the shepherd in his cot- Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal, tage may feel and acknowledge the influence of A steady spirit regularly free; the sun with as lively a gratitude as the great man These, each exalting each, the statesman light in his palace, even I may be allowed to publish my Into the patriot; these, the public hope sense of those blessings which, from so many pow. And eye to thee converting, bid the Muse erful virtues, are derived to the nation they adorn. Record what envy dares not flattery call.

I conclude with saying that your fine discern- Now when the cheerless empire of the sky ment and humanity, in your private capacity, are To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields so conspicuous that, if this address is not received And fierce Aquarius stains the inverted year; with some indulgence, it will be a severe convic- Hung o'er the farthest verge of Heaven, the sun tion that what I have written has not the least Scarce spreads through ether the dejected day. share of merit.

Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot
I

His struggling rays, in horizontal lines,
With the profoundest respect, Through the thick air; as clothed in cloudy storm,
Sir,

Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky; Your most devoted and most faithful And, soon-descending, to the long dark night, humble Servant,

Wide-shading all, the prostrate world resigns. JAMES THOMSON. Nor is the night unwish’d; while vital heat,

Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forsake.

Meantime, in sable cincture, shadows vast,
WINTER.

Deep-tinged and damp, and congregated clouds,

And all the vapoury turbulence of Heaven, See, Winter comes, to rule the varied year, Involve the face of things. Thus Winter falls, Sullen and sad, with all his rising train; A heavy gloom oppressive o'er the world, Vapours, and clouds, and storms. Be these my Through Nature shedding influence malign, theme,

And rouses up the seeds of dark disease, These! that exalt the soul to solemn thought, The soul of man dies in him, loathing life, And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms, And black with more than melancholy views. Congenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot, The cattle droop; and o'er the furrow'd land, Pleased have I, in my cheerful morn of life, Fresh from the plough, the dun discolour'd flocks, When nursed by careless Solitude I lived, Untended spreading, crop the wholesome root. And sung of Nature with unceasing joy, Along the woods, along the moorish fens, Pleased have I wander'd through your rough do- Sighs the sad Genius of the coming storm; main;

And up among the loose disjointed cliffs, Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure; And fractured mountains wild, the brawling brook Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burst; And cave, presageful, send a hollow moan, Or seen the deep-fermenting tempest brew'd, Resounding long in listenign Fancy's ear. In the grim evening sky. Thus pass'd the time, Then comes the father of the tempest forth, Till through the lucid chambers of the south Wraptin black glooms. First joyless rains obscure, Look'd out the joyous Spring, look'd out, and Drive through the mingling skies with vapour foul, smiled.

Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods, To thee, the patron of her first essay, That grumbling wave below. The unsightly plain The Muse, O Wilmington! renews her song. Lies a brown deluge; as the low-bent clouds Since has she rounded the revolving year: Pour flood on flood, yet unexhausted still Skimm'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne, Combine, and deepening into night, shut up Attempted through the Summer-blaze to rise; The day's fair face. The wanderers of Heaven, Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale; Each to his home, retire; save those that love And now among the wintry clouds again, To take their pastime in the trouble] air, Roll'd in the doubling storm she tries to soar; Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool. To swell her note with all the rushing winds; The cattle from the untasted fields return, To suit her sounding cadence to the floods; And ask, with meaning low, their wonted stalls, As is her theme, her numbers wildly great: Or ruminate in the contiguous shade. Thrice happy could she fill thy judging ear

Thither the household feathery people crowd, With bold description, and with manly thought. The crested cock, with all his female train, Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone, Pensive, and dripping; while the cottage-hind And how to make a mighty people thrive ; Hangs o'er the enlivening blaze, and taleful there But equal goodness, sound integrity,

Recounts his simple frolic: much he talks,

WINTER.

And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows Eat into caverns by the restless wave,
Without, and rattles on his humble roof. And forest-rustling mountain, comes a voice,

Wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swellid, That solemn sounding bids the world prepare.
And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread, Then issues forth the storm with sudden burst,
At last the roused-up river pours along : And hurls the whole precipitated air
Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, Down in a torrent. On the passive main

From the rude mountain, and the mossy wild, Descends the ethereal force, and with strong gust Sites Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far; Turns from its bottom the discolour'd deep.

Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads, Through the black night that sits immense around, en Calm, sluggish, silent; till again, constrain'd Lash'd into foam, the fierce confiicting brine

Between two meeting hills, it bursts away, Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn:
Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream; Meantime the mountain-billows, to the clouds
There gathering triple force, rapid, and deep, In dreadful tumult swellid, surge above surge,
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders Burst into chaos with tremendous roar,
through

And anchor'd navies from their stations drive,
Nature great parent! whose unceasing hand Wild as the winds across the howling waste
Rolls round the seasons of the changeful year, Of mighty waters: now the inflated wave
How mighty, how majestic, are thy works! Straining they scale, and now impetuous shoot
With what a pleasing dread they swell the soul! Into the secret chambers of the deep,
That sees astonish'd! and astonish'd sings! The wintry Baltic thundering o'er their head.
Ye too, ye winds! that now begin to blow Emerging thence again, before the breath
With boisterous sweep, I raise my voice to you.

Of full exerted Heaven they wing their course,
Where are your stores, ye powerful beings! say, And dart on distant coasts; if some sharp rock,
Where your aërial magazines reserved,

Or shoal insidious break not their career,
To swell the brooding terrors of the storm? And in loose fragments fling them floating round.
In what far distant region of the sky,

Nor less at hand the loosen'd tempest reigns.
Hush'd in deep silence, sleep ye when 'tis calm? The mountain thunders; and its sturdy sons

When from the pallid sky the sun descends, Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they shade.
With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb Lone on the midnight steep, and all aghast,
Uncertain wanders, stain'd; red fiery streaks The dark wayfaring stranger breathless toils,
Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds And, often falling, climbs against the blast.
Stagger with dizzy poise, as doubting yet Low waves the rooted forest, vex'd, and sheds
Which master to obey: while rising slow,

What of its tarnish'd honours yet remain;
Blank, in the leaden-colour'd east, the moon Dash'd down, and scatter'd, by the tearing wind's
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. Assiduous fury, its gigantic limbs.
Seen through the turbid fluctuating air, Thus struggling through the dissipated grove,
The stars obtuse emit a shiver'd ray;

The whirling tempest raves along the plain;
Or frequent seem to shoot athwart the gloom, And on the cottage thatch'd, or lordly roof,
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze. Keen-fastening, shakes them to the solid base.
Snatch'd in short eddies, plays the wither'd leaf; Sleep frighted flies; and round the rocking dome,
And on the flood the dancing feather floats. For entrance eager, howls the savage blast.
With broaden'd nostrils to the sky upturn'd, Then too, they say, through all the burden'd alr,
The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale. Long groans are heard, shrill sounds, and distant
E'en as the matron, at her nightly task,

sighs,
With pensive labour draws the flaxen thread, That, utter'd by the Demon of the night,
The wasted taper and the crackling flame Warn the devoted wretch of wo and death.
Foretell the blast. But chief the plumy race, Huge uproar lords it wide. The clouds com-
The tenants of the sky, its changes speak.

mix'd
Retiring from the downs, where all day long

With stars swift gliding sweep along the sky. They pick'd their scanty fare, a blackening train, All Nature reels. Till Nature's King, who oft Of clamorous rooks thick urge their weary flight Amid tempestuous darkness dwells alone, And seek the closing shelter of the grove; And on the wings of the careering wind Assiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl Walks dreadfully serene, commands a calm; Plies his sad song. The cormorant on high Then straight, air, sea, and earth are hush'd at Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land. Loud shrieks the soaring hern; and with wild wing As yet ’tis midnight deep. The weary clouds, The circling seafowl cleave the flaky clouds. Slow meeting, mingle into solid gloom. Ocean, unequal press’d, with broken tide Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep, And blind commotion heaves; while from the shore, Let me associate with the serious Night,