To Winter

No longer Beauty's many-colour'd robe     Adorns the autumnal scene; no longer play     The Zephyrs with her tresses; she has fled     To happier regions, and has left the year     Naked and void of charms; the leafless woods     Tremble no more with rapture at the voice     Of harmony: ah! how is Nature changed!     Silent, and sad, she anxiously awaits     Thy coming, mighty King! and, as the sun     Less bright, less ardent, more and more declines     Towards the horizon, with alarm she marks     Thy shadow lengthening in the nightly shade     And towering o'er her, prostrate as she lies,     More threatening, more gigantic; till, at length,     Boreas, thy harbinger, forth-rushing fierce,     Tears from chill'd Autumn's head the withering Crown,     And blustering loud in her affrighted ear,     O Winter! tells thy terrible approach.     Behold! in awful majesty thou comest!     On huge, black clouds, that through the encumber'd sky,     Before the northern blast, sail slowly on,     Thou ridest sublime; aloft in ether towers     Thy giant form; thy formidable frown     Blackens the night; thy threatening voice, sent forth     Upon the impetuous winds, affrights the world.     Yet dare I welcome thee, terrific Power!     Dread Winter, hail! thy terrors fill my soul     With a delightful awe; I love to trace     Thy varying scenes, the wonders of thy reign.     Thy Ministers await thy sovereign will,     And, in the secret regions of the air,     In cloudy magazines prepare thy stores     Of snow, and rain, and hail. At thy command     Frost, that invisible, mysterious Power,     Breathes upon Nature, and thou see'st her soon     An unresisting captive, bound in ice;     Vainly she mourns, till, at thy bidding, Thaw     With his damp, misty standard, from the south     Comes creeping silently, and sets her free;     She weeps for joy. Ah! now thou dost unchain     The Demon of the tempest, to exert     On tortured Nature thy tyrannic might;     Fierce on the whirlwind's wing he rushes forth     With dreadful bellowings, hurling all around     Destructive deluges of rain, snow, hail,     In wildest discord, and chaotic war     Mingling earth, sea, and sky. All-potent Lord!     Dread Winter! though Sublimity appears     Thy chief attendant, and partakes thy throne;     Yet Beauty often visits thee, and dares,     In many a scene, with the more powerful charms     Of her majestic sister to combine     Her pleasing graces: I delight to view     Thy snowy robe of purest, glowing white,     The clear, blue skies, the cheerful evergreen     Amid the wintry desert, from whose boughs     The little redbreast chirps; the trees and herbs     With snow and hoarfrost fringed, to fancy's eye     Presenting pictured shapes, and, when the sun     Sheds o'er them his effulgence, sparkling keen     With million living particles of light.     But with far nobler transport I survey     Thy nightly scene, O Winter! when by frost     Refined and clear'd, the pure transpicuous air     Through her thin, azure veil, to wondering man     Displays the unclouded heavens, myriads of stars     Shining in all their glory: at the view     Rapt Contemplation, in her car of light,     Expatiates in the interminable space,     Ranging from world to world, from sun to sun,     O'erwhelm'd with wonder and astonishment,     And sacred awe, till lifting up her eyes,     She sees Religion, from the opening gate     Of heaven itself, on her seraphic wings     Smiling descend; she feels her power divine,     And raptured hymns the great Creator's praise.