THE WINTER EVENING. O WINTER, ruler of the inverted year, Thy scattered hair with sleet like ashes filled, Thy breath congealed upon thy lips, thy cheeks Fringed with a beard made white with other snows Than those of age, thy forehead wrapped in clouds, A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne A sliding car, indebted to no wheels, But urged by storms along its slippery way, I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st, And dreaded as thou art! Thou hold'st the Sun Come, Evening, once again, season of peace; Return, sweet Evening, and continue long! Methinks I see thee in the streaky west, With matron step slow moving, while the Night Treads on thy sweeping train; one hand employed THE WINTER EVENING. In letting fall the curtain of repose On bird and beast, the other charged for man HOAR-FROST. WHAT dream of beauty ever equalled this! What visions of my boyhood do I miss That here are not restored! All splendours pure, All loveliness, all graces that allure; Shapes that amaze; a paradise that is— Yet was not-will not in few moments be: Glory from nakedness, that playfully 39 1 PRESAGES OF SPRING. "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: Thou settlest the furrows thereof: Thou makest it soft with showers: Thou blessest the springing thereof."-Psalm 1xv. 9, 10. FROM the sod no crocus peeps, And the snowdrop scarce is seen, And the daffodil yet sleeps In its radiant sheath of green; Yet the naked groves among Is an homeless music heard, And a welcoming is sung, 'Till the leafless boughs are stirred With a spirit and a life Which is floating all around; With the new awakened sound Of the birds, whose voices pour As they scarcely were secure That the Spring was come again. Soon the seasonable flowers Will a glad assurance bring, To their fresh and leafy bowers, Of the presence of the Spring: And these snatches of delight Are the prelude of a song, That will daily gather might, And endure the Summer long. TO AN EARLY PRIMROSE. 41 TO AN EARLY PRIMROSE. "Lone tenant of the peaceful glade! MILD offspring of a dark and sullen sire! And cradled in the winds. Thee, when young Spring first questioned Winter's sway, And dared the sturdy blusterer to the fight, Thee on this bank he threw To mark the victory. In this low vale, the promise of the year, Thy tender elegance. So Virtue blooms, brought forth amid the storms Of life she rears her head Obscure and unobserved; While every bleaching breeze, that on her blows, Chastens her spotless purity of breast, And hardens her to bear Serene the ills of life. G |