Turns from its bottom the discolour'd deep. 110
Through the black night that sits immense around,
Lash'd into foam, the fierce conflicting brine
Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn:"
Meantime the mountain billows, to the clouds
In dreadful tumult swell'd, surge above surge,
Burst into chaos with tremendous roar,

And anchor'd navies from their stations drive,
Wild as the winds across the howling waste
Of mighty waters: 'now the' inflated wave
Straining they scale, and now impetuous shoot
Into the secret chambers of the deep,

The wintry Baltic thundering o'er their head.
Emerging thence again, before the breath
Of full-exerted heaven they wing their course,
And dart on distant coasts: if some sharp rock,
Or shoal insidious break not their career,
And in loose fragments fling them floating round.
Nor less at land the loosen'd tempest reigns.
The mountain thunders; and its sturdy sons
Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they shade.
Lone on the midnight steep, and all aghast,
The dark wayfaring stranger breathless toils,
And, often falling, climbs against the blast.
Low waves the rooted forest, vex'd, and sheds
What of its tarnish'd honours yet remain;rapy
Dash'd down, and scatter'd, by the tearing wind's
Assiduous fury, its gigantic limbsJutro &
Thas struggling through the dissipated grove, negl

The whirling tempest raves along the plainford ba?
And on the cottage thatch'd, or lordly roofyon d7
Keen-fastening, shakes them to the solid based
Sleep frighted flies; and round the rocking dome, (
For entrance eager howls the savage blast. mare
Then too, they say, through all the burden'd airpor!
Long groans are heard, shrill sounds, and distant sighs,
That, utter'd by the Demon of the nightzde boros?
Warn the devoted wretch of woe and death. I

Huge uproar lords it wide. The clouds commix'd With stars swift gliding sweep along the sky. Aid F All nature reels. Till nature's King, who ofte togev Amid tempestuous darkness dwells alone, it call And on the wings of the careering wind Walks dreadfully serene, commands a calm;" Then straight, air, sea, and earth are hush'd at once. As yet 'tis midnight deep. The weary-clouds, ・ Slow meeting, mingle into solid gloom.

,་་

1

A

Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep,
Let me associate with the serious Night,
And Contemplation her sedate compeer;
Let me shake off the' intrusive cares of day, 1
And lay the meddling senses all aside. ⠀ non mg
Where now, ye lying vanities of life!
Ye ever tempting, ever cheating trainbow on el
Where are you now? and what is your amount? [
Vexation, disappointment, and remorser vos ebasté
Sad, sickening thought! and yet deluded mang) ed i
A scene of crude disjointed visions past)) ¿d bonel

And broken slumbers, rises still resolved, 1.
With new-flush'd hopes, to run the giddy round.‚†
Father of light and life! thou Good supreme!

O teach me what is good! teach me Thyself!+
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,

From every low pursuit! and feed my soul

With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; Sacred, substantial, never fading bliss!

The keener tempests rise: and fuming dun From all the livid east, or piercing north, Thick clouds ascend; in whose capacious womb A vapoury deluge lies, to snow congeal'd. Heavy they roll their fleecy world along; And the sky saddens with the gather'd storm. Through the hush'd air the whitening shower descends, At first thin wavering; till at last the flakes Fall broad, and wide, and fast, dimming the day, With a continual flow. The cherish'd fields

Put on their winter robe of purest white.

1

'Tis brightness all; save where the new snow melts Along the mazy current. Low the woods

Bow their hoar head; and ere the languid sun
Faint from the west emits his evening ray,
Earth's universal face, deep hid, and chill,
Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide
The works of man. Drooping, the labourer ox
Stands cover'd o'er with snow, and then demands
The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heaven,
Tamed by the cruel season, crowd around

The winnowing store, and claim the little Boored odi
Which Providence assigns them.One alone,
The redbreast, sacred to the household gods, b'qqi l'
Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky,d) ends e
In joyless fields, and thorny thickets, leaves iW LA
His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man ein al
His annual visit. Half afraid, he firstus

b'istesaill Against the window beats; then, brisk, alightsla 10+ On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor, Eyes all the smiling family askance, put abuû TO A And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he isgned Till more familiar grown, the table-crumbs ad mor? Attract his slender feet. The foodless wildste gol Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare, file Though timorous of heart, and hard beset

By death in various forms, dark snares and dogs,... And more unpitying men, the garden seeks, I Urged on by fearless want. The bleating kind!!! Eye the bleak heaven, and next the glistening earth, With looks of dumb despair; then, sad-dispersed, Dig for the wither'd herb through heaps of snow. I..!

Now, shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind, Baffle the raging year, and fill their pens, but With food at will; lodge them below the storm,bus}I And watch them strict: for from the bellowing east, In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing 1970010 Sweeps up the burden of whole wintry plains, At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless flocksidst 10

Hid in the hollow of two neighbouring hills, b'dreon.

The billowy tempest whelms ; till, upward urged, [T The valley to a shining mountain swells,701 dɔia # Tipp'd with a wreath high-curling in the skybor

As thus the snows arise; and foul, and fierce, i 77 All Winter drives along the darken'd airgi selvej ná In his own loose-revolving fields, the swainudde e Disaster'd stands; sees other hills ascend, Eins Of unknown joyless brow; and other scenes, an Of horrid prospect, shag the trackless plain Nor finds the river, nor the forest, hidd Beneath the formless wild; but wanders on From hill to dale, still more and more astray; Impatient flouncing through the drifted heaps, Stung with the thoughts of home; the thoughts of home Rush on his nerves, and call their vigour forth In many a vain attempt. How sinks his soul! What black despair, what horror fills his heart! When for the dusky spot, which fancy feign'd His tufted cottage rising through the snow, He meets the roughness of the middle waste, Far from the track and bless'd abode of man! While round him night resistless closes fast, And every tempest, howling o'er his head, Renders the savage wilderness more wild. Then throng the busy shapes into his mind Of cover'd pits, unfathomably deep, t

A dire descent beyond the power of frostage. Of faithless bogs of precipices hugejow obi'y Smooth'd up with snow and what is land unknown,