Thro' changing Months a well-attemper'd Mind Welcomes their gentle or terrific pace.-- When o'er retreating Autumn's golden grace Tempestuous Winter spreads in every wind Naked asperity, our musings find Grandeur increasing, as the Glooms efface Variety and glow.--Each solemn trace Exalts the thoughts, from sensual joys refin'd. Then blended in our rapt ideas rise The vanish'd charms, that summer-suns reveal, With all of desolation, that now lies Dreary before us;--teach the Soul to feel Awe in the Present, pleasure in the Past, And to see vernal Morns in Hope's perspective cast. _October 27th, 1782._ SONNET XXXVIII. WINTER. If he whose bosom with no transport swells In vernal airs and hours commits the crime Of sullenness to Nature, 'gainst the Time, And its great RULER, he alike rebels Who seriousness and pious dread repels, And aweless gazes on the faded Clime, Dim in the gloom, and pale in the hoar rime That o'er the bleak and dreary prospect steals.-- Spring claims our tender, grateful, gay delight; Winter our sympathy and sacred fear; And sure the Hearts that pay not Pity's rite O'er wide calamity; that careless hear Creation's wail, neglect, amid her blight, THE SOLEMN LESSON OF THE RUIN'D YEAR. _December 1st, 1782._ SONNET XXXIX. WINTER EVENING. When mourn the dark Winds o'er the lonely plain, And from pale noon sinks, ere the fifth cold hour, The transient light, Imagination's power, With Knowledge, and with Science in her train, Not unpropitious Hyems' icy reign Perceives; since in the deep and silent lour High themes the rapt concent'ring Thoughts explore, Freed from external Pleasure's glittering chain. Then most the understanding's culture pays Luxuriant harvest, nor shall Folly bring Her aids obtrusive.--Then, with ardent gaze, The INGENIOUS to their rich resources spring, While sullen Winter's dull imprisoning days Hang on the vacant mind with _flagging_ wing. _Dec. 7th, 1782._ SONNET XL. DECEMBER MORNING[1]. I love to rise ere gleams the tardy light, Winter's pale dawn;--and as warm fires illume, And cheerful tapers shine around the room, Thro' misty windows bend my musing sight Where, round the dusky lawn, the mansions white, With shutters clos'd, peer faintly thro' the gloom, That slow recedes; while yon grey spires assume, Rising from their dark pile, an added height By indistinctness given.--Then to decree The grateful thoughts to GOD, ere they unfold To Friendship, or the Muse, or seek with glee Wisdom's rich page!--O, hours! more worth than gold, By whose blest use we lengthen Life, and free From drear decays of Age, outlive the Old! _Dec. 19th, 1782._