When downward to his winter hut he goes, Dear and more dear the lessening circle grows, That hut which from the hills his eyes employs 570 So oft, the central point of all his joys. And as a swift by tender cares oppress'd Peeps often ere she dart into her nest, So to th' untrodden floor, where round him looks His father helpless as the babe he rocks, 575 Oft he descends to nurse the brother pair, Till storm and driving ice blockade him there; There hears, protected by the woods behind, Secure, the chiding of the baffled wind, Hears Winter, calling all his Terrors round, 580 Rush down the living rocks with whirlwind sound. Thro' Nature's vale his homely pleasures glide Unstain'd by envy, discontent, and pride, The bound of all his vanity to deck With one bright bell a favourite heifer's neck; 585 Content upon some simple annual feast, Remember'd half the year, and hop'd the rest, If dairy produce, from his inner hoard, Of thrice ten summers consecrate the board. --Alas! in every clime a flying ray 590 Is all we have to chear our wintry way, Condemn'd, in mists and tempests ever rife, To pant slow up the endless Alp of life. "Here," cried a swain, whose venerable head Bloom'd with the snow-drops of Man's narrow bed, 595 Last night, while by his dying fire, as clos'd The day, in luxury my limbs repos'd, "Here Penury oft from misery's mount will guide Ev'n to the summer door his icy tide, And here the avalanche of Death destroy 600 The little cottage of domestic Joy. But, ah! th' unwilling mind may more than trace The general sorrows of the human race: The churlish gales, that unremitting blow Cold from necessity's continual snow, 605 To us the gentle groups of bliss deny That on the noon-day bank of leisure lie. Yet more; the tyrant Genius, still at strife With all the tender Charities of life, When close and closer they begin to strain, 610 No fond hand left to staunch th' unclosing vein, Tearing their bleeding ties leaves Age to groan On his wet bed, abandon'd and alone. For ever, fast as they of strength become To pay the filial debt, for food to roam, 615 The father, forc'd by Powers that only deign That solitary Man disturb their reign, From his bare nest amid the storms of heaven Drives, eagle-like, his sons as he was driven, His last dread pleasure! watches to the plain-- 620 And never, eagle-like, beholds again." [Z]