Poems on several subjects

The absence of the sun gives place to colds;
Earth's pores are stopp'd by chilling frosts, and holds
All vegetables pris'ners in her womb:
All Nature wears an universal gloom.
The ice o'erspreads the rivers, ponds and lakes;
The bleating flocks with scanty food inlakes.
When hills and vales with woolly snows are clad,
And storms and tempests all the plains invade,
The human race are forc'd to tend the fires,
And cattle feeds, imprisoned in byres,
Upon the product of their former toil,
Till Sol's approach make nature 'gin to smile.

Thus, like to winter, is our infancy;
We've no perfection; can do nought but cry,
Under the load of our first parents' guilt;
An heavy burden, too too seldom felt.
Unless the Sun of Righteousness diffuse
His influence into our souls, we chuse
To entertain bleak Winter all our days,
And have no Spring, except iniquities.

II. SPRING.

When Phoebus in our horizon ascends,
His powerful heat into the earth he sends,
Causing all herbs, trees, fruits and flow'rs to spring,
And birds on various boughs to chant and sing.
The hills and holms rejoice on ev'ry side,
With vernal green all deck'd and beautify'd.
The tender buds they by degrees break out,
And clothe the trees with mantles round about.

205

The lambkins skip, swift as the skiffing wind,
And sprouting corns gladden the farmer's mind.

All things look gay: so reason youth inspires;
But misimproves't, and yields to carnal fires.
He chears his heart, and feasts his wanton eyes
On empty objects, and false vanities.
Like as the Spring in beauty doth increase,
So youth aspires to pride and haughtiness;
Boasts in his strength, and other nat'ral parts;
Thus carnal thoughts replenish carnal hearts.
He shuns the counsel from the wise-man's mouth,
That doth advise all in the time of youth,
To mind our powerful great Creator, who
Can into hell both soul and body throw.

III. SUMMER.

The warmer sun, and moist'ning dews that fall,
Bring to perfection, fruits, herbs, great and small.
The western winds puff gently thro' the field,
Waving rich corns which fertile valleys yield.
The herds and flocks with pleasure feed on hills,
Quenching their thirst among the purling rills.
The careful ant her little gran'ry stores,
Against the winter's chilling sleety showers.
The painful bee, with purest honey, fills
Laboriously, her narrow waxen cells.
In this sweet season, birds and beasts rejoice;
All Nature smiles with new supplies of joys.

E'en so is man in his full strength of age;
Nothing he doubts, no cares his mind engage,
Except the world, and worldly gain; he feels
No other smart; to carnal fires he yields.
With courage stoutly scampers he thro' life;
Till grown mature, he fondly weds a wife:
Then tamely toils, subsistence to provide
For his domestics and his fav'rite bride.
Now some religion he must needs pursue;
His youthful rambles age 'gins to subdue.

206

Now is the time he gains repute and fame,
Or infamy, reproach, and scorn, and shame.
All his perfections now are at the height;
His sun returns declining down to night.
Temptations now will ev'ry day surround him,
And many arrows are design'd to wound him.
If he is rich, he's tempted to be proud;
If he is strong, he's tempted to be rude.
If he is poor, he's tempt'd to steal and lye;
If he is wise, on's wisdom to rely.
If he is foolish, all men prize him nought;
If ignorant, he has no sense of thought.
If he's ill match'd, he's tempted to disdain;
If he is carnal, certainly profane.
If fortunate, he fortune still pursues;
If hapless, then much discontent ensues.
His summer ends, the rip'ning harvest comes;
Old age ensues, that brings us to our tombs.
The reaper, Death, no mortal can defy;
And then, as falls the tree, so must it ly.

IV. Autumn, or Harvest.

Trees, herbs and flowers now cease their annual growth,
And frugal farmers shake themselves of sloth,
Call in the aid of lab'ring nymphs and swains,
To reap the yellow harvest from the plains.
The sickle cuts down high and low; and all
With equal fate, are in the sheaves let fall.
The best reserved for the next year's seed;
The worst for food; for so it is decreed.
It must be ground, eat, and cast out in dung;
So is the fate of all, both old and young.
God, as a farmer, calls his servant Death,
Who, with his sickle, cuts all mankind's breath.
The best reserv'd for the next world's good,
With all the blessings of God's Spirit endu'd.

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The worst are left for's wrath to feed upon,
In endless flames and misery to groan.

Thus calls aloud the wheeling year to man,
As I have sung. We may by Winter scan
Our infancy, wherein we can do nought
But mourn in guilt we from our parents brought.

The Spring doth shew our growing youth, where vice,
With Nature's depravation, doth entice
To sin in action 'gainst our God, that gave us
Our beings first, and means of grace to save us.

The Summer shews our manhood and our strength;
And Harvest death, that cuts us off at length.

Sure, after death, we must in judgment stand,
Either on Christ's right, or on his left hand,
There to receive a sentence of duration
Beyond conception, far beyond expression.
If on his right-hand, we'll to heaven go,
Where we'll be free of sorrow, grief and woe.
Yea, that mount Zion, city of our God,
Shall be our lasting and our blest abode;
That holy place, ev'n new Jerusalem,
Where we shall shine each as a seraphim.

If on his left hand, hell must be our lot,
Tormented with a worm that dieth not.

As seamen shun the dang'rous rocks and shelves,
God grant us faith in Christ to save ourselves.
In Infancy our Winter, Spring of youth,
Guide us and ours, Lord, in the ways of truth.
And in the Summer of our nat'ral days,
Lord stablish, strengthen, settle all our ways.
And, in our Autumn, fit us all for death,
That, in thy favour, we may yield our breath.

University of Virginia Library

The four Seasons of the Year compared to the four Ages of Man's Life, viz. Infancy, Childhood or Youth, Manhood, and old Age.

I. WINTER.

II. SPRING.

III. SUMMER.

IV. Autumn, or Harvest.