The Poetical Works of Anna Seward :: :: University of Virginia Library

Now, in the tempests of the wintry sky,
The whirling leaves of sickly Autumn fly;
But blithe Euphrosyne will soon appear,
And gild the horrors of the darkening year.
Soon shall she hail, with buskin'd Dian's horn,
The light, ambiguous, of the tardy morn;
Mark the fierce Courser, the gay Youth beneath,
Neigh as he paws the earth, and ardent breathe;
Toss the light mane, and snuff the moisten'd gale,
Till vocal throats proclaim the tainted dale.
Then the fleet hoof the echoing forest shakes,
Then dash the deep-mouth'd hounds among the brakes;
The high, rough hill the hunter-throng deride,
Strain up its steep, and thunder down its side;
Sweep through the misty vale, in long array,
And shout exulting o'er the treacherous prey.
Hygeia's eyes, whence diamond lustre streams,
Deck the pale Orient with their glad'ning beams.

She can the short and louring day illume,
And, with her dimpled Sister, mock the gloom.
Twins and companions ever on the earth,
Are the bright Goddesses of Health and Mirth.

Now fall the fearful Night's incumbent shades,
And the swoln river pours along the glades;
Wild as the gulphing waves their eddies form,
Shrieks the remorseless spirit of the storm.
But, for the Social, shines the clean, warm hearth,
And all within the walls is love and mirth.
Pleas'd with the absence of intrusive Day,
Science and Wit their varied stores display;
And the heart feels, whate'er our Bards may sing,
Bright winter-fires propitious as the spring;
Since most the Youth the timid Virgin fires,
When he, and only he, her breast inspires;
No golden suns, no fragrant flowers, to share
The charm'd attention of the list'ning Fair.
And when the howling wind and beating rain
Shake the firm roof, and plough the delug'd plain,
The sweet affections, in those fearful hours,
Rule the kind bosom with augmented powers;
Then most the Sense, and Soul, dependence feel
On Love's gay smile, and Friendship's cordial zeal.

In splendid roofs, the brilliant chandelier
Pours trembling lustre on the full-plum'd Fair,
And to their rival eyes the scenes unfold
That glitter azure, and that glitter gold.

Here fickle Fortune leads her motley throng,
Where varied laws to varied states belong:
Solemn Spadille, the Lewis of the Train,
Rules with despotic sway the velvet plain;
Whist's graver tribes Republic schemes display,
Her still chang'd rulers bearing sober sway;
While Pam, like Prussian Frederic, darts to view,
Exulting o'er the vanquish'd troops of Loo.
All these, and more, with deeds of proud acclaim,
Flock to the standard of the giddy Dame.
His vassal monarchs thus Atrides bore
From Grecian cities to the Trojan shore.

Hark the soft flutes, and loud'ning hautboys sound,
And youthful Beauty glides her graceful round;
Till brisker measures rapid urge along
The light, the mutable, the bounding throng.

When graver pleasures their pursuits engage,
Majestic Tragedy sublimes the stage,
Till her gay Sister puts the pomp to flight,
And Mirth resumes her empire o'er the night.
Now rapt Cecilia strikes the golden lyre,
Wakes to wild rage, or melts in soft desire;
And to her vocal tubes, and marshall'd strings,
A thousand blended harmonies she brings.
Their leader, Melody, they still sustain,
And with sonorous grandeur lift the strain.

Then from the full Orchestra loud resounds
The volant fugue, with its successive sounds.
Heard, and but heard, lo! now the soften'd notes
Invite the song, that round the area floats,
When graceful Harrop pours the liquid lay,
Sweet as the warbler on the moonlight spray.
Her fine expression, her consummate art
Lift the moist eye, and thrill the feeling heart;
Strike e'en the prating fools of fashion dumb,
Till late all voice, they now all ear become.
'Twas thus that, listening to the Syren's strain,
Charm'd Scylla hush'd her barkers on the main.

These are thy Syrens, Winter,—while they sing,
In vain the wild winds whirl on darken'd wing.
Divine Euphrosyne, they form thy train,
For absent thou, e'en they would sing in vain;
But from the radiance of thy laughing eye,
The fiends of wintry Nature coward hie
To howling heaths—damp fens—and murky caves,
Uprooted forests, and o'er-whelming waves.
As low-hung skies dismiss their dusky steam,
Before the rising Sun's pervading beam,
So fly November's monsters o'er the lea,
And leave the world to Music—Love—and Thee.