University of Virginia Library

Upon a great showre of snow that fel on May day, 1654.

You that are weather-wise, and pretend to know
Long time before when it wil rain or snow,
When 't wil be faire or foul, when hot or cold,
Here stand and gaze a while, I dare be bold
To say, you never saw the like; nay more,
You never heard the like of this before.
Since Snow in May, you may hereafter make
A famous Epoch in your Almanack.
Prodigious 'tis, and I begin to fear
We have mistook the season of the yeer;
'Tis Winter yet, and this is Christmas day,
Which we indeed miscal the first of May.
Summer and winter now confounded be,
And we no difference betwixt them see,
Only the Trees are blossomed, and so
The Glassonbury Hawthorn us'd to doe,
Upon the day of Christs nativity,
As Cambden tels in his Chorography.
The youths for cold creep in the Chimneys end,
Who formerly the day did sprightly spend
In merry May-games; now they hang the head
And droop, as if they and their sports were dead.
Perhaps some superstitious Cavalier,
That lov'd to keep his Christmas, wil go near
To make an ill interpretation
Of this, and cast a judgment on the nation
For our despising of that time and season
Against the ancient custome and right reason,
As he conceives, and since wee'l not allow
One in December w' have a Christmas now.
But wee a better use may make of it;
And though not to our minds the Weather fit,
Yet to our souls convert the same, and thence
Extract this wholesome holy inference.
From this unseasonable change of weather
Without us, what's within us we may gather;
When in our hearts the Summer should begin,
And graces grow, 'tis Winter by our sin,
All frost and snow, nothing comes up that's good,
The fruits o'th' Spirit nipt are in the bud.
Our May's turn'd to December, and our Sun
Declines before he half his course hath run,
O thou the Sun of Righteousnesse display
Thy beams of mercy, make it once more May
Within our soules, let it shine warm and clear,
Producing in us yet a fruitful year.
Let it dissolve our snow into a showre
Of hot and penitent tears, which may procure
A blessing on the Nation, and at last
A General pardon for all faults are past.