Excerpt from Woodland and Wild: A Selection of Descriptive Poetry

See where surly Winter passes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts,
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shatter'd forest and the ravaged vale,
While softer gales succeed, at whose kind touch,
Dissolving snows in livid torrents lost,
The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.

As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd,
And winter oft at eve resumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets
Deform the day delightless, so that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill ungulft
To shake the sounding marsh, or from the shore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath,
And sing their wild notes to the listening waste.

At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
The expansive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold,
But, full of life and vivifying soul,
Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin,
Fleecy and white, o'er all-surrounding heaven.

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