'Tis done! dread winter spreads its latest glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!
How dumb the tuneful!
Horror wide
His desolate domain.
Behold, fond man!
See here thy pictured life: pass some few years,
Thy flowering spring, thy summer's ardent strength,
And pale concluding winter comes at last,
Thy sober autumn fading into age,
And shuts the scene.
Ah! whither now are
Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid
Of happiness? those longings after fame?
Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?
Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts,
Lost between good and ill, that shared thy life?
All now are vanish'd!
Virtue sole survives,
Immortal never-failing friend of man,
His guide to happiness on high.
And see!'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second
Of heaven and earth! awakening nature
The new-creating word, and starts to life,
In every heighten'd form, from pain and
For ever free.
The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect
Uniting, as the prospect wider
To reason's eye refined clears up apace.
Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now,
Confounded in the dust, adore that
And Wisdom oft arraign'd: see now the cause,
Why unassuming worth in secret lived,
And died neglected: why the good man's
In life was gall and bitterness of soul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans
In starving solitude; while luxury,
In palaces, lay straining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born truth,
And moderation fair, wore the red
Of superstition's scourge: why licensed pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe,
Embitter'd all our bliss.
Ye good distress'd!
Ye noble few, who here unbending
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile,
And what your bounded view, which only sawA little part, deem'd evil is no more!
The storms of wintry time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded spring encircle all.
