"Tis morning; and the fun, with ruddy orb Afcending, fires th' horizon; while the clouds, That crowd away before the driving wind, More ardent as the difk emerges more, Refemble moft fome city in a blaze, Seen through the leafless wood. Slides ineffectual down the fnowy vale, And, tinging all with his own rofy hue, From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field. Mine, fpindling into longitude immense, In fpite of gravity, and fage remark That I myself am but a fleeting shade,
Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance I view the muscular proportion'd limb
Transform'd to a lean shank.
As they defign'd to mock me,
The shapeless pair,
at my fide
Take step for step; and, as I near approach The cottage, walk along the plafter'd wall, Prepoft'rous fight! the legs without the man. The verdure of the plain lies buried deep Beneath the dazzling deluge; and the bents, And coarfer grass, upfpearing o'er the rest, Of late unfightly and unfeen, now shine Confpicuous, and, in bright apparel clad And fledg'd with icy feathers, nod fuperb. The cattle mourn in corners where the fence Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep In unrecumbent fadness. There they wait Their wonted fodder; not like hung'ring man, Fretful if unfupplied; but filent, meek, And patient of the flow-pac'd fwain's delay. He from the ftack carves out th' accuftom'd load, Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft, His broad keen knife into the folid mafs: Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands, With fuch undeviating and even force He fevers it away: no needlefs care, Left ftorms should overfet the leaning pile.
Deciduous, or its own unbalanc'd weight. Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcern'd The cheerful haunts of man; to wield the axe And drive the wedge, in yonder foreft drear, From morn to eve his folitary task.
Shaggy, and lean, and fhrewd, with pointed ears
half lurcher and half cur
Now creeps he flow; and now, with many a frisk Wide-scamp'ring, fnatches up the drifted snow With iv'ry teeth, or ploughs it with his fnout; Then shakes his powder'd coat, and barks for joy. Heedlefs of all his pranks, the furdy churl Moves right toward the mark; nor itoops for aught, But now and then with preffure of his thumb T' adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube That fumes beneath his nose: the trailing cloud Streams far behind him, scenting all the air. Now from the rooft, or from the neighb'ring pale, Where, diligent to catch the first faint gleam Of smiling day, they goffipp'd fide by fide, Come trooping at the housewife's well-known call The feather'd tribes domeftic. Half on wing, And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood, Conscious and fearful of too deep a plunge. The sparrows peep, and quit the fhelt'ring caves
To feize the fair occafion. Well they eye The fcatter'd grain; and, thievishly resolv❜d T'efcape th' impending famine, often scar'd, As oft return-a pert voracious kind.
Clean riddance quickly made, one only care Remains to each--the fearch of funny nook, Or fhed impervious to the blast. Refign'd To fad neceffity, the cock foregoes
His wonted ftrut; and, wading at their head With well-confider'd steps, feems to refent His alter'd gait and stateliness retrench'd. How find the myriads, that in fummer cheer The hills and vallies with their ceaseless fongs, Due fuftenance, or where fubfift they now? Earth yields them nought: th' imprison'd worm is fafe Beneath the frozen clod; all feeds of herbs Lie cover'd clofe; and berry-bearing thorns, That feed the thrush, (whatever fome fuppofe) Afford the fmaller minstrels no fupply. The long protracted rigour of the year Thins all their num'rous flocks.
Ten thoufand feek an unmolested end,
As inftinct prompts; felf-buried ere they die. The very rooks and daws forfake the fields,
Where neither grub, nor root, nor earth-nut, now
Repays their labour more; and, perchid aloft
By the way-fide, or stalking in the path, Lean penfioners upon the trav'ler's track, Pick up their naufeous dole, though fweet to them, Of voided pulfe or half digefted grain.
The ftreams are loft amid the fplendid blank, O'erwhelming all diftinction. On the flood, Indurated and fixt, the fnowy weight Lies undiffolv'd; while filently beneath, And unperceiv'd, the current fteals away. Not fo where, fcornful of a check, it leaps' The mill-dam, dashes on the restless wheel, And wantons in the pebbly gulph below: No froft can bind it there; its utmost furce Can but arreft the light and smoky mist That in its fall the liquid fheet throws wide. And fee where it has hung th' embroider'd banks With forms fo various, that no pow'rs of art, The pencil or the pen, may trace the scene! Her glitt'ring turrets rife, upbearing high (Fantastic mifarrangement!) on the roof Large growth of what may seem the sparkling trees And fhrubs of fairy land. The crystal drops
That trickle down the branches, faft congeal'd,
Shoot into pillars of pellucid length,
And prop the pile they but adorn'd before.
Here grotto within rotto fafe defies
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