Ode to Winter

When first the fiery-mantled sunHis heavenly race began to run;Round the earth and ocean blue,His children four the Seasons flew.First, in green apparel dancing,The young Spring smiled with angel grace;Rosy Summer next advancing,Rushed into her sire’s embrace:—Her bright-haired sire, who bade her keepFor ever nearest to his smiles,On Calpe’s olive-shaded steep,On India’s citron-covered isles:More remote and buxom-brown,The Queen of vintage bowed before his throne;A rich pomegranate gemmed her crown,A ripe sheaf bound her zone.

But howling Winter fled afar,To hills that prop the polar star,And loves on deer-borne car to ride,With barren darkness by his side,Round the shore where loud LofodenWhirls to death the roaring whale,Round the hall where Runic OdinHowls his war-song to the gale;Save when adown the ravaged globeHe travels on his native storm,Deflowering Nature’s grassy robe,And trampling on her faded form:—Till light’s returning lord assumeThe shaft that drives him to his polar field,Of power to pierce his raven plumeAnd crystal-covered shield.

Oh, sire of storms! whose savage earThe Lapland drum delights to hear,When frenzy with her blood-shot eyeImplores thy dreadful deity,Archangel! power of desolation!Fast descending as thou art,Say, hath mortal invocationSpells to touch thy stony heart?Then, sullen Winter, hear my prayer,And gently rule the ruined year;Nor chill the wanderer’s bosom bare,Nor freeze the wretch’s falling tear;—To shuddering Want’s unmantled bedThy horror-breathing agues cease to lead,And gently on the orphan headOf innocence descend.

But chiefly spare, O, king of clouds!The sailor on his airy shrouds;When wrecks and beacons strew the steep,And spectres walk along the deep.Milder yet thy snowy breezesPour on yonder tented shores,Where the Rhine’s broad billow freezes,Or the dark-brown Danube roars.Oh, winds of Winter! list ye thereTo many a deep and dying groan;Or start, ye demons of the midnight air,At shrieks and thunders louder than your own.Alas! ev’n your unhallowed breathMay spare the victim fallen low;But man will ask no truce to death,—No bounds to human woe.

Britons! although our task is but to showThe scenes and passions of fictitious woe,Think not we come this night without a partIn that deep sorrow of the public heart,Which like a shade hath darkened every place,And moistened with a tear the manliest face!The bell is scarcely hushed in Windsor’s piles,That tolled a requiem from the solemn aisles,For her, the royal flower, low laid in dust,That was your fairest hope, your fondest trust.Unconscious of the doom, we dreamt, alas!That e’en these walls, ere many months should pass,Which but return sad accents for her now,Perhaps had witnessed her benignant brow,Cheered by the voice you would have raised on high,In bursts of British love and loyalty.But, Britain! now thy chief, thy people mourn,And Claremont’s home of love is left forlorn:—There, where the happiest of the happy dwelt,The ’scutcheon glooms, and royalty hath feltA wound that every bosom feels its own,—The blessing of a father’s heart o’erthrown—The most beloved and most devoted brideTorn from an agonizèd husband’s side,Who “long as Memory holds her seat” shall viewThat speechless, more than spoken last adieu,When the fixed eye long looked connubial faith,And beamed affection in the trance of death.Sad was the pomp that yesternight beheld,As with the mourner’s heart the anthem swelled;While torch succeeding torch illumed each highAnd bannered arch of England’s chivalry.The rich plumed canopy, the gorgeous pall,The sacred march, and sable-vested wall,—These were not rites of inexpressive show,But hallowed as the types of real woe!Daughter of England! for a nation’s sighs.A nation’s heart went with thine obsequies!—And oft shall time revert a look of griefOn thine existence, beautiful and brief.Fair spirit! send thy blessing from aboveOn realms where thou art canonised by love!Give to a father’s, husband’s bleeding mind,The peace that angels lend to human kind,To us who in thy loved remembrance feelA sorrowing, but a soul-ennobling zeal—A loyalty that touches all the bestAnd loftiest principles of England’s breast!Still may thy name speak concord from the tomb—Still in the Muse’s breath thy memory bloom!They shall describe thy life—thy form portray;But all the love that mourns thee swept away,’Tis not in language or expressive artsTo paint—yet feel it, Britons in your hearts!