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[Page 31]
[Page 32]
ON THE Backwardness of the SPRING 1771.
Estatem increpitans seram, zephyrosque morantes.
VIRGIL.
1 IN vain the sprightly sun renews his course,
2 Climbs up th' ascending signs and leads the day,
3 While long embattled clouds repel his force,
4 And lazy vapours choak the golden ray.
5 In vain the spring proclaims the new-born year;
6 No flowers beneath her lingering footsteps spring,
7 No rosy garland binds her flowing hair,
8 And in her train no feather'd warblers sing.
9 Her opening breast is stain'd with frequent showers,
10 Her streaming tresses bath'd in chilling dews,
11 And sad before her move the pensive hours,
12 Whose flagging wings no breathing sweets diffuse.
13 Like some lone pilgrim, clad in mournful weed,
14 Whose wounded bosom drinks her falling tears,
15 On whose pale cheek relentless sorrows feed,
16 Whose dreary way no sprightly carol chears.
17 Not thus she breath'd on Arno's purple shore,
18 And call'd the Tuscan Muses to her bowers;
19 Not this the robe in Enna's vale she wore,
20 When Ceres daughter fill'd her lap with flowers.
21 Clouds behind clouds in long succession rise,
22 And heavy snows oppress the springing green;
23 The dazzling waste fatigues the aching eyes,
24 And fancy droops beneath th' unvaried scene.
25 Indulgent nature loose this frozen zone;
26 Thro' opening skies let genial sun-beams play;
27 Dissolving snows shall their glad impulse own,
28 And melt upon the bosom of the May.
About this text
Themes:
Genres:
heroic quatrain
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Source edition
Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825. Poems. London: printed for Joseph Johnson, 1773, pp. 31-32. vi,138p. ; 4⁰. (ESTC T236; OTA K019955.000) (Page images digitized by New York Public Library.)
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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization
of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all
editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic
text originally produced by the TCP project, this
ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin)
- An ADDRESS to the DEITY. ()
- CHARACTERS. ()
- CORSICA. ()
- DELIA, AN ELEGY. ()
- The GROANS of the TANKARD. ()
- HYMN I. ()
- HYMN II. ()
- HYMN III. For EASTER-SUNDAY. ()
- HYMN IV. ()
- HYMN to CONTENT. ()
- HYMN V. ()
- The INVITATION: To MISS B—. ()
- The MOUSE's PETITION, Found in the TRAP where he had been confin'd all Night. ()
- ODE to SPRING. ()
- On a LADY's WRITING. ()
- ON THE DEATH OF MRS. JENNINGS. ()
- THE ORIGIN OF SONG-WRITING. ()
- OVID to his WIFE: Imitated from different Parts of his TRISTIA. ()
- SONG II. ()
- SONG III. ()
- SONG IV. ()
- SONG V. ()
- SONG VI. ()
- [SONG] I. ()
- A Summer Evening's Meditation. ()
- To a LADY, With some painted FLOWERS. ()
- To MISS R—, On her Attendance on her Mother at BUXTON. ()
- To MRS. P—, With some Drawings of BIRDS and INSECTS. ()
- To WISDOM. ()
- VERSES on MRS. ROWE. ()
- VERSES written in an Alcove. ()