TO WINTER. William Woty Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T124631 1073 K099398.000 Mendez, Moses. A collection of the most esteemed pieces of poetry: that have appeared for several years. With variety of originals, by the late Moses Mendez, Esq; and other contributors to Dodsley's collection. To which this is intended as a supplement. London printed for Richardson and Urquhart 1767 pp. 199-201. [8],320p. ; 8⁰.

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TO WINTER . BY MR. WOTY. WHAT ! tho' thou com'st in sable mantle clad , Yet , Winter ! art thou welcome to my eye : Thee here I hail , tho' terrors round thee wait , And winds tempestuous howl along the sky . But shall I then so soon forget the days When Ceres led me thro' her wheaten mines ! When autumn pluck'd me , with his tawny hand , Empurpled clusters from ambrosial vines ! So soon forget , when up the yielding pole I saw ascend the silver-bearded hop ! When Summer , waving high her crown of hay , Pour'd o'er the mead her odoriferous crop ! I must forget them — and thee too , O Spring ! Tho' many a chaplet thou hast weav'd for me : For , now prepar'd to quit th' enchanting scenes , Cold , weeping Winter ! I come all to thee . Hail to thy rolling clouds , and rapid storms ! Tho' they deform fair Nature's lovely face : Hail to thy winds , that sweep along the earth ! Tho' trees they root up from their solid base . How sicklied over is the face of things ! Where is the spice kiss of the southern gale ! Where the wild rose , that smil'd upon the thorn , The mountain flower , and lilly of the vale ! How gloomy 'tis to cast the eye around , And view the trees disrob'd of every leaf , The velvet path grown rough with clotting showers , And every field depriv'd of every sheaf ! How far more gloomy o'er the rain-beat heath , Alone to travel in the dead of night ! No twinkling star to gild the arch of heaven , No moon to lend her temporary light : To see the lightning spread its ample sheet , Discern the wild waste thro' its liquid fire , To hear the thunder rend the troubled air , As time itself and nature would expire : And yet , O Winter ! has thy poet seen Thy face as smooth , and placid as the Spring , Has felt , with comfort felt , the beam of heaven , And heard thy vallies and thy woodlands ring . What time the sun with burnish'd locks arose , The long lost charms of nature to renew , When pearls of ice bedeck'd the grassy turf , And tree-tops floated in the silver dew . Father of heaven and earth ! this change is thine : By thee the Seasons in gradation roll , Thou great omniscient Ruler of the world ! Thou Alpha and Omega of the whole ! Here humbly bow we down our heads to thee ! 'Tis ours the voice of gratitude to raise , Thine to diffuse thy blessings o'er the land ; Thine to receive the incense of our praise . Pure if it rises from the conscious heart , With thee for ever does the symbol live ; Tho' small for all thy love is man's return , Thou ask'st no more , than he has power to give .