DECEMBER 1790.
Remorseless Winter! in thy iron reign
Comes the loud whirlwind, on thy pinion borne;
The long long night,—the tardy, leaden morn;
The grey frost, riv'ling lane, and hill, and plain;
Chill silent snows, and heavy, pattering rain.
These are thy known allies;—and Life forlorn,
Yet patient, droops, nor breathes repinings vain;
But now, Usurper, thou hast madly torn
From Summer's hand his stores of angry sway;
His rattling thunders with thy winds unite,
On thy pale snows those livid lightnings play,
That pour their deathful splendors o'er his night,
To poise the pleasures of his golden day,
Soft gales, blue skies, and long-protracted light.
SONNET C.
WRITTEN DECEMBER 1790.
Lyre of the Sonnet, that full many a time
Amus'd my lassitude, and sooth'd my pains,
When graver cares forbade the lengthen'd strains,
To thy brief bound, and oft-returning chime
A long farewell!—the splendid forms of Rhyme
When Grief in lonely orphanism reigns,
Oppress the drooping Soul.—Death's dark domains
Throw mournful shadows o'er the Aonian clime;
For in their silent bourne my filial bands
Lie all dissolv'd;—and swiftly-wasting pour
From my frail glass of life, health's sparkling sands.
Sleep then, my Lyre, thy tuneful tasks are o'er,
Sleep! for my heart bereav'd, and listless hands
Wake with rapt touch thy glowing strings no more!
PARAPHRASES and IMITATIONS of HORACE.
PREFACE.
Translations scrupulously faithful are apt to be stiff, vapid and obscure, from the often irreconcilably different nature of languages, from local customs, and from allusions to circumstances over which time has drawn a veil. In attempting to put the most admired and interesting of Horace's Odes into English Verse, I have taken only the Poet's general idea, frequently expanding it, to elucidate the sense, and to bring the images more distinctly to the eye; induced by the hope of thus infusing into these Paraphrases the spirit of original composition. Neither have I scrupled to follow the example of Dryden and Pope, by sometimes adding ideas and imagery congenial to the subject, and thus to translate Horace like a Poet, rather than a Versifier.