The two great periods of th’ important year, 480
Are in their first approaches seldom safe:
Funereal autumn all the sickly dread,
And the black fates deform the lovely spring.
He well advis’d, who taught our wiser sires
Early to borrow Muscovy’s warm spoils, 485
Ere the first frost has touch’d the tender blade;
And late resign them, tho’ the wanton spring
Should deck her charms with all her sister’s rays.
For while the effluence of the skin maintains