Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/233

 The frantic Alexander of the north, And awing there stern shrinking sons. Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice, Of old dishonour proud: it glows around, Taught by the that rous'd the whole, One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade: For what his wisdom plann'd, and power enforc'd, More potent still, his great example fhew'd.

, the winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow hollow-blustering from the south. Subdu'd, The frost resolves into a trickling thaw. Spotted the mountains shine; loose sleet descends, And floods the country round. The rivers swell, Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills, O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts, A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once; And, where they rush, the wide-resounding plain Is left one slimy waste. Those sullen seas, That wash th' ungenial pole, will rest no more Beneath the shackles of the mighty north; But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave. And hark! the lengthening roar continuous runs Athwart the rifted deep: at once it bursts, And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds. Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd, That, soft amid the floating fragments, moors Beneath the shelter of an icy isle, While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks More horrible. Can human force endure Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege them round? Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness, The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice, Now ceasing, now-renew'd with louder rage, And