Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/265

 The Four Seafons, 179

December is my firft, and now the Sun

To th' Southward Tropick, his fwift race doth^ run:

This moneth he's hous'd in horned Capricorn,

From thence he 'gins to length the fhortned morn,

Through ChriJle7ido7ne with great Feaftivity,

Now's held, (but gheft) for bleft^ Nativity.

Cold frozen yanuary next comes in,

Chilling the blood and Ihrinking up the skin;

In Aquarius now keeps the long wifhf Sun,

And Northward his unwearied Courfe'^ doth run;

The day much longer then it was before,

The cold not leffened, but augmented more.

Now Toes and Ears, and Fingers often freeze,

And Travellers their nofes fometimes leefe.

Moill fnowie February is my lalt,

I care not how the winter time doth hafte.

In Pifces now the golden Sun doth fhine,

And Northward ftill approaches to the Line,

The Rivers 'gin to ope, the fnows to melt.

And fome warm glances from his face'' are felt;

Which is increafed by the lengthen'd day.

Until by's heat, he drive all cold away.

And thus the year in Circle runneth round: [68]

Where firft it did begin, in th' end its found."

��f hath. ? a Gueft, (but bleft). ♦' the lovea.

^ race. * the Sun.

« These two lines are not in the first edition.

�� �