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I BEHOLD 1 yon Mountains hoary height, | |
| Made higher with new Mounts of Snow; | |
| Again behold the Winters weight | |
| Oppress the lab’ring Woods below: | |
| And Streams, with Icy fetters bound, | 5 |
| Benum’d and crampt to solid Ground. | |
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II With well-heap’d Logs dissolve the cold, | |
| And feed the genial hearth with fires; | |
| Produce the Wine, that makes us bold, | |
| And sprightly Wit and Love inspires: | 10 |
| For what hereafter shall betide, | |
| God, if ’tis worth his care, provide. | |
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III Let him alone, with what he made, | |
| To toss and turn the World below; | |
| At his command the storms invade; | 15 |
| The winds by his Commission blow; | |
| Till with a Nod he bids ’em cease, | |
| And then the Calm returns, and all is peace. | |
| |
IV To morrow and her works defie, | |
| Lay hold upon the present hour, | 20 |
| And snatch the pleasures passing by, | |
| To put them out of Fortunes pow’r: | |
| Nor love, nor love’s delights disdain; | |
| Whate’re thou get’st to day is gain. | |
| |
V Secure those golden early joyes, | 25 |
| That Youth unsowr’d with sorrow bears, | |
| E’re with’ring time the taste destroyes, | |
| With sickness and unwieldy years! | |
| For active sports, for pleasing rest, | |
| This is the time to be possest; | 30 |
| The best is but in season best. | |
| |
VI The pointed 2 hour of promis’d Bliss, | |
| The pleasing whisper in the dark, | |
| The half unwilling willing kiss, | |
| The laugh that guides thee to the mark, | 35 |
| When the kind Nymph wou’d coyness feign, | |
| And hides but to be found again; | |
| These, these are joyes the Gods for Youth ordain. | |
