The wrathful Winter, 'proaching on apace,
With blustering blasts had all ybar'd the treen,
And old Saturnus , with his frosty face,
With chilling cold had pierc'd the tender green;
The mantles rent, wherein enwrapped been
The gladsome groves that now lay overthrown,
The tapets torn, and every bloom down blown.
The soil, that erst so seemly was to seen,
Was all despoiled of her beauty's hue;
And soote fresh flowers, wherewith the summer's queen
Had clad the earth, now Boreas ' blasts down blew;
And small fowls flocking, in their song did rue
The winter's wrath, wherewith each thing defac'd
In woeful wise bewail'd the summer past.
Hawthorn had lost his motley livery,
The naked twigs were shivering all for cold,
And dropping down the tears abundantly;
Each thing, methought, with weeping eye me told
The cruel season, bidding me withhold
Myself within; for I was gotten out
Into the fields, whereas I walk'd about.
When lo, the night with misty mantles spread,
'Gan dark the day, and dim the azure skies;
And Venus in her message Hermes sped
To bloody Mars , to will him not to rise,
Which she herself approach'd in speedy wise;
And Virgo hiding her disdainful breast,
With Thetis now had laid her down to rest.
Whiles Scorpio dreading Sagittarius ' dart,
Whose bow prest bent in fight, the string had slipp'd,
Down slid into the Ocean flood apart,
The Bear , that in the Irish seas had dipp'd
His grisly feet, with speed from thence he whipp'd;
For Thetis , hasting from the Virgin's bed,
Pursued the Bear , that ere she came was fled.
And Phaeton now, near reaching to his race
With glist'ring beams, gold streaming where they bent,
Was prest to enter in his resting place:
Erythius , that in the cart first went,
Had even now attain'd his journey's stent:
And, fast declining, hid away his head,
While Titan couch'd him in his purple bed.
And pale Cynthea , with her borrow'd light,
Beginning to supply her brother's place,
Was past the noonstead six degrees in sight,
When sparkling stars amid the heaven's face,
With twinkling light shone on the earth apace,
That, while they brought about the nightes chare,
The dark had dimm'd the day ere I was ware.
And sorrowing I to see the summer flowers,
The lively green, the lusty leas forlorn,
The sturdy trees so shatter'd with the showers,
The fields so fade that flourish'd so beforn,
It taught me well, all earthly things be born
To die the death, for nought long time may last;
The summer's beauty yields to winter's blast.
With blustering blasts had all ybar'd the treen,
And old Saturnus , with his frosty face,
With chilling cold had pierc'd the tender green;
The mantles rent, wherein enwrapped been
The gladsome groves that now lay overthrown,
The tapets torn, and every bloom down blown.
The soil, that erst so seemly was to seen,
Was all despoiled of her beauty's hue;
And soote fresh flowers, wherewith the summer's queen
Had clad the earth, now Boreas ' blasts down blew;
And small fowls flocking, in their song did rue
The winter's wrath, wherewith each thing defac'd
In woeful wise bewail'd the summer past.
Hawthorn had lost his motley livery,
The naked twigs were shivering all for cold,
And dropping down the tears abundantly;
Each thing, methought, with weeping eye me told
The cruel season, bidding me withhold
Myself within; for I was gotten out
Into the fields, whereas I walk'd about.
When lo, the night with misty mantles spread,
'Gan dark the day, and dim the azure skies;
And Venus in her message Hermes sped
To bloody Mars , to will him not to rise,
Which she herself approach'd in speedy wise;
And Virgo hiding her disdainful breast,
With Thetis now had laid her down to rest.
Whiles Scorpio dreading Sagittarius ' dart,
Whose bow prest bent in fight, the string had slipp'd,
Down slid into the Ocean flood apart,
The Bear , that in the Irish seas had dipp'd
His grisly feet, with speed from thence he whipp'd;
For Thetis , hasting from the Virgin's bed,
Pursued the Bear , that ere she came was fled.
And Phaeton now, near reaching to his race
With glist'ring beams, gold streaming where they bent,
Was prest to enter in his resting place:
Erythius , that in the cart first went,
Had even now attain'd his journey's stent:
And, fast declining, hid away his head,
While Titan couch'd him in his purple bed.
And pale Cynthea , with her borrow'd light,
Beginning to supply her brother's place,
Was past the noonstead six degrees in sight,
When sparkling stars amid the heaven's face,
With twinkling light shone on the earth apace,
That, while they brought about the nightes chare,
The dark had dimm'd the day ere I was ware.
And sorrowing I to see the summer flowers,
The lively green, the lusty leas forlorn,
The sturdy trees so shatter'd with the showers,
The fields so fade that flourish'd so beforn,
It taught me well, all earthly things be born
To die the death, for nought long time may last;
The summer's beauty yields to winter's blast.