150 CLEAR FROST IN WINTER 



while, around, thunders the sport of those who with 

 the gun, and dog impatient bounding at the shot, 

 worse than the season desolate the fields, and, adding 

 to the ruins of the year, distress the footed or the 

 feathered game. 



JAMES THOMSON : Winter, 692-793. 

 (Slightly adapted.) 



NOTES 



[Winter was Thomson's first successful effort in poetry, 

 published in March 1726, exactly one year after his arrival in 

 England. It was mostly written at East Barnet, about ten 

 miles from London, where he was employed as tutor to a young 

 Scottish nobleman. He was then in his twenty-sixth year.] 



LINE 2. the blue serene. The bright blue sky. (Lat. serenus, 

 clear.) 



3. the ethereal nitre. Frost. Cowper also refers to ' the nitrous 

 air feeding a blue flame ' (The Task, iii. 32). 



13. vegetable soul. Power to produce healthy vegetation. 



15. the lively cheek of ruddy fire. As there is a greater specific 

 quantity of oxygen in the air in frosty weather, and more 

 oxygen is consequently burned, the fire burns with a brighter 

 flame. There is a brighter reflection from the sides of the 

 fire-place, 'the cheeks o' the fire'. 



16. luculent. Clear or bright ; Lat. luculentus, from lux, light. 



21. the illusive fluid. Mercury ; which freezes at 39 below 

 zero. 



22. myriads of little salts. The minute crystals of which snow 

 is composed are commonly in the form of six-pointed stars. 

 But the varieties of this form number hundreds. 



25. steamed eager, %c. The reference is to ' icy gale' ; 

 ' suffused ' again refers to ' the red horizon '. 



35. a double noise. A noise increased to twice its ordinary 

 loudness. 



39. The full ethereal round. The whole vault of heaven, clear 

 of cloud. 



43. the rigid influence. The stiffening and hardening power 

 of frost. 



