6 SYLVAN WINTEit. 



But urged by storms along its slippery way ; 

 I love thee, all unlovely as thou sesm'st, 

 'And dreaded as thou art.' 



' All unlovely as thou seein'st ' again pictures 

 the popular idea, though ' I love tbee ' implies 

 the discernment of beauty unsuspected by the 

 careless passer-by. Yet the expression ' A 

 leafless branch thy sceptre ' implies a severity 

 of opinion intended to strip the subject of any 

 idea of interest or beauty. To the * leafless 

 branch,' however, we shall look, in the succeeding 

 pages, for a large store of the symmetry and 

 beauty which go to furnish the external aspect 

 of Sylvan Winter. 



George Crabbe gives expression to the ideas 

 so largely prevalent amongst our poets when he 

 says : 



' When Winter stern his gloomy front uproars, 

 .A sable- void the barren earth appears ; 

 The meads no more, their former verdure boast, 

 Fast bound their ctreams and all their beauty lost.' 



Here truth is clearly subordinated to poetical 

 effect. Rhymsters are far too frequently the 

 slaves of their rhymes. The same writer paints 



