POEMS. 
520 
ON THE 
DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER, 
OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. 
HE imprisoned winds slumber, within their 
caves 
Fast bound: the fickle vane, emblem of 
change^ 
Wavers no more, long settling to a point. 
All Nature nodding seems composed : thick steams 
From land, from flood updrawn, dimming the day, 
'^^ Like a dark ceiling stand : slow through the air 
Gossamer floats, or stretched from blade to blade 
The wavy network whitens all the field. 
Pushed by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 
The ponderous mercury, from scale to scale 
Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube."^ 
While high in air, and poised upon his wings. 
Unseen, the soft, enamoured woodlark runs 
Through all his maze of melody ; the brake 
Loud with the blackbird's bolder note resounds. 
Sooth'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 
Anticipates the spring, selects her mate. 
Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care 
Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest torn. 
The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 
His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop. 
With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds : 
E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. 
The happy schoolboy brings transported forth 
-His long forgotten scourge, and giddy gig : 
^ The barometer. 
