The Winter Evening

 

From William Cowper, The Task (The Winter Evening):

Discourse ensues, not trivial, yet not dull,

Nor such as with a frown forbids the play

Of fancy, or prescribes the sound of mirth:

Nor do we madly, like an impious world,

Who deem religion frenzy, and the God

That made them an intruder on their joys,

Start at his awful name, or deem his praise 

A jarring note. Themes of a graver tone, 

Exciting oft our gratitude and love,

While we retrace with Memory's pointing wand,

That calls the past to our exact review,

The danger we have 'scaped, the broken snare, 

The disappointed foe, deliverance found

Unlook'd for, life preserved, and peace restored, 

Fruits of omnipotent eternal love.

O evenings worthy of the gods! exclaim'd

The Sabine bard. O evenings, I reply,

More to be prized and coveted than yours,

As more illumined, and with nobler truths,

That I, and mine, and those we love, enjoy.

    Is Winter hideous in a garb like this?

Needs he the tragic fur, the smoke of lamps,

The pent-up breath of an unsavoury throng,

To thaw him into feeling; or the smart

And snappish dialogue, that flippant wits

Call comedy to prompt him with a smile?

The self-complacent actor, when he views

(Stealing a sidelong glance at a full house) 

The slope of faces, from the floor to the roof

(As if one master-spring controll'd them all)

Relax'd into a universal grin,

Sees not a countenance there that speaks of joy

Half so refined or so sincere as ours.

     Cards were superfluous here, with all the tricks,

That idleness have ever yet contrived

To fill the void of an unfurnish'd brain,

To palliate dullness, and give time a shove.

Time, as he passes us has a dove's wing,

Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound; 

But the world's Time, is Time in masquerade! 

Theirs, should I paint him, has his pinions fledged

With motley plumes; and, where the peacock shows

His azure eyes, is tinctured black and red,

With spots quadrangular of diamond form,

Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,

And spades the emblem of untimely graves.

What should be, and what was an hour-glass once,

Becomes a dice-box, and a billiard-mace:

Well does the work of his destructive scythe.

Thus deck'd, he charms a world whom fashion blinds

To his true worth, most pleased when idle most;

Whose only happy are their wasted hours. 

E'en misses, at whose age their mothers wore

The backstring and the bib, assume the dress 

Of womanhood, fit pupils in the school

Of card-devoted Time, and night by night

Placed at some vacant corner of the board,

Learn every trick, and soon play all the game.

But truce with censure. Roving as I rove,

Where shall I find and end, or how proceed?

As he that travels far oft turns aside,

To view some rugged rock or mouldering tower,

Which seen delights him not; then coming home

Describes and prints it, that the world may know 

How far he went for what was nothing worth;

So I, with brush in hand, and palette spread,

With colours mix'd for different use,

Paint cards, and dolls, and every idle thing,

That Fancy finds in her excursive flights.