Once the haunt of the delicate maid--
She forsakes it, and--how can it please?

Nor blame I the damsel who flies,
When winter with threatening gale,
Loudly howls through the dark frozen skies,
And scatters the leaves o'er the vale:
In vain to the thicket I look
For the birds that enchanted the fair,
Or gaze on the wide-spreading oak;
No shelter, no music, is there.

But tempests, with hideous yell,
Chase the mist o'er the brow of the hill,
And grey torrents in every dell
Deform the soft murmuring rill:
And the hail, or the sleet, or the snow,
On winter's hard mandate attends:
To banishment, hence may they go--
Earth's tyrants, and destiny's friend!

But thou, glorious summer, return,
And visit the destitute plains;
Nor suffer thy poet to mourn,
Unheeded, in languishing strains:
O! come on the wings of the breeze,
And open the bloom of the thorn;
Display thy green robe o'er the trees,
And all nature with beauty adorn.