[From Johnson's Guide, 1850]

WINTER IN MONA.

Dissolve frigus ; ligna super foco
Large reponeus ; atque benigniu
De rome quadrimum Sabina,
Thaliarche, merum diota ;
Permitte divis caetera, Hor.

Stern Winter, I love thee! thy short gloomy days,
Thy cold fitful sunshine, and showery skies;
Like dreams of the past are those watery rays
Which fall on the valleys and sadden our eyes.

Gay dreams of my youth! all your phantoms have vanished,
And clouds have obscured the bright day, beams that shone;
Each vernal delight from this bosom is banished,
The daisies I danced on are faded and gone.

Dread Winter, I love thee, thy long dreary nights,
When the mountains are clothed with a wild misty veil;
When the old wizard-king and his legion of sprites
Hold revels, and ride on the breath of the gale.

When the Fays of Glen-Trammon are fearfully screaming,
And twining their spells around the old " Billey Gorm,"'
When the lone Island maid of her lover is dreaming,
And the Genius of Mona presides in the storm.

Old Winter, I love thee ! the Summer has fled,
And thou with thy tempests must now be our guest;
And yet though the hoar-frost has whitened thy head,
I'm told that a warm spot remains in thy breast.

More logs to the hearth! Thou art welcome, old fellow,
Revive thy dead limbs with the genial glow;
We'll chafe thee and cheer thee, and make thy heart mellow,
And melt from thy beard all the ice and the snow,

J. B. L.

' Billey Gorm, the blue tree; a very curious old stump which tradition asserts to have been a favourite resort of the Fairies.