No wintry skies can harm

To the Nightingale

which the author heard sing on New Year's Day, 1792

 

Whence is it, that amaz'd I heard

    from yonder wither'd spray

This foremost morn of all the year

    The melody of May?

 

And why, since thousands would be proud

    of such a favour shewn

Am I selected from the crowd,

    To witness it alone?

 

Sing'st thou, sweet Philomel, to me

    For that I also long

Have pratis'd in the gorer like thee

Though not like thee in song?

 

Or sing'st thou rather under force

        Of some divine command,

Commision'd to presage a course

        Of happier days at hand?

 

Thrice welcome then! for many a long

    And joyless year have I

As thou today, put forth my song

    Beneath a wintry sky.

 

But thee no wintry skies can harm

who ony need'st to sing,

To make ev'n January charm,

    And ev'ry season Spring.

 

~William Cowper, in William Cowper: Selected Poems, edited by Nick Rhodes, p. 64.