[Illustration: THE MONTHS. DECEMBER.]
The characteristics of November, for the most part, extend through the
present month. Wind, rain, and gloom are its attributes; the sun
Scarce spreads through ether the dejected day,
Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot
His struggling rays, in horizontal lines,
Through the thick air; as clothed in cloudy storm,
Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky;
And soon descending, to the long dark night.
Wide-shading all, the prostrate world resigns.
Such is the gloomy picture of December, as drawn by the _poet of the
year_.