"It is the day when he was born,"
the anniversary of Hallam's birth, which took place in Bedford Place,
London, on 1st February, 1811.
One may suppose this Poem to have been written at night, because the
description is of
"A bitter day that early sank
Behind a purple frosty bank
Of vapour, leaving night forlorn."
Indeed, the time is determined by the poetry, for "yon hard crescent"
shows that the moon was up when he was writing.
Ice making "daggers at the sharpen'd eaves" is a common sight. Such
icicles may be sometimes seen a yard long, pendent from any eave or
ledge.
"Brakes" means _bushes_; "grides" may mean "grates;" and "iron horns" must
be the dry hard forked boughs; but how distinguished from the "leafless
ribs" of the wood, unless as descriptive of the forms of different trees
in the wood, is difficult to understand.
"The drifts that pass
To darken on the rolling brine
That breaks the coast"
must allude to drifts of snow, which falling into water, immediately
blacken before they dissolve.
"Bring in great logs and let them lie."
This birthday shall no more be kept as a day of mourning, but shall be
joyously observed,
"with festal cheer,
With books and music, surely we
Will drink to him whate'er he be,
And sing the songs he loved to hear."[76]