Winter’s Near

[Verse 1]
Like winter has my absence been from you
The pleasure of the fleeting year
What freezings I have felt, what dark days seen
And old December's bareness everywhere

[Chorus]
If there's song, it's with so dull a cheer
The leaves look pale
Dreading winter's near

[Verse 2]
And yet this time removed was summer's time
The teeming autumn, with rich increase
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime
Like widow'd wombs after the lord's decease

[Bridge]
If there's song, it's with so dull a cheer
The leaves look pale
Dreading winter's near

[Verse 3]
And yet this abundant issue seem'd to me
But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit
For summer and his pleasures wait on me
And you away, the birds are mute

[Chorus]
If there's song, it's with so dull a cheer
Dreading winter's near