Winter Skies

I came across this poem by Charles Heavysege, A Canadian poet born in Huddersfield (or was it Liverpool, some biographies have him as born in Liverpool) in England in 1816. he appears in the 1841 census in Huddersfield, living with his brother Thomas, sister-in-law Ann and their three children, Charles, Jane and Sarah. He married in 1843 and by 1851 he was living in Liverpool and on the census it does say he was born there – despite the earlier 1841 census saying it was Huddersfield. His wife Mary Ann, née Oddy was born in Huddersfield… In 1851 they had three daughters, Helen, Jane and Mary, and in 1853, shortly before they moved to Canada they had another child, Harriet. In fact they had three more daughters after that.

Here is his poem…

Winter Skies

The stars are glittering in the frosty sky,
Numerous as pebbles on a broad sea-coast;
And o’er the vault the cloud-like galaxy
Has marshalled its innumerable host.
Alive all heaven seems! with wondrous glow
Tenfold refulgent every star appears,
As if some wide, celestial gale did blow,
And thrice illume the ever-kindled spheres.
Orbs, with glad orbs rejoicing, burning, beam
Ray-crowned, with lambent lustre in their zones,
Till o’er the blue, bespangled spaces seem
Angels and great archangels on their thrones;
A host divine, whose eyes are sparkling gems,
And forms more bright than diamond diadems.

Charles Heavysege