Cooke was organist of Westminster Abbey and St Martin's in the Fields. A well-respected composer of glees, he won several prizes for his compositions.

Lyrics: Anon, probably the composer

Now the winds whistle and the tempest roars;
The foaming billows lash the sounding shores.
Severe the storms, when shudd'ring winter binds
The earth; but winter yields to vernal winds.
O love, thy rigour my whole life deforms,
More cold than winter, more severe than storms.
Sweet is the spring, and gay the summer hours,
When balmy odours breathe from painted flowers;
But neither sweet the spring, nor summer gay,
When she I love, my fair one, is away.