^^^. i ^^^^^XX^^m, i CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY -^ CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GO GC s CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA a:^ LIBRARY ■JVV V VV V — V V V V t \f t ^5g ^ '^ V * 11 X IL^ ITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ^^^^ I ITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA THE SEASONS, BY J. TMOMSOJV. EMBELLISHED WITH ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD By BEWICK, and thou, O Sun! Soul of surrounding worlds! in whom best seen Shines out thy Maker! may I sing of thee? LONDON: J'RINTED FOR JAMES WALLIS, PATERNOSTER-ROW, By T. Beiixhy, Bolt Court, Fleet Street. 1 S05, LIFE OF THOMSON. James Thomson, the son of a minister well esteemed for his piety and diligence, was born September 7, 3700, at Ednam, in the, shire of Roxburgh, of which his father was pastor. His mother, whose name was Hume, inherited as co-heiress a portion of a small estate. The revenue of a parish in Scotland is seldom large; and it was probably in commiseration of the difficulty with wliich Mr. Thomson supported his family, having nine children, that Mr. Riccarton, a neighbouring minister, discovering in James uncommon promises of future ex- cellence, undertook to superintend his education, and provide him books. He was taught the common rudiments of learning at the school of Jedburgh, a place which he delights to recollect in his poem of ^' Autumn;" but was not con- sidered by his master as superior to common boj's, though in those early days he amused his patron and his friends with poetical compositions; with which, how- ever, he so little pleased himself, that on every new- year's day he threw into the fire all the productions of the foregoing year. From the school he was removed to Edinburgh, where he had not resided two years when his father died, and left all his children to the care of their mo- a ii LIFE OF THOMSON. mother, who raised upon her httle estate what money a mortgage could afford, and, removing with her family to Edinburgh, lived to see her son rising into eminence. The design of Thomson's friends was to breed him a minister. He lived at Edinburgh, as at school, with- out distinction or expectation, till, at the usual time, he performed a probationary exercise by explaining a psalm. His diction was so poetically splendid, that Mr. Hamilton, the professor of Divinity, reproved him for speaking language unintelligible to a popular au- dience; and he censured one of his expressions as in- decent, if not profane. This rebuke is reported to have repressed his thoughts of an ecclesiastical character, and he probably cultivated with new diligence his blossoms of poetry, which, how- ever, were in some danger of a blast; for submitting his productions to some who thought themselves qua- lified to criticise, he heard of nothing but faults; but finding other judges more favourable, he did not suffer himself to sink into despondence. He easily discovered that the only stage on which a poet could appear, with any hope of advantage, was London ; a place too Avide for the operation of petty composition and private malignity, where merit might soon become conspicuous, and would find friends as soon as it became reputable to befriend it. A lady who was acquainted with his mother, advised him to the journey, and promised some countenance or assistance, which at last he never received; however, he justified his adventure by her encouragement, and came to seek in London patronage and fume. LIFE OF THOMSON. iii At his arrival lie found his way to Mr. Mallet, then tutor to the sons of the duke of Montrose. He had re- commendations to several persons of conseqiience/which he had tied up carefully in his handkerchief; but as he passed along the street, with the gaping curiosity of a new-comer, his attention was upon every thing rather than his pocket, and his magazine of credentials wa& stolen from him. His first want was a pair of shoes. For the supply of all his necessities, his whole fund was his "= Winter," which for a time could find no purchaser; till, at last, Mr. Millan was pleased to buy it at a low price ; and this Ipw price he had for some time reason to regret; but, by accident, Mr. Whatley, a man not wholly un- known among authors, happening to turn his eye upon it, was so delighted that he ran from place to place ce- lebratina: its excellence. Thomson obtained likewise the notice of Aaron Hill, whom, being friendless and indigent, and glad of kindness, he courted with every expression of servile adulation. '' Winter" was dedicated to Sir Spencer Compton, but attracted no regard from him to the author; till Aaron Hill awakened his attention by some verses ad- dressed to Thomson, and published in one of the news- papers, which censured the great for their neglect of in- genious men. Thomson then received a present of twent}' guineas, of which he gives this account to Mr. Hill: *' I hinted to you in my last, that on Saturday morn- ing I was with Sir Spencer Compton. A certain gen- tleman, without my desire, spoke to him concerning iv LIFE OF THOMSON. me: his answer was, that I had never come near him. Then the gentleman put the question, If he desired that I should wait on him? he returned, he did. On this, the ffentleman c;ave me an introductory letter to him. He received me in wb.at the}' commonly call a civil manner; asked me some common-place questions; and made me a present of twenty guineas. 1 am very ready to own that the present was larger than my perform- ance deserved ; and shall a?crihc it to his generosity, or any other cause, rather than tiic merit of the ad- dress." The poem, which, being of a new kind, few would venture at first to like, by degrees gained upon the public; and one edition was very speedily succeeded by another. Thomson's credit was now high, and every dny brought him new friends; among others Dr. Rundle, a man afterwards unfortunately famous, sought his ac- quaintance, and found his qualities such, that he re- commended him to the Lord Chancellor Talbot. *' Winter" was accompanied, in many editions, not only Vvith a preface and dedication, but with poetical praises by Mr. Hill, Mr. Mallet (then Malloch), and Mira, the fictitious name of a lady once too well known. Why the dedications are, to " Winter" and the other Seasons, contrarily to custom, left out in the collected works, the reader may enquire. "" The next year (1727) he distinguished himself by three publications; of " Summer," in pursuance of his plan ; of " A Poem on the Death of Sir Isaac New- ton," which he was enabled to perform as an exact LIFE OF THOMSON. v philosopher by the instruction of ISIr.Gray; and of '' Britannia," a kind of poetical invective against the ministry, whom the nation then thought not forward enough in resenting the depredations of the Spaniards. By this piece he declared himself an adherent to the opposition, and had therefore no favour to expect from the Court. Thomson, having been some time entertained in the familv of the lord Binning, was desirous of testifying his gratitude by making him the patron of his " Sum- mer;" but the same kindness which had first disposed lord Binning to encourage him, determined him to re- fuse the dedication, which was by his advice addressed to Mr, Dodington, a man who had more power to ad- vance the reputation and fortune of a poet. " Spring" was published next year, with a dedica- tion to the countess of Hertford; whose practice it was to invite every summer some poet into the coun- try, to hear her verses and assist her studies. This ho- nour was one summer conferred on Thomson, who took more delicht in carousinsr with lord Hertford and his friends than assisting her ladyehip's poetical operations, and therefore never received another summons. *^ Autumn," the Season to which the '' Spring" and " Summer" are preparatory, still remained un- sung, and was delayed till he published (1730) his works collected. He produced in 1727 the tragedy of ''^ Sophonisba," which raised such expectation, that every rehearsal was dignified with a splendid audience, collected to anticipate the delight that w,as preparing for the pub- vi LIFE OF THOMSON. lie. It was observed^ however, that nobody was much affected, and that the company rose as from a moral lecture. It had upon the stage no unusual degree of success. Slight accidents will operate upon the taste of pleasure. There is a feeble line in the play: O, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O ! This gave occasion to a waggish parody: O, Jemmy Tbomson, Jemmy Thomson, O ! which for a while Avas echoed through the town. I have been told by Savage, that of the prologue to '' Sophonisba," the first part was written by Pope, who could not be persuaded to finish it; and that the con- cluding lines were added by Mallet. Thomson was not long afterwards, by the influence of Dr. Rundle, sent to travel with Mr. Charles Talbot, the eldest son of the Chancellor. He was yet young enough to receive new impressions, to have his opinions rectified, and his views enlarged; nor can he be sup- posed to have wanted that curiosity which is inseparable from an active and comprehensive mind. He may therefore now be supposed to have revelled in all the joys of intellectual luxury; he was every day feasted with instructive novelties: he lived splendidly without expence; and might expect when he returned home a certain establishment. At this time a long course of opposition to Sir Ro- bert Walpole had filled the nation with clamours for liberty, of which no man felt the want, and with care for liberty, which was not in danger. Thomson, in LIFE OF THOMSON. vii his travels on the continent, found or fancied so many evils arising from the tyranny of other governments, that he resolved to write a very long poem, in five parts, upon Liberty. While he was busy on the first book, Mr. Talbot died; and Thomson, who had been rewarded for his attendance by the place of Secretary of the Briefs, pays in the initial lines a decent tribute to his memory. Upon this great poem two years were spent, and tlie author congratulated himself upon it as his noblest work ; but an author and his reader are not always of a mind. Liberty called in vain upon her votaries to read her praises, and reward her encomiast : her praises were condemned to harbour spiders, and to gather dust: none of Thomson's performances were so litlle regarded. The judgment of the public was not erroneous; the recurrence of the same images must tire in time; an enumeration of examples to prove a position which no- body denied, as it was from the beginning superfluous, must quickly grow disgusting. The poem of " Liberty " does not now appear in its original state; but, when the author's works were col- lected after his death, was shortened by Sir George Lyttelton, with a liberty which, as it has a manifest ten- dency to lessen the conHdencc of society, and to con- found the characters of authors, by making one man write by the judgment of another, cannot be justified by any supposed propriety of the alteration, or kindness of the friend. — I wish to see it exhibited as its autlior Jeft it. viii LIFE OF THOxMSON. Thomson now lived in ease and plenty, and seems for a while to have suspended his poetry ; but he was soon called back to labour by the death of the Chan- cellor, for his place then became vacant; and though the lord Hardwicke delayed for some time to give it away, Thomson's baslifulness, or pride, or some other motive perhaps not more laudable, withheld him from soliciting; and the new Chancellor would not give him what he would not ask. He now relapsed to his former indigence; but the Pi-ince of Wales was at that time struggling for popu- larity, and by the influence of Mr. Lyttelton professed himself the patron of v*at: to him Thomson was intro- duced, and being gaily interrogated about the state of his affairs, said, " that they were in a more poetical posture than formerly;" and had a pension allowed him of one hundred pounds a year. Being now obliged to write, he produced (1738) the tragedy of Agamemnon, which was much shortened in the representation. It had the fate which most com- monly attends mythological stories, and was only en- dured, but not favoured. It struggled with such diffi- culty through the first night, that Thomson, coming late to his friends with whom he was to sup, excused his delay by telling them how the sweat of his distress had so disordered his wig, that he could not come till he had been refitted by a barber. He so interested himself in his own drama, that, if I remember right, as he sat in the upper gallery, he ac- companied the players by audible recitation, till a . friendly hint frightened him to silence. Pope counte- LIFE OF THOMSON. ix nanced " Agamemnon," by coming to it the first night, and was welcomed to the theatre by a general clap; he liad mucii regard for Thomson, and once expressed it in a poetical Epistle sent to Italy, of which however he abated the value, by transplanting some of the lines into his Epistle to *^* Arbuthnot." About tliis time the act was passed for licensing plays, of which the first operation was the prohibition of **' Gustavus Vasa," a tragedy of Mr. Brooke, whom the publick recompensed by a very liberal subscription; the next was the refusal of " Edward and Eleonora," offered by Thomson, It is hard to discover why either play should have been obstructed. Thomson likewise endeavoured to repair his loss by a subscription, of which I cannot now tell the success. When the public murmured at the unkind treatment of Thomson, one of the ministerial writers remarked, " that he had taken a Liberti/ which was not agreeable to Britannia in any Season." He was soon after employed, in conjunction with Mr. Mallet, to write the Masque of '' Alfred," which was acted before .the Prince at Cliefden-house. His next work (1745) was " Tancred and Sigis- muuda," the most successful of all his tragedies; for it still keeps its turn upon the stage. It may be doubted whether he was, either by the bent of nature or habits of study, much qualified for tragedy. It does not ap- pear that he had much sense of the pathetic; and his diff"usive and descriptive style produced declamation ra- ther than dialogue. His friend Mr. Lyttleton was now in power, and con- X LIFE OF THOMSON. ferred upon him the office of surveyov-general of the Leeward Islands ; from which, when his deputy was paid, he received ahout three hundred pounds a year. The hist piece that he lived to puhlish was the " Castle of Indolence," which was many years under his hand, but was at last finished with great accuracy. The first canto opens a scene of lazy luxury, that fills the imagination. He was now at ease, but was not long to enjoy it; for, by taking cold on the water between London and Kew, he caught a disorder, which, with some careless exasperation, ended in a fever that put an end to his life, August 0.7, 1748. He was buried in the church of Rich- mond, without an inscription; but a monument has been erected to his memory in Westminster-abbey. Thomson was of stature above the middle size, and " more fat than bard beseems," of a dull countenance, and a gross, unanimated, uninviting appearance; silent in mingled company, but cheerful among select friends, and by his friends very tenderly and warmly beloved. lie left behind him the tragedy of '' Coriolanus," Avhich was, by the zeal of his patron §ir George Lyttel- ton, brought upon the stage for the benefit of his family, and recommended by a Prologue, which Quin, who had long lived with Thomson in fond intimacy, spoke in such a manner as shewed him " to be," on that occasion, " no actor." The commencement of this benevolence is very honourable to Quin ; who is reported to have deli- vered Thomson, then known to him only for his genius, from an arrest, by a very considerable present; and its continuance is honourable to both; for friendship is not LIFE OF THOMSON. xi always the sequel of obligation. By this tragedy a con- siderable sum was raised, of which part discharged his debts, and the rest was remitted to his sisters, whom, however removed from them by place or condition, he regarded with great tenderness, as will appear by the following letter, which I communicate with much plea- sure, as it gives me at once an opportunity of recording the fraternal kindness of Thomson, and reflecting on the friendly assistance of Mr. Boswell, from whom I re- ceived it. Hagley in Worcestershire, ** My dear Sister, Oct. 4, 1717. " 1 thought you had known me better than to interpret my silence into a decay of affection, especially as your behaviour has alwaj's been such as rather to in- crease than diminish it. Don't imagine, because I am a bad correspondent, that I can ever prove an unkind friend and brother. I must do myself the justice to tell you, that my affections are naturally very fixed and constant; and if I had ever reason of complaint against you, (of which by the bye I have not the least shadow,) I am conscious of so many defects in myself, as dispose me to be not a little charitable and forgiving. '*■ It G;ives me the truest heart-felt satisfaction to hear you have a good kind husband, and are in easy con- tented circumstances; but were they otherwise, that would only awaken and heighten my tenderness towards you, as our good and tender-hearted parents did not live to receive any material testimonies of that highest hu- man gratitude T owed them, (than which nothing could have given me equal pleasure,) the only return I can xii LIFE OF THOMSON. make them now is by kindness to those they left behind them. Would to God^ poor Lizy had lived longer^ to have been a farther witness of the trutli of what I say, and that I might have had the pleasure of seeing once more a sister who so truly deserved my esteem and love! But she is happ}', while wc must toil a little longer here below : let us however do it cheerfully, and gratefully, supported by the pleasing hope of meeting yet again on a safer shore, where to recollect the storms and difficulties of life will not perhaps be inconsistent with that blissful state. You did right to call your daughter by her name; for you must needs have had a particular tender friendship for one another, endeared as you were by nature, by having passed the affectionate years of your 3'outh together; and by that great softener and engager of hearts, mutual hardship. That it was in my power to ease it a little, I account one of the most exquisite pleasures of my life. — But enough of this melancholy, though not unpleasing strain. '^ I esteem 3'ou for your sensible and disinterested ad- ^rice to Mr. Bell, as you will see by my letter to him: as I approve entirely of his marrying again, 3'ou may readily ask me why I don't marry at all. My circum- stances have hitherto been so variable and uncertain in this fluctuating world, as induce to keep me from en- gaging in such a state: and now, though they are more settled, and of late (which you Avill be glad to hear) considerably improved, I begin to think myself too for advanced in life for such youthful undertakings, not to mention some other petty reasons that are apt to startle the delicacy of difficult old batchelors. I am, however. LIFE OF THO.AISON. xiii not a little suspicious that, was I to pay a visit to Scot- land, (which I have some thought of doing soon,) I might possibly be tempted to think of a thing not easily repaired if done amiss. I have always been of opinion that none make better wives than the ladies of Scotland; and yet, who more forsaken than they, while the gen- tlemen are continually running abroad all the world over? Some of them, it is true, are wise enough to re- turn for a wife. You see I am beginning to make in- terest already with the Scots ladies.— But no more of this mfectious subject. — Pray let me hear from you now and then; and though 1 am not a regular correspondent, yet perhaps I may mend in that respect. Remember me kindlv to vour husband, and believe me to be. Your most affectionate brother, James Thomson." (Addressed) To Mrs. Thomson in Lanark. The benevolence of Thomson was fervid, but not active; he would give on all occasions what assistance his purse would supply; but the offices of intervention or solicitation he could not conquer his sluggishness sufficiently to perform. The afhiirs of others, however, were not more nc2;lected than his own. He had often felt the inconveniencies of idleness, but he never cured it ; and was so conscious of his own character, that he talked of writing an Eastern Tale " of the man v/ho loved to be in Distress." Among his peculiarities was a very unskilful and in- articulate manner of pronouncing any lofty or solemn composition. He was once reading to Dodington, who being himself a reader eminently elegant, was so mucli xiv LIFE OF THOMSON. provoked by his odd utterance, that he snatched the paper from his hands, and told him that ho did not un- derstand his own verses. The biograplicr of Thomson has remarked, that an author's hfe is best read in his works: his observation was not well-timed. Savage, who lived much with Thomson, once told me, how he heard a lady remark- ing that she could gather from his works three parts of his character, that he was a '^ great Lover, a great Swimmer, and rigorously abstinent;" but said Savage, he knows not any love but that of the sex; he was per- haps never in cold water in his life; and he indulges himself in all the luxury that comes within his reach. Yet Savage always spoke with the most eager praise of his social qualities, his warmth and constancy of friend- ship, and his adherence to his first acquaintance when the advancement of his reputation had left them behind him. As a writer, he is entitled to one praise of the highest kind: his mode of thinking, and of expressing his thoughts, is original. His blank verse is no more the blank verse of Milton, or of any other poet, than the rhymes of Prior are the rhymes of Cowle}' . His num- bers, his pauses, his diction, are of his own growth, without transcription, without imitation. He thinks in a peculiar train, and he thinks always as a man of ge- nius; he looks round on Nature and on Life with the eye which Nature bestows only on a poet; the eye that distinguishes, in ever}' thing presented to its view, what- ever there is on which imagination can delight to be detained, and with a mind that at once comprehends the vast, and attends to the minute. The reader of the LIFE OF THOMSON. xv *' Seasons" wonders that he never saw before what Thomson shews him, and that he never yet has felt what Tliomson impresses. His is one of the works in which blank verse seems properly used. Thomson's wide expansion of general views, and his enumeration of circumstantial varieties, would have been obstructed and embarrassed by the frequent intersections of the sense, which are the ne- cessary effects of rhN'me. His descriptions of extended scenes and general ef- fects bring before us the whole magnificence of Nature, whether pleasing or dreadful. The gaiety of Spring, the splendour of Summer, the tranquillity of Autumn, and the horror of Winter, take in their turns possession of the mind. The poet leads us through the appear- ances of things as they are successive!}' varied by the vicissitudes of the year, and imparts to us so much of his own enthusiasm, that our thoughts expand with his imager}', and kindle with his sentiments. Nor is the naturalist without his part in the entertainment ; for he is assisted to recollect and to combine, to arrange his discoveries, and to amplify the sphere of his contem- plation. The great defect of the '^ Seasons" is want of me-- thod ; but for this 1 know not that there was any re- medy. Of many appearances subsisting all at once, no rule can be sriven why one should be mentioned before another; yet the memory wants the help of order, and the curiosity is not excited by suspense or expectation. His diction is in the highest degree florid and luxu- riant, such as mav be said to be to his images. and xvi LIFE OF THOMSON. thoughts "■ both their lustre and their shade;" such as invest them with splendour, through which perhaps they are not always easily discerned. It is too exube- rant, and sometimes may be charged with filling the ear more than the mind. These Poems, with which I was acquainted at their first appearance, I have since found altered and en- larged by subsequent revisals, as the author supposed his judgment to grow more exact, and as books or con- versation extended his knowledge and opened his pros- pects. They are, I think, improved in general; yet I know not whether they have not lost part of what Temple calls their " race;" a word which, applied to wines in its primitive sense, means the flavour of the soil. " Liberty," when it first appeared, I tried to read, and soon desisted. I have never tried again, and there- fore will not hazard either praise or censure. The highest praise which he has received ought not to be supprest : it is said by Lord Lyttelton, in the Pro- logue to his posthumous play, that his works contained No line which, dying, he could wish to blot. SPRING. m^m^"^ Not so the boy; He wond'ring views the bright iiichaiitment bend, Delightful, o'er the r;idi;mt fields, and runs To catch the falling glory; but amaz'd Beholds th' amusive arch before him liy, Then vanish quite asvay 4 THE ARGUMENT. The subject proposed. Inscribed to the Countess of Hartford. The season is described as it affects the various parts of nature, ascending from tlie lower to tlie higher 3 with digressions arising from the subject. Its influence on inanimate matter, on vege- tables, on brute animals, and last on man ; concluding with a dissuasive from the wild and irregular passion of love, opposed to that of a pure and happy kind. ei S SPRING. Dissolving snows in livid torrents lost, The mountains lift their green heads to the sky. As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd, And Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze, Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets Deform the day delightless; so that scarce The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulph'd To shake the sounding marsh; or from the shore The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath, And sing their wild notes to the list'ning waste. At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun, And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more Th' expansive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold; But, full of life and vivifying soul. Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin,^ Fleecy and white, o'er all-surrounding heav'n. Forth fly the tepid airs; and unconfin'd, Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays. Joyous, th' impatient husbandman perceives Relenting nature, and his lusty steers ^i Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plougk. SPRING. 3 Lies in the furrow, loosen'd from the frost. There, iinrefusinor, to the harness'd voke They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil, Cheer 'd by the simple song and soaring lark. Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share The master leans, removes th' obstructing clay, Winds the whole work, and sidelong lays the glebe. While thro' the neighb'ring fields the sower stalks. With measur'd step; and lib'ral throws the grain Into the faithful bosom of the ground : The harrow follows harsh, and shuts the scene. Be gracious, heav'n ! for now laborious man Has done his part. Ye fost"ring ])reezes, blow! , Ye soft'ning dews, ye tender showrs. descend ! And temper all, thou world-reviving sun, Into the perfect year! Nor ye who live In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride. Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear.: Such themes as these the rural Maro sung To wide-imperial Rome, in the full lieight Of elegance and taste, by Greece refin'd. o 4 SPRING. In ancient times, the sacred plough employ'd The kings, and awful fathers of mankind : And some, with whom compar'd your insect-tribes Are but tlie beings of a summer's day, Have held the scale of empire, ruFd the storm Of mighty M'ar; then, with unwearied hand. Disdaining little delicacies, seiz'd The plough, and greatly independent liv'd. Ye gen'rous Britons, venerate the plough; And o'er your hills, and long-withdrawing vales. Let Autumn spread his treasures to the sun, Luxuriant and unbounded : as the sea, Far through his azure turbulent domain. Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports: So with superior boon may your rich soil, Exuberant, nature's better blessings pour O'er ev'ry land, the naked nations clothe. And be th' exhaustless granary of a world ! Nor only through the lenient air this change, Delicious, breathes; the penetrative sun SPRING. ' His force deep-darting to the dark retreat Of vegetation, sets the steaming pow'r At large, to wander o'er the vernant earth, In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay green! Thou smiling nature's universal robe ! United light and shade! where the sight dwells With growing strength, and ever-new delight. From the moist meadow to the wither'd hill, Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs. And swells, and deepens, to the cherish'd eye. The hawthorn whitens; and the juicy groves Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees, Till the whole leafy forest stands display'd. In full luxuriance to the sighing gales ; Where the deer rustle through the twining brake, And the birds sing conceafd. 'At once array'd In all the colours of the flushing year. By nature's swift and secret-working hand, The garden glows, and fills the lib'ral air With lavish fragrance; while the promis'd fruit Lies yet a little embryo, unperceiv'd, 6 SPRING. Within its crimson folds. Now from the town Buried in smoke, and sleep, and noisome damps, Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields, Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling drops From the bent bush, as through the verdant maze Of svv^eet-briar hedges I pursue my Avalk; Or taste the smell of dairy; or ascend Some em.inence, Augusta, in thy plains, And see the country, far diffus'd around, One boundless blush, one white-empurpled show'r Of mingled blossoms; where the raptur'd eye Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath "The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies. If, brush'd from Russian wilds, a cutting gale J Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe Untimely frost: before whose baleful blast The full-blown Spring through all her foliage shrinks, Joyless and dead, a wide-dejected waste. For oft, engender'd by the hazy north, Myriads on myriads, insect armies warp i SPRING. 7 Keen in the poison'd breeze; and wasteful eat, Througli buds and bark, into the blacken'd core, Their eager way. A feeble race ! yet oft The sacred sons of vengeance; on whose course Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year. To check this plague, the skilful farmer chaff, And blazing straw, before his orchard bnrns; Till, all involv'd in smoke, the latent foe From ev'ry cranny suffocated falls : Or scatters o'er the blooms the pungent dust Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe: Or, when the envenom'd leaf begins to curl, With sprinkled water drowns them in their nest; Nor, while they pick them up Avith busy bill, The little trooping birds unwisely scares. Be patient, swains; these cruel-seeming winds Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep repress'd Those deepening clouds on clouds, surcharg d with rain, That o'er the vast atlantic hither borne, In endless train, would quench the summer-blaze, And, cheerless, drown the crude unripen'd year./ 8 SPRING. The north-east spends his rage; he now shut up Within his iron cave, th' eftusive south Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heav'n Breathes the hig clouds with vernal show'rs distent. At first a dusky wreath they seem to rise, Scarce staining ether; but by swift degrees, In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour sails Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep Sits on th' horizon round a settled gloom: Not such as Avintry storms on mortals shed, Oppressing life; but lovely, gentle, kind, And full of ev'ry hope and ev'ry joy, \ The Avish of nature. Gradual sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm; that not a breath Is heard to quiver through the closing woods, Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves Of aspin tall. Th' uncurling floods, diffus'd In glassy breadth, seem through delusive lapse Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all. And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks Drop the dry sprig, and, mute-imploring, eye SPRING. 9 ' The falling verdure. Hush'd in short suspense, I The plumy people streak their M^Ings with oil, To throw the lucid moisture trickling off; And wait th' approaching sign, to strike at once Into the gen'ral choir. E'en mountains, vales. And forests, seem impatient to demand The promis'd sweetness. Man superior walks Amid the glad creation, musing praise. And looking lively gratitude. At last The clouds consign their treasures to the fields; And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow, In large effusion, o"er the freshenVl world. The stealing show'r is scarce to patter heard, By such as wander through the forest walks. Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of leaves. But who can liold the shade, while heav'n descends In universal bounty, shedding herbs. And fruits, and flow'rs, on nature's ample lap? Swift fancy fir'd anticipates their growth; And, while the milkv nutriment distils. 10 SPRING. Beholds the kindhng country colour round. Thus all day long the full-distended clouds Indulge their genial stores, and well-show'r'd earth' Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life; Till, in the western sky, the downward sun Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush Of broken clouds, gay-shifting to his beam. The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes Th' illumin'd mountain, through the forest streams, Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist, Far smoking o'er th' interminable plain. In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems. ;Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around. Full swell the woods; their very music wakes, Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks Increas'd, the distant bleatings of the hills. And hollow lows responsive from the vales. Whence blending all the sweeten'd zephyr springs. Mean-time, refracted from yon eastern cloud. Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow Shoots up immense; and ev'ry hue unfolds, SPRING. - 11 In fair proportion running from the red, To where the violet fades into the sky. Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds Form, fronting on the sun, thy show'ry prism ; And to the sage-instructed eye unfold The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd From the white mingling maze. Not so the boy; He wond'ring views the bright inchantment bend, Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs To catch the falling glory; but amaz'd Beholds th' amusive arch before him fly, Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds, A soften'd shade, and saturated earth Awaits the morning beam, to give to light, Rais'd through ten thousand diflf 'rent plastic tubes, The balmy treasures of the former day. Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild, O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the pow'r Of botanist to number up their tribes: Whether he steals along the lonely dale. In silent search; or through the forest, rank 12 SPRING. With what the dull incurious weeds account, Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain-rock, Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow. With such a lib'ral hand has nature flung Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds, Innum'rous mix'd them with the nursing mould, The moist'ning current, and prolific rain, r — But who their virtues can declare? who pierce, ' With vision pure, into these secret stores Of health, and life, and joy? the food of man, While yet he liv'd in innocence, and told A length of golden years; unflesh'd in blood, A stranger to the savage arts of life. Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease; \v.The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world. The first fresh dawn then wak'd the gladden'd race Of uncorrupted man, nor blush'd to see The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam : For their light slumbers gently fum'd away; And up they rose as vig'rous as the sun. Or to the culture of the willing glebe, SPRING. 13 Or to the cheerful tendance of the flock." Mean-time the song went round ; and dance and sport, Wisdom and friendly talk successive, stole Their hours rwrj: while in the rosy vale Love breath'd his infant sighs, from anguish free, And full replete with bliss; save the sweet pain. That inly thrilling, but exalts it more. Nor yet injurious act, nor surly deed. Was known among those happy sons of heav'n; For reason and benevolence were law. Harmonious nature too look'd smiling on. Clear shone the skies, cool'd with eternal gales. And balmy spirit all. The youthful sun Shot his best rays, and still the gracious clouds Dropped fatness down, as o'er the swelling mead The herds and flocks, commixing, play'd secure: This when, emerging from the gloomy wood, The glaring lion saw, his horrid heart Was meeken'd, and he joinVl his sullen joy. For music held the M'hole in perfect peace: Soft sigh'd the flute; the tender voice was heard. 14 SPRING. Warbling the varied heart; the woodlands round Applied their quire; and winds and waters flow'd In consonance. Such were those prime of days. But now those white unblemished manners, whence The fabling poets took their golden age. Are found no more amid these iron times, These dregs of life ! Now the distemper'd mind Has lost that concord of harmonious pow'rs, Which forms the soul of happiness ; and all Is off the poise within: the passions all Have burst their bounds; and reason half extinct, Or impotent, or else approving, sees The foul disorder. Senseless, and deform'd, Convulsive anger storms at large; or pale, And silent, settles into fell revenge. Base envy withers at another's joy. And hates that excellence it cannot reach. Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full, Weak and unmanly, loosens ev'ry pow'r. E'en love itself is bitterness of soul, A pensive anguish pining at the heart; SPRING. 15 - Or, sunk to sordid interest, feels no more That noble wish, that never-cloy'd desire, Which, selfish joy disdaining, seeks alone To bless the dearer object of its flame. Hope sickens with extravagance; and grief, Of life impatient, into madness swells; Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. These, and a thousand mix'd emotionvS more, From ever-changing views of good and ill, Form'd infinitely various, vex the mind With endless storm; whence, deeply rankling, grows The partial thought, a listless unconcern. Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; Then dark disgust, and hatred, winding wiles, Coward deceit, and ruffian violence: v/ At last, extinct each social feeling, fell And joyless inhumanity pervades And petrifies the heart. Nature disturb'd Is deem'd, vindictive, to have chang'd her course. Hence, in old dusky time, a deluge came: When the deep-cleft disparting orb, that arch'd 16 SPRING. The central waters round, impetuous rushVl, With universal burst, into the gulph, And o'er the high-pilVl hills of fractur'd earth Wide dash'd the waves, in undulation vast; Till, from the centre to the streaming clouds, A shoreless ocean tumbled round the globe. The Seasons since have, with severer sway, Oppress'd a broken world: the Winter keen Shook forth his waste of snows; and Summer shot His pestilential heats. Great Spring, before, Green'd all the year; and fruits and blossoms blush'd In social sweetness, on the self-same bough. Pure was the temp'rate air; an even calm Perpetual reign'd, save what the zephyrs bland Breath'd o'er the blue expanse: for then nor storm Were taught to blow, nor hurricanes to rage ; Sound slept the waters; no sulphureous glooms Swell'd in the sky, and sent the lightning forth ; While sickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs, Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life. But now, of turbid elements the sport, SPRING. 17 From clear to cloudy toss'd, from hot to cold. And dry to moist, with inward-eating change, Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought, Their period finish'd ere 'tis well begun. And yet the wholesome herb neglected dies ; Though with the pure exhilarating soul Of nutriment and health, and vital pow'rs, Beyond the search of art, 'tis copious blest. For, with hot ravine fir'd, ensanguin'd man Is now become the lion of the plain. And worse. The wolf, who from the nightly fold Fierce drags the bleating prey, ne'er drunk her milk, Nor wore her warming fleece: nor has the steer^ At whose strong chest the deadly tiger hangs, E'er ploughM for him. They too are temper 'd high. With hunger stung and wild necessity, Nor lodges pity in their shaggy breast. But man, whom nature form'd of milder clay, With ev'ry kind emotion in his heart, And taught alone to weep; while from her lap She pours ten thousand delicacies, herbs. 18 SPRING. And fruits, as nuin'rous as the drops of rain Or beams that gave them birth: shall he, fair form! Who wears sweet smiles, and looks erect on heav'n, E'er stoop to mingle with the prowling herd, And dip his tongue in gore? The beast of prey, Blood-stain'd, deserves to bleed: but you, ye flocks. What have ye done; ye peaceful people, what, To merit death? you, who have giv'n us milk In luscious streams, and lent us your own coat Against the winter's cold? And the plain ox. That harmless, honest, guileless animal, In what has he offended? he, whose toil. Patient and ever ready, clothes the land With all the pomp of harvest; shall he bleed, And struggling groan beneath the cruel hands E'en of the clown he feeds? and that, perhaps. To swell the riot of th' autumnal feast. Won by his labour? Thus the feeling heart Would tenderly suggest: but 'tis enough. In this late age, advent'rous to have touch'd Light on the numbers of the Samian sage. SPRING. ]9 High heav'n forbids the bold presumptuous strain, Whose wisest M'ill has fixVl us in a state That must not yet to pure perfection rise. Now when the first foul torrent of the brooks, Swell'd with the vernal rains, is ebb'd away, And, whit'ning, down their mossy-tinctur'd stream Descends the billowy foam: nov/ is the time, While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile, To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly, The rod fme-tap'ring with elastic spring, Snatch'd from the hoary steed the floating line. And all thy slender wat'ry stores prepare. But let not on thy hook the tortur'd worm, I Convulsive, twist in agonizing folds; Which, by rapacious hunger swallowVl deep, Gives, as you tear it from the bleeding breast I Of the weak, helpless, uncomplaining wretch, ; Harsh pain and horror to the tender hand. When with his lively ray the potent sun Has pierc'd the streams, and rous'd the finny race, Then, issuing cheerful, to th}' sport repair; so SPRING. Chief should the western hreezes curling play, And lio-ht o'er other hear the shadowy clouds. High to their fount, this day, amid the hills, And woodlands warbling round, trace up the brooks; The next pursue their rocky-channel'd maze, Down to the river, in whose ample wave Their little naiads love to sport at large. Just in the dubious point, where with the pool Is mix'd the trembling stream, or where it boils. Around the stone, or from the hollow'd bank Reverted plays in undulating flow. There throw, nice-judging, the delusive fly; And as you lead it round in artful curve, With eye attentive mark the springing game. Strait as above the surface of the flood They wanton rise, or urgVl by hunger leap. Then fix, with gentle twitch, the barbed hook: Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank, And to the shelving shore slow-dragging some, With various hand proportion'd to their force. If yet too young, and easily deceiv'd, SPRING. 21 A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod, Him, piteous of his youth and the short space He has enjoy 'd the vital light of heav'n, Soft disengage, and back into the stream The speckled captive throw. But should you lure From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots Of pendent trees, the monarch of the brook, Behoves you then to ply your finest art. Long time he, following cautious, scans the fly ; And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear. At last, while haply o'er the shaded sun Passes a cloud, he desp'rate takes the death, With sullen plunge. At once he darts along, Deep-struck, and runs out all the lengthen'd line; Then seeks the farthest ooze, the shelt'ring weed, The cavern'd bank, his old secure abode; And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool, Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand, That feels him still, yet to his furious course Gives way, you, now retiring, following now 22 SPRING. Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage: Till floating broad upon his breathless side, And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore You gaily drag your unresisting prize. Thus pass the temp'rate hours; but when the sun ,. Shakes from his noon-da}' throne the scatt'ring clouds^ E'en shooting listless languor through the deeps; Then seek the bank M'here flow'ring elders crowd, Where scatter'd wide the lily of the vale Its balmy essence breathes, where cowslips hang ^ The dewy head, where purple violets lurk, With all the lowly children of the shade: Or lie reclin'd beneath yon spreading ash, Hung o'er the steep; whence, borne on liquid wing, The sounding culver shoots; or where the hawk. High, in the beetling cliff, his ajrie builds. There let the classic page thy fancy lead Through rural scenes; such as the Mantuan swain Paints in the matchless harmony of song. Or catch thyself the landscape, gliding swift Athwart imagination's vivid eye : SPRING. 23 Or by the vocal woods and waters lull'd, And lost in lonely musing, in the dreanr, Confus'd, of careless soHtude, where mix Ten thousand wand'ring images of things, Soothe ev'ry gust of passion into peace; All but the swellings of the soften'd heart, That waken, not disturb, the tranquil mind. Behold yon bresthing prospect bids the muse I Throw all her beauty forth. But who can paint Like nature? Can imagination boast. Amid its gay creation, hues like hers? Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, And lose them in each other, as appears In ev'ry bud that blows? If fancy then Unequal fails beneath the pleasing task. Ah what shall language do ? ah where find words Ting'd with so many colours; and whose pow'r, To life approaching, may perfume my lays With that fine oil, those aromatic gales, That inexhaustive flow continual round ? Yet, though successless, will the toil delight. 24 SPRING. Come then, ye virgins and ye youths, whose hearts Have felt the raptures of refining love; And thou, Amanda, come, pride of my song! Form'd by the graces, loveliness itself I Come with those downcast eyes, sedate and sweet, Those looks demure, that deeply pierce the soul. Where, with the light of thoughtful reason mix'd, Shines lively fancy and the feeling heart: O come! and while the rosy-footed May Steals blushing on, together let us tread The morning dews, and gather in their prime Fresh-blooming flow'rs, to grace thy braided hair, And thy lov'd bosom that improves their sweets. See, where the winding vale its lavish stores, Irriguous, spreads. See, how the lily drinks The latent rill, scarce oozing through the grass, Of growth luxuriant; or the humid bank. In fair profusion, decks. Long let us walk. Where the breeze blows from yon extended field Of blossom'd beans. Arabia cannot boast A fuller gale of joy, than, lib'ral, thence SPRING. 25 Breathes thro' the sense, and takes the ravish'd soul. Nor is the mead unworthy of thy foot, Full of fresh verdute, and unnumber'd flow'rs, The negligence of nature, wide, and \vild; ^' Where, undisguised by mimic art, she spreads I Unbounded beauty to the roving eye. Here their delicious task the fervent bees, In swarming millions, tend: around, athwart, Through the soft air, the busy nations fly, Cling to the bud, and, with inserted tube, Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul; And oft, M'ith bolder wing, they soaring dare The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows. And yellow load them with the luscious spoil. 1 At length the fmish'd garden to the view Its vistas opens, and its alleys green. ' Snatch'd through the verdant maze, the hurried eye I Distracted wanders; now the how'ry walk Of covert close, where scarce a speck of day Falls on the lengthen'd gloom, protracted sweeps: Now meets the bending sky; the river tiovr 26 SPRING. Dimpling along, the breezy- ruffled lake, The forest dark'ning round, the glitt'ring spire, Th' ethereal mountain, and the distant main. But why so far excursive? when at hand, Along these blushing borders, bright with dew. And in yon mingled wilderness of flow'rs, Fair-handed Spring unbosoms ev'ry grace; Throws out the snowdrop, and the crocus first; The daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue, And polyanthus of unnumber'd dyes; The yellow wall-flow'r, stain'd with iron-brown; And lavish stock, that scents the garden round ; From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, Anemonies: auriculas, enrich'd With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves; And full ranunculus, of glowing red. Then comes the tulip-race, where beauty plays Her idle freaks; from family diffused To family, as flies the father-dust, The varied colours run; and, while they break On the charm'd eye, th' exulting florist marks. SPRING. 27 With secret pride, the wonders of his hand. No gradual bloom is wanting; from the bud, First-born of Spring, to Summer's musky tribes: Nor hyacinths, of purest virgin white, Low-bent, and blushing inward; nor jonquils, Of potent fragance; nor narcissus fair, As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still; Nor broad carnations, nor gay-spotted pinks; Nor, show'r'd from ev'ry bush, the damask-rose. Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells, With hues on hues expression cannot paint, The breath of nature, and her endless bloom. Hail, Source of Being ! Universal Soul Of heav'n and earth! Essential Presence, hail! To thee I bend the knee"; to thee my thoughts, Continual, climb; who, with a master-hand, Hast the great whole into perfection touch 'd. By thee the various vegetative tribes. Wrapt in a filmy net, and clad with leaves, Draw the live ether, and imbibe the dew; By thee dispos'd into congenial soils, 2B SPRING. Stands each attractive plant, and sucks, and swells The juicy tide; a twining mass of tubes. At thy command the vernal sun awakes The torpid sap, detruded to the root By wintry winds; that now in fluent dance, And lively fermentation, mounting, spreads > All this innumVous-colour'd scene of things. As rising from the vegetable world My theme ascends, with equal wing ascend, My panting muse: and hark, how loud the woods Invite you forth in all your gayest trim. Lend me your song, ye nightingales ! Oh pour The mazy-running soul of melody Into my varied verse ! while I deduce. From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings. The symphony of Spring, and touch a theme Unknown to fame, the passion of the groves. When first the soul of love is sent abroad, Warm through the vital air, and on the heart Harmonious seizes, the gay troops begin, In gallant thought, to plume the painted wing; SPRING. ^ 29 And try again the long-forgotten strain, At first faint-warbled. But no sooner grows The soft infusion prevalent, and wide. Than, all alive, at once their joy overflows In music unconfin'd. Up springs the lark, Shrill-voic'd, and loud, the messenger of morn: Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts Calls up the tuneful nations. Ev'ry copse Deep-tangled, tree irregular, and bush, Bending with de^vy moisture o'er the heads Of the coy quiristers that lodge within. Are prodigal of harmony. The thrush And wood-lark, o'er the kind-contending throng Superior heard, run through the sweetest length Of notes; when list'ning Philomela deigns To let them joy, and purposes, in thought Elate, to make her night excel their day. The black-bird whistles from the thorny brake: The mellow bulfinch answers from the grove: Nor are the linnets, o'er the flow'ring furze 30 SPRING. Pour'd out profusely, silent. Join'd to these Innum'rous songsters, in the fresh'ning shade Of new-sprung leaves, their modulations mix Mellifluous. The jay, the rook, the daw, And each harsh pipe, discordant heard alone, Aid the full concert: while the stock-dove breathes A melancholy murmur through the whole. 'Tis love creates their melody, and all This waste of music is the voice of love; That e'en to birds, and beasts, the tender arts Of pleasing teaches. Hence the glossy kind Try ev'ry winning way inventive love Can dictate, and in courtship to their mates Pour forth their little souls. First, wide around, With distant awe, in airy rings they rove, Endeav'ring, by a thousand tricks, to catch The cunning, conscious, half-averted glance Of their regardless charmer. Should she seem Soft'ning the least approvance to bestow, Their colours burnish, and by hope inspir'd, They brisk advance; then, on a sudden struck, SPRING. 31 Retire disorder'd; then again approach; In fond rotation spread the spotted wing, And shiver ev'ry feather with desire. Connubial leagues agreed, to the deep woods They haste away, all as their fancy leads, Pleasure, or food, or secret safety prompts; That nature's great command may be obey'd; Nor all the sweet sensations they perceive Indulg'd in vain. Some to the holly-hedge Nestling repair, and to the thicket some; ' Some to the rude protection of the thorn Commit their feeble offspring: the cleft tree Offers its kind concealment to a few, Their food its insects, and its moss their nests. ' Others apart far in the grassy dale, ! Or rouo:h'nino: waste, their humble texture weave. I But most in woodland solitudes delight, > In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy banks, I Steep, and divided by a babbling brook. Whose murmurs soothe them all the live-long day, i When by kind duty fix'd. Among the roots 32 SPRING. Of hazel, pendent o'er the plaintive stream, They frame the first foundation of their domes; Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fahric laid, And bound with clay together. Now 'tis nought But restless hurry through the busy air, Beat by unnumber'd wings. The swallow sweeps The slimy pool, to build his hanging house Intent. And often, from the careless back Of herds and flocks, a thousand tugging bills Pluck hair and wool; and oft, when unobsery'd. Steal from the barn a straw: till soft and warm, Clean, and complete, their habitation grows. )| As thus the patient dam assiduous sits, )j Not to be tempted from her tender task, Or by sharp hunger, or by smooth delight, j^ Tho' the Avhole loosenVl Spring around her blows, • Her sympathizing lover takes his stand High on th' opponent bank, and ceaseless sings The tedious time away; or else supplies Her place a moment, while she sudden flits To pick the scanty meal. Th' appointed time i SPRING. 33 S With pious toil fiilfiU'ci, the callow young, Warm'd and expanded into perfect life, Tlieir brittle bondage break, and come to light, " A helpless family, demanding food With constant clamour: O what passions then, ] What melting sentiments of kindly care, 1 On the new parents seize! Away they fly Affectionate, and undesiring bear The most delicious morsel to their young; Which equally distributed, again i The search begins. E'en so a gentle pair, By fortune sunk, but form'd of gen'rous mould, And charm'd with cares beyond the vulgar breast, In some lone cot, amid the distant woods, I Sustained alone by providential heav'n, I Oft, as they M^eeping eye their infant train, Check their own appetites, and give them all. Nor toil alone they scorn : exalting love, By the great father of the Spring inspired, Gives instant courage to the fearful race, And to the simple art. With stealthy wing, p 34 SPRING. Should some rude foot their M-oody haunts molest, Amid a neighboring bush they silent drop, And whirring thence, as if alarm'd, deceive Th' unfeeling school-boy. Hence around the head Of wand'ring swain, the white-wing'd plover wheels Her sounding flight, and then directly on f In long excursion skims the level lawn, To tempt him from her nest. The wild-duck, hence, O'er the rough moss, and o'er the trackless waste The heath-hen flutters, pious fraud ! to lead , The hot-pursuing spaniel far astray. Be not the muse asham'd here to bemoan Her brothers of the grove, by tyrant man Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage From liberty confin'd, and boundless air. Dull are the pretty slaves, their plumage dull, Ragged, and all its bright'ning lustre lost; Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes, Which, clear and vig'rous, warbles from the beech. O then, ye friends of love, and love-taught song, Spare the soft tribes, this barb'rous art forbear; SPRING. , 35 If on your bosom innocence can win, Music engage, or piety persuade. But let not chief the nightingale lament Her ruin'd care, too delicately fram'd To brook the harsh confinement of the cage. Oft, when returning with her loaded bili, Th' astonish 'd mother finds a vacant nest, By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns Robb'd, to the ground the vain provision falls; Her pinions ruffle, and, low-drooping, scarce Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade; Where, all abandon'd to despair, she sings Her sorrows through the night; and on the bough Sole-sitting, still at ev'ry dying fall Takes up again her lamentable strain Of winding woe; till wide around the woods Sii»h to her son1 And, once rejoicing, never know them more. High from the summit of a craggy chfF, Hung o'er the deep, such as amazing frowns On utmost Kilda's shore, whose lonely race Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds, The royal eagle draws his vig'rous young, Strong pouncVl, and ardent with paternal fire. Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own, He drives them from his fort, the tow'ring seat, For ages, of his empire; which, in peace, Unstain'd he holds, while many a league to sea He wings his course, and preys in distant isles. Should I my steps turn to the rural seat. Whose lofty elms, and venerable oaks, Invite the rook, M-ho high amid the boughs, In early spring, his airy city builds. And ceaseless caws amusive; there, well-pleas'd, I might the various polity survey Of the mix'd household kind. The careful hen Calls all her chirping family around, 38 SPRING. Feci and defended by the fearless cock; Whose breast with ardour flames, as on lie walks Gracefid, and crows defiance. In the pond The finely-checker'd duck before her train Rows garndous. The stately-saihng swan Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale; .| And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet Bears forward fierce, and 2,'uards his osier-isle. Protective of his young. The turkey nigh, * Loud-threat'ning, reddens; while the peacock spreads His ev'ry colour'd glory to the sun, And swims in radiant majesty along. O'er the v/hole homely scene, the cooing dove riies thick in am'rous chace, and wanton rolls The glancing eye, and turns the changeful neck. While thus the gentle tenants of the shade Indulge their purer loves, the rougher world Of brutes, below, rush furious into flame, And fierce desire. Through all his lusty veins The bull, deep-scorch*d, the raging passion feels. J SPRING. 39 Of pasture sick, and negligent of food, Scarce seen, he wades among the j^ellow broom, While o'er his ample sides the rambling sprays Luxuriant shoot; or through the mazy wood Dejected wanders, nor th' inticing bud Crops, though it presses on his careless sense. And oft, in jealous mad'ning fancy wrapt, He seeks the fight; and, idly-butting, feigns His rival gor'd in ev'ry knotty trunk. Him should he meet, the bellowing war begins: Their eyes flash fury; to the hollow'd earth, Whence the sand flies, they mutter bloody deeds, xA.nd, groaning deep, th' impetuous battle mix: M'hile the fair heifer, balmy-breathing, near, I Stands kindling up their rage. The trembling steed, With this hot impulse seiz'd in ev'ry nerve, , Nor heeds the rein, nor liears the sounding thong; Blows are not felt; but tossing high his head, And by the well-knoMm joy to distant plains i Attracted strong, all wild he bursts away; O'er rocks, and woods, and craggy mountains tlies; 40 SPRING. And, neighing, on the aerial summit takes Th' exciting gale; then, steep-descending, cleaves The headlong torrents foaming down the hills, E'en where the madness of the straiten'd stream Turns in black eddies round : such is the force With Avhich his frantic heart and sinews swell. Nor undelighted by the boundless Spring- Are the broad monsters of the foaming deep: From the deep ooze and gelid cavern rous'd, They flounce and tumble in unwieldy joy. Dire were the strain, and dissonant, to sing The cruel raptures of the savage kind: How by this flame their native wrath sublim'd, They roam, amid the fury of their heart, The far-resounding waste in fiercer bands. And o;rowl their horrid loves. But this the theme I sing, enraptur'd, to the British fair Forbids, and leads me to the mountain-brow, Where sits the she£herd on the grassy turf. Inhaling, healthful, the descending sun. Around him feeds his many-bleating flock, SPRING. 41 Of various cadence; and his sportive lambs, This way and that convolved, in friskful glee, Their frolicks play. And now the sprightly race Invites them forth; when swift, the signal giv'n, They start away, and sweep the massy mound That runs around the hill ; the rampart once Of iron war, in ancient barb'rous times, When disunited Britain ever bled. Lost in eternal broil: ere yet she grew To this deep-laid indissoluble state. Where wealth and commerce lift their golden heads; And o'er our labours, liberty and law. Impartial, watch; the Avonder of a world! What is this mighty breath, ye sages, say, That, in a pow'rful language, felt not heard, Instructs the fowls of heav'n; and thro' their breast These arts of love diffuses? What, but God? Inspiring God! who boundless spirit all, And unremitting energy, pervades, Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole. He ceaseless Avorks alone; and 3^et alone 42 SPRING. Seems not to work: with such perfection fram\l Is this complex stupendous scheme of things. But, though conceal'd, to evVy purer eye Th' informing author in his M'orks appears: Chief, lovely Spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes. The smiling God is seen; while water, earth, And air attest his bounty; which exalts The brute creation to this finer thought, And annual melts their undesigning hearts Profusely thus in tenderness and joy. Still let my song a nobler note assume, And sing th' infusive force of Spring on man. When heav'n and earth, as if contending, vie To raise his being, and serene his soul, Can he forbear to join the gen'ral smile Of nature? Can fierce passions vex his breast. While ev'ry gale is peace, and ev'ry grove Is melody? Hence! from the bounteous walks Of flowing Spring, ye sordid sons of earth, Hard, and unfeeling of another's woe; Or only lavish to yourselves; away ! SPRING. 43 But come, ye gen'rous minds, in whose wide thought, Of all his works, creative bounty burns With warmest beam; and on your open front And liberal eye, sits, from his dark retreat Inviting modest want. Nor, till invok'd Can restless goodness wait; your active search Leaves no cold wintry corner unexplor'd; Like silent-working heav'n, surprising oft The lonely heart with unexpected good. For you the roving spirit of the wind Blows Spring abroad ; for you the teeming clouds Descend in gladsome plenty o'er the world ; And the sun sheds his kindest rays for you, Ye flow'r of human race ! In these green days, ; Reviving sickness lifts her languid head; / I' t Life flows afresh; and young-ey'd health exalts ■ The whole creation round. Contentment walks The sunny glade, and feels an iuM^ard bliss Spring o'er his mind, beyond the pow'r of kings To purchase. Pure serenity apace Induces thought, and contemplation still. 44 SPRING. By swift ^degrees the love of nature Morks, And warms the bosom; till at last sublim'd To rapture, and enthusiastic heat. We feel the present Deity, and taste The joy of God to see a happy world ! These are the sacred feelings of thy heart, Thy heart inform'd by reason's purer ray, O Lyttelton, the friend! thy passions thus And meditations vary, as at large, Courting the muse, thro' Hagley-park thou stray'st;. Thy British Tempe ! There along the dale, With woods o'erhung, and shagg'd with mossy rocks, Whence on each hand the gushing waters play. And down the rough cascade white-dashing fall, Or gleam in lengthen'd vista through the trees. You silent steal; or sit beneath the shade Of solemn oaks, that tuft the swelling mounts Thrown graceful round by nature's careless hand, And pensive listen to the various voice Of ruling peace : the herds, the flocks, the birds, The hollow-whisp'ring breeze, the plaint of rills. SPRING. 45 That, purling clown amid the t\visted roots Which creep around, their dewj^ murmurs shake On the sooth'd ear. From these abstracted oft, You wander through the philosophic world; ! Where in bright train continual wonders rise, Or to the curious or the pious eye. i And oft, conducted by historic truth, You tread the long extent of backward time : Planning, with warm benevolence of mind, i And honest zeal unwarp'd by party-rage, Britannia's weal; how from the venal gulpli ' To raise her virtue, and her arts revive. Or, turning thence thy view, these graver thoughts The muses charm : while, wnth sure taste refin'd, 1 You draw th' inspiring breath of ancient song; Till nobly rises, emulous, thy own. ; Perhaps thy lov'd Lucinda shares thy walk, With soul to thine attun'd. Then nature all Wears to the lover's eye a look of love; ij And all the tumult of a guilty world, Toss'd by ungen'rous passions, sinks away. 4^ , SPRING. The tender heart is animated peace; And as it pours its copious treasures forth, In varied converse, soft'ning ev'ry theme, You, frequent-pausing, turn, and from her eyes, "Where meeken'd sense, and amiable grace, And Uvely sweetness dwell, enraptur'd, drink That nameless spirit of ethereal joy, Unutterable happiness ! which love, Alone, bestows, and on a favour'd few. Mean-time you gain the height, from whose fair brow The bursting prospect spreads immense around: And snatch'd o'er hill and dale, and wood and lawn, And verdant field, and dark'ning heath betv/een, And villao'cs embosomed soft in trees, And spirv towns bv sur""inQ^ columns mark'd Of household smoke, your eye excursive roams: Wide-stretching from the hall, in whose kind hauntr The hospitable genius lingers still. To where the broken landscape, by degrees Ascending, roughens into rigid hills; O'er which the Cambrian mountains, like far cloudi SPRING. AT That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rise. Flush *d by the spirit of the genial year. Now from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom - Shoots, less and less, the live carnation round; Her lips blush deeper sweets; she breathes of youth: The shining moisture swells into her eyes, In brighter flow; her wishing bosom heaves, With palpitations wild; kind tumults seize Her veins; and all her yielding soul is love. From the keen gaze her lover turns away, Full of the dear ecstatic pow'r, and sick With sighing languishment. Ah then, ye fair! Be greatly cautious of your sliding hearts : Dare not th' infections sigh ; the pleading look, 1 Downcast, and low, in meek submission drest, ,j But full of guile. Let not the fervent tongue, Prompt to deceive, with adulation smooth, ; Gain on your purposed will. Nor in the bow'r, Where woodbines flaunt, and roses shed a couch, " While ev'ning draws her crimson curtains round, I Trust your soft minutes with betraying man. 48 SPRING. And let t\\ aspiring youth beware of love. Of the smooth glance beware; for 'tis too late. When on his heart the torrent-softness pours. Then wisdom prostrate lies, and fading fame Dissolves in air away; while the fond soul, Wrapt in gay visions of unreal bliss, Still paints th' illusive form; the kindling grace; Th' inticing smile; the modest-seeming eye, Beneath whose beauteous beams, belying heav'n, Lurk searchless cunning, cruelty, and death: And still false-warbling in his cheated ear. Her syren voice, enchanting, draws him on To guileful shores, and meads of fatal joy. E'en present, in the very lap of love Inglorious laid ; while music flows around, Perfumes, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours; Amid the roses fierce repentance rears Her snaky crest: a quick-returning pang Shoots thro' the conscious heart; where honour still, And great design, against th' oppressive load Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave. SPRING. 49 But absent, what fantastic woes arous'd, Rage in eacli thought, by restless musing fed, Chill the warm cheek, and blast the bloom of hfe? Neglected fortune flies; and sliding swift, .Prone into ruin, fall his scorn'd affairs. 'Tis nought but gloom around: the darken'd sun Loses his light : the rosy-bosom'd Spring- To weeping fancy pines; and yon bright arch, t Contracted, bends into a dusky vault. All nature fades extinct; and she alone ' Heard, felt, and seen, possesses ev'ry thought, Fills ev'ry sense, and pants in ev'ry vein. Books are but formal dullness, tedious friends: And sad amid the social band he sits, [ Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue Th' unfmish'd period falls : while, borne away On swelling thought, his wafted spirit flies To the vain bosom of his distant fair; And leaves the semblance of a lover, fix'd In melancholy site, with head declin'd, And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts, i 50 SPRING. Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs To glimrn'ring shades, and sympathetic glooms • Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling stream, Romantic, hangs: there through the pensive dusk Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation lost, Indulging all to love: or on the hank Thrown, amid drooping lilies, swells the breeze With sighs unceasing, and the brook with tears. Thus in soft anguish he consumes the day, Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy east, Enlighten'd by degrees, and in her train Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks, Beneath the trembling languish of her beam. With soften'd soul, and wooes the bird of eve To mingle woes with his: or, while the world And all the sons of care lie hush'd in sleep, Associates with the midnight shadows drear; And, sighing to the lonely taper, pours His idly-tortur'd heart into the page /^ii'' INIeant for the moving messenger of love; SPRING. 51 Where rapture burns on rapture, ev'ry line With rising frenzy fir'cl. But if on bed Delirious flung, sleep from his pillow flies. All night he tosses, nor the balmy pow'r In any posture finds; till the gray morn Lifts her pale lustre on the paler wretch, Exanimate by love: and then perhaps Exhausted nature sinks a while to rest, Still interrupted by distracted dreams, That o'er the sick imagination rise. And in black colours paint the mimic scene. Oft with th' enchantress of his soul he talks; Sometimes in crowds distress'd; or if retired To secret-winding flow'r-enwoven bow'rs, Far from the dull impertinence of man, Just as he, credulous, his endless cares Begins to lose in blind obhvious love, Snatched from her yielded hand, he knows not how, I Through forests huge, and long untravell'd heaths I With desolation brown, he Meanders waste, y * In night and tempest M'rapt; or shrinks aghast 52 SPRING. Back from the bending precipice; or wades The turbid stream below, and strives to reach The farther shore; where succourless, and sad, She with extended arms his aid implores; But strives in vain: borne by th' outrageous flood To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave. Or whelm'd beneath the boiling eddy sinks. These are the charming agonies of love. Whose misery delights. But through the heart Should jealousy its venom once diffuse, 'Tis then delightful misery no more, But agony unmix'd, incessant gall. Corroding ev'ry thought, and blasting all Love's paradise. Ye fairy prospects, then. Ye beds of roses, and ye bow'rs of joy, Farewell ! Ye gleamings of departed peace. Shine out your last ! the yellow-tinging plague Internal vision taints, and in a night Of livid gloom imagination wraps. Ah then ! instead of love-enlighten'd cheeks. Of sunny features, and of ardent eyes I SPRING. 53 With flowing rapture bright, dark looks succeed, Suffus'd and glaring with untender fire; x\ clouded aspect, and a burning cheek, Where the whole poison'd soul, malignant, sits, And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms For which he melts in fondness, eat him up With fervent anguish, and consuming rage. In vain reproaches lend their idle aid. Deceitful pride, and resolution frail, Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours Afresh her beauties on his busy thought. Her first endearments twining round the soul. With all the witchcraft of ensnarinof love. Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew. Flames thro' the nerves, and boils along the veins; While anxious doubt distracts the tortur'd heart; For e'en the sad assurance of his fears Were ease to what he feels. Thus the warm youth, Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds, 54 SPRING. Through flowVy-tempting paths, or leads a life Of fever'd rapture, or of cruel care ; His brightest flames extinguish'd all, and all His lively moments running down to waste. But happy they ! the happiest of their kind ! Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend. 'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws, Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind, That binds their peace, but harmony itself, Attuning all their passions into love; Where friendship full-exerts her softest powV, Perfect esteem enliven'd by desire Ineffable, and sympathy of soul; Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, With boundless confidence: for nought but love Can answer love, and render bliss secure. Let him, ungen'rous, who, alone intent To bless himself, from sordid parents buys The loathing virgin, in eternal care, Well-merited, consume his nights and days: SPRING. 55 Let barb'roiis nations, whose inhuman love Is wild desire, fierce as the suns they feel; Let eastern tyrants, from the light of heav'n Seclude their bosom-slaves, meanly possess'd Of a mere, lifeless, violated form: While those whom love cements in holy faith, And equal transport, free as nature live, ■. Disdaining fear. What is the world to them, Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all! Who in each other clasp whatever fair High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish; Something than beauty dearer, should they look Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face; Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love, The richest bounty of indulgent heav'n. Mean-time a smiling offspring rises round, And mingles both their graces. By degrees The human blossom blows; and ev'ry day, Soft as it rolls along, shews some new charm, The fathers lustre, and the mother's bloom, i Then infant reason grows apace, and calls 56 SPRING. For the kind hand of an assiduous care. Delightful task ! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot, To jDour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, To hreathe th' enliv'ning spirit, and to fix The gen'rous purpose in the glowing breast. Oh speak the joy ! ye, whom the sudden tear Surprises often, while you look around, And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss. All various nature pressing on the heart: An elegant sufficiency, content, Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Ease and alternate labour, useful life, Progressive virtue, and approving heav'n. These are the matchless joys of virtuous love; And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus, As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll, Still find them happy; and consenting Spring Sheds her own rosy garland on their heads: Till ev'ning comes at last, serene and mild; When after the long vernal day of life, SPRING. 57 Enamour'd more, as more remembrance swells With many a proof of recollected love, Together down they sink in social sleep; Together freed, their gentle spirits fly To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign ,# . «.,•, and whik the rosy footed May Steals blushing on, together let us tread 'rhe morning dews, and gather in their prime Fresh blooming flowers, to grace thy braided hair, And tiiy lov'd bosom that improves their sweets. 1 THE ARGUMENT. The subject proposed. Invocation. Address to IVIr. Dodington. An introductory^ reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the succession of the seasons. As the face of nature in this season is almost uniform, the progress of the poem is a de- scription of a summer's day. The dawn. Sun- rising. Hymn to the sun. Forenoon. Summer insects described. Hay-making. Sheep-shearing. Noon-day, A woodland retreat. Group of herds and flocks. A solemn grove: how it affects a contem- plative mind. A cataract, and rude scene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The storm over, a serene afternoon. Batliing. Hour of walk- ing. Transition to the prospect of a rich well-cultivated coun- try; which introduces a panegyric on Great Britain. Sun-set. Evening, Night, Summer meteors, A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of philosophy. f- ■ SUMMER. But when her Damon's well known hand she saw, Her terrors vanished, and a softer train Of mixt emotions, hard to be described. Her sudden bosom seiz'd: SUMMER. r PtOM bright'ning fields of ether fair disclosed, Child of the sun, refulgent Summer comes, In pride of youth, and felt through nature's depth: He comes attended by the sultry hours. And ever-fanning breezes, on his way; While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring Averts her blushful face; and earth, and skies, All-smiling, to his hot dominion leaves. Hence, let me haste into the mid-wood shade. Where scarce a sun-beam wanders thro' the gloom; And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large, And sing the glories of the circling year. Come, inspiration! from thy hermit-seat, 68 SUMMER. Of utmost Saturn, v/heeling wide his round Of thirty years; to Mercury, Avhose disk Can scarce be caught by philosophic eye, Lost in the near effulgence of thy blaze. Informer of the planetary train! Without whose quick'ningglance, their cumbrous orbs" Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead, And not, as now, the green abodes of life! How many forms of being wait on thee, Inhaling spirit; from th' unfettered mind, By thee suhlim'd, down to the daily race, The mixing myriads of thy setting beam! The vegetable world is also thine. Parent of Seasons ! who the pomp precede That waits thy throne, as through thy vast domain, Annual, along the bright ecliptic road, In world-rejoicing state, it moves sublime. Mean-time, th' expecting nations, circled gay With all the various tribes of foodful earth. Implore thy bounty, or send grateful up A common hymn : Avhile, round thy beaming car, SUMMER. 69 High-seen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance, Harmonious knit, the rosy-finger'd hours, The zephyrs floating loose, the timely rains, Of bloom ethereal the light-footed dews. And soften'd into joy the surly storms. These in successive turn with lavish hand, Show'r ev'ry beauty, ev'ry fragrance show'r, Herbs, flow'rs, and fruits; till, kindling at thy touch, From land to land is flush'd the vernal year. Nor to the surface of enliven'd earth. Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods, Her lib'ral tresses, is thy force confin'd: But, to the bowel'd cavern darting deep, The min'ral kinds confess thy mighty pow'r. Effulgent, hence the veiny marble shines; Hence labour draws his tools; hence burnish'd war Gleams on the day; the nobler works of peace Hence bless mankind, and gen'rous commerce binds The round of nations in a golden chain. Th' unfruitful rock itself, impregn'd by thee, In dark retirement forms the lucid stone. 70 SUMMER. The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays, Collected light, compact; that, polish'd bright, And all its native lustre let abroad, Dares, as it sparkles on the fair-one's breast, With vain ambition emulate- her eyes. At thee the ruby lights its deep'ning glow. And with a waving radiance inward flames. From thee the sapphire, solid ether, takes Its hue cerulean; and, of ev'ning tinct, The purple-streaming amethyst is thine. With thy own smile the yellow topaz burns. Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring, When first she gives it to the southern gale. Than the green em'rald shows. But, all combin'd. Thick through the whit'ning opal play thy beams; Or, flying sev'ral from its surface, form A trembling variance of revolving hues. As the site varies in the gazer's hand. The very dead creation, from thy touch. Assumes a mimic life. By thee refin"d. In brighter mazes the relucent stream i; SUMMER. 71 Plays o'er the mead. The precipice abrupt, Projecting horror on the blacken VI flood, Softens at thy return. The desert joys Wildly, through all his melancholy bounds. Rude ruins glitter; and the briny deep, iSeen from some pointed promontory's top. Far to the blue horizon's utmost verge, Restless, reflects a floating gleam. But this, And all the much-transported muse can sing, Are to thy beaut}^, dignity, and use, L^nequal far; great delegated source Of light, and life, and grace, and joy below ! ^ How shall I then attempt to sing of Him! Who, Light Himself, in uncreated light ) llnvested deep, dwells awfully retir'd A From m.ortal eye, or angel's purer ken ; Whose sin2:le smile has, from the first of time, Fill'd overflowing, all those lamps of heav'n That beam for ever through the boundless sky: But, should he hide his face, th' astonish'd sun. And all th' extinguish'd stars, would loos'ning reel 72 SUMMER. Wide from their spheres, and chaos come again. \ And yet was ev'ry falt'ring tongue of man, Ahnighty Father! silent in thy praise. Thy works themselves would raise a gen'ral voice," E'en in the depth of solitary woods By human foot untrod; proclaim thy powV, And to the quire celestial Thee resound, Th' eternal cause, support, and end of all ! To me be nature's volume broad-display 'd; And to peruse its all-instructing page, Or, haply catching inspiration thence, Some easy passage, raptur'd, to translate, My sole delight; as through the falling glooms Pensive I stray, or with the rising dawn On fancy's eagle-wing excursive soar. Now, flaming up the heav'ns, the potent sun Melts into limpid air the high-rais'd clouds, And morning fogs, that hover'd round the hills In party-colour'd bands; till wide unveiFd The face of nature shines, from where earth seems, Far-stretch'd around, to meet the bending sphere. SUMMER. 73 Half in a blush of clust'ring roses lost, Dew-dropping coolness to the shade retires; There, on the verdant turf, or flow'ry bed, By gelid founts and careless rills to muse; IVhile tyrant heat, dispreading through the sky, With rapid sway, his burning influence darts Dn man, and beast, and herb, and tepid stream. Who can unj)itying see the flow'ry race, ^ Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom resign Before the parching beam? So fade the fair, iVhen fevers revel through their azure veins. But one, the lofty folio w'r of the sun, 5ad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves. Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns, Points her enamour'd bosom to his ray. Home, from his morning task, the swain retreats; His flock before him stepping to the fold : iVhile the fuU-udder'd mother lows around iFhe cheerful cottage, then expecting food, The food of innocence, and health! The daw, The rook and magpie, to the grey-grown oaks 74 SUMMER. That the cahn village in their verdant arms, Shelt'ring, embrace, direct their lazy flight; Where on the mingling boughs they sit embow'r'd, All the hot noon, till cooler hours arise. Faint, underneath, the household fowls convene; « And, in a corner of the buzzing shade, The house-dog, with the vacant greyhound, lies. Out stretch'd, and sleepy. In his slumbers one Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults O'er hill and dale ; till, waken'd by the wasp, , They starting snap. Nor shall the muse disdain To let the little noisy summer-race Live in her lay, and flutter through her song: Not mean though simple; to the sun allied, From him they draw their animating fire. Wak'd by his warmer ray, the reptile young Come wing'd abroad; by the light air upborn. Lighter, and full of soul. From ev'ry chink, And secret corner, where they slept away The wintry storms; or rising from their tombs To higher life; by myriads, forth at once, SUMMER. 75 Swarming they pour; of all the varied hues Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose. Ten thousand forms! ten thousand diff'rent tribes! People the blaze. To sunny waters some By fatal instinct fly; where on the pool They, sportive, wheel; or, sailing down the stream, Are snatch'd immediate by the quick-ey'd trout, Or darting salmon. Through the green- wood glade 'Some love to stray; there lodg'd, amus'd and fed, In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make The meads their choice, and visit ev'ry flow'r, And ev'ry latent herb ! for the sweet task, To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap, In what soft beds, their young yet undisclosed, Employs their tender care. Some to the house. The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight; Sip round the pail, or taste the curdling cheese: Oft, inadvertent, from the milky stream They meet their fate; or, welt'ring in the bowl, With pow'rless Avings around them wrapt, expire. But chief to heedless flies the window proves 76 SUMMER. A constant death; where, gloomily retlr'd, The villain spider lives, cunning, and fierce. Mixture abhorr'd! Amid a mangled heap Of carcases, in eager watch he sits, Cerlooking all his waving snares around. Near the dire cell the dreadless wand'rer oft Passes, as oft the ruffian shows his front; The prey at last ensnar'd, he dreadful darts, With rapid glide, along the leaning line; And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs. Strikes backward grimly pleas'd : the fiutt'ring wing,^ And shriller sound, declare extreme distress, And ask the helping hospitable hand. Resounds the living surface of the ground: Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum, To him who muses through the woods at noon; Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies reclin'd, With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade Of willows grey, close-crowding o'er the brook. Gradual, from these what num'rous kinds descend Evading e'en the microscopic eye ! SUMMER. 77 Full nature swarms with life; one wond'rous mass \ Of animals, or atoms organiz'd, Waiting the vital breath, when parent-heav'n Shall bid his spirit blow. The hoary fen. In putrid steams, emits the living cloud Of pestilence. Through subterranean cells, Where searching sun-beams scarce can find a way, Earth animated heaves. The flow'ry leaf Wants not its soft inhabitants. Secure, Within its winding citadel, the stone Holds multitudes. But chief the forest-boughs, That dance unnumber'd to the playful breeze, The downy orchard, and the melting pulp Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed Of evanescent insects. Where the pool Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible. Amid the floating verdure millions stray. Each liquid too, whether it pierces, sooths, Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste, 'With various forms abounds. Nor is the stream Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air, 78 SUMMER. s Though one transparent vacancy it seems, Void of their unseen people. These, conceard By the kind art of forming heav'n, escape The grosser eye of man: for, if the worlds In worlds inclos'd should on his senses burst, From cates ambrosial, and the nectar'd bowl, He would abhorrent turn ; and in dead night. When silence sleeps o'er all, be stunn'd with noise. /T' Let no presuming impious railer tax Creative Wisdom, as if aught was form'd In vain, or not for admirable ends. Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce His works unwise, of which the smallest part Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind? As if upon a full proportion'd dome, On swelling columns heav'd, the pride of art, A critic fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads An inch around, with blind presumption bold. Should dare to tax the structure of the whole. And lives the man, whose universal eye Has swept at once th' unbounded scheme of things; SUMMER. ^7y Mark'd their dependence so, and firm accord. As with unfalt'ring accent to conclude Y That this availeth nought? Has any seen The mighty chain of beings, less'ning doM^n From infinite perfection to the brink Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss ! From Avhich astonish'd thought, recoiling, turns? Till then alone let zealous praise ascend, And hymns of holy wonder, to that pow'r, Whose wisdom shines as lovely on our minds, As on our smiling eyes his servant-sun.^, Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways, Upward, and downward, thwarting, and convolv'd, The quiv'ring nations sport; till, tempest-wing'd. Fierce Winter sweeps them from the face of day. E'en so luxurious men, unheeding, pass An idle summer-life in fortune's shine, A season's glitter ! Thus they flutter on From toy to toy, from vanity to vice ; Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes Behind, and strikes them from the book of life. '1 80 SUMMER. Now swarms the village o'er the joyful mead The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil, Healthful and strong; full as the summer-rose Blown by prevailing suns, the ruddy maid, Half naked, swelling on the sight, and all Her kindled graces burning o'er her cheek. E'en stooping age is here; and infant-hands Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load O'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppression roll. Wide flies the tedded grain; all in a row Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field. They spread the breathing harvest to the sun, That throws refreshful round a rural smell : Or, as they rake the green-appearing ground, And drive the dusky wave along the mead. The russet hay-cock rises thick behind, In order gay. While heard from dale to dale, Waking the breeze, resounds the blended voice Of happy labour, love, and social glee. Or rushing thence, in one diffusive band, They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog SUMMER. 81 Compell'd, to where the mazy-running brook Forms a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high, And that fair-spreading in a pebbled shore. Urg'd to the giddy brink, much is the toil, The clamour much, of men, and boys, and dogs, Ere the soft fearful people to the flood Commit their woolly sides. And oft the swain, On some impatient seizing, hurls them in: Embolden'd then, nor hesitating more, Fast, fast, they plunge amid the flashing wave, And, panting, labour to the farthest shore. Repeated this, till deep the well-wash'd fleece Has drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt The trout is banish'd by the sordid stream; Heavy, and dripping, to the breezy brow Slow move the harmless race: where, as they spread Their swelling treasures to the sunny ray, Inly disturb'd, and wond'ring what this wild Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints The country fill; and, toss'd from rock to rock, Incessant bleatings run around the hills. 82 SUMMER. At last, of snowy white, the gather'd flocks Are in the wattled pen innum'rous press"d, Head above head: and, rang'd in lusty rows The shepherds sit, and whet the sounding shears. The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores, With all her gay-drest maids attending round. One, chief, in gracious dignity entbrou'd. Shines o'er the rest, the past'ral queen, and rays Her smiles, sweet-beaming, on her shepherd-king; While the glad circle round them yield their souls To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall. Mean-time, their jo^'ous task goes on apace: Some mingling stir the melted tar, and some. Deep on the new-shorn vagrant's heaving side, To stamp his master's cypher ready stand; Others th' unwiUing wether drag along; And, glorying in his might, the sturdy boy Holds by the twisted horns th' indignant ram. - Behold where bound, and of its robe bereft. By needy man, that all-depending lord. How meek, how patient, the mild creature lies ! I SUMMER. 83 What softness in its melanchol}'' face, What dumb complaining innocence appears! Fear not, ye gentle tribes, 'tis not the knife Of horrid slaughter that is o'er you wav'd; No, 'tis the tender swain's well-guided shears. Who having now, to pay his annual care, Borrow'd your fleece, to you a cumbrous load. Will send you bounding to your hills again. A simple scene! yet hence Britannia sees Her solid grandeur rise: hence she commands Th' exalted stores of ev'ry brighter clime. The treasures of the sun without his rao'e: Hence, fervent all, with culture, toil, and arts, Wide glows her land: her dreadful thunder hence 'Rides o'er the waves sublime, and now, e'en now, Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast; 'Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world. 'Tis raging noon; and, vertical, the sun I iDarts on the head direct his forceful rays. O'er heav'n and earth, far as the ranging eye Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all 84 SUMMER. From pole to pole is undistinguish'd blaze. In vain the sight, dejected, to the ground Stoops for relief; thence hot ascending steams And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields And slippVy lawn an arid hue disclose, Blast fancy's bloom, and wither e'en the soul. Echo no more returns the cheerful sound Of sharp'ning scythe: the mower sinking heaps O'er him the humid hay, with flow'rs perfum'd; And scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard Through the dumb mead. Distressful nature pants. The very streams look languid from afar; Or through th' unshelter'd glade, impatient, seem To hurl into the covert of the grove. All-conqu'ring heat, oh intermit thy wrath ! And on my throbbing temples potent thus Beam not so fierce ! Incessant still you Aoay, And still another fervent flood succeeds, Pour'd on the head profuse. In vain I sigh, And restless turn, and look around for night; SUMMER. 85 Night is far off; and hotter hours approach. Thrice happy he ! who on the sunless side Of a romantic mountain, forest-crown'd, Beneath the whole collected shade reclines; Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine-wrought, And fresh bedew'd with ever-spouting streams, Sits coolly calm; while all the world without, Unsatisfied, and sick, tosses in noon. Emblem instructive of the virtuous man, "\, Who keeps his teniper'd mind serene, and pure, And ev'ry passion aptly harmoniz'd, Amid a jarring world with vice inflam'd. Welcome, ye shades! ye bow'ry thickets, hail! Ye lofty pines! ye venerable oaks! Ye ashes wild, resounding o'er the steep ! Delicious is your shelter to the soul, As to the hunted hart the sallying spring. Or stream full-flowing, that his swelling sides Laves, as he floats along the herbag'd brink. Cool, thro' the nerves, your pleasing comfort glides; The heart beats glad; the fresh-expanded eye go SUMMER. And ear resume their watch; the sinews knit; And life shoots SAvift through all the lighten'd limbs. Around th' adjoining brook, that purls along The vocal grove, now fretting o'er a rock. Now scarcely moving through a reedy pool, Now starting to a sudden stream, and now Gently difFus'd into a limpid plain; A various group the herds and flocks compose, Rural confusion ! On the grassy bank Some ruminating lie; while others stand Half in the flood, and often bending sip The circling surface. In the middle droops The strong laborious ox, of honest front, Which incompos'd he shakes ; and from his sides The troublous insects lashes with his tail, Returning still. Amid his subjects safe, Slumbers the monarch swain; his careless arm Thrown round his head, on downy moss sustain'd; Here laid his scrip, with wholesome viands fill'd; There, list'ning ev'ry noise, his watchful dog. Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight . SUMMER. s; 3f angry gad-flies fasten on the herd; That startlinsr scatters from the shallow brook, [n search of lavish stream. Tossing the foam, rhey scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain. Through all the bright severit}- of noon; \¥hile, from their laboring breasts, a hollow moan Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills. Oft in this season too the horse, provok'd. While his big sinews full of spirits swell. Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood, Springs the high fence; and, o'er the field effus'd, Darts on the gloomy flood, with stedfast eye, And heart estrang'd to fear: his nervous chest, Luxuriant, and erect, the seat of strength, iBearsdownth" opposing stream: quenchless his thirst; :He takes the river at redoubled draughts; And with wide nostrils, snorting, skims the wave. Still let me pierce into the midnight depth Of yonder grove, of wildest largest growth: That, forming high in air a woodland quire, iNods o'er the mount beneath. At ev'ry step, 88 SUMMER, Solemn, and slow, the shadows blacker fall, "Y And all is awful listening gloom around. These are the haunts of meditation, these The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath, Ecstatic, felt; and, from this world retir'd, Convers'd with angels, and immortal forms. On gracious errands bent: to save the fall Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice; In waking whispers, and repeated dreams, To hint pure thought, and warn the favour'd soul For future trials fated to prepare ; To prompt the poet, who devoted gives His muse to better themes; to sooth the pangs Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breast (Backward to mingle in detested war, But foremost when engag'd) to turn the death ; And numberless such offices of love Daily, and nightly, zealous to perform. Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky, A thousand shapes or glide athwart the dusk, Or stalk majestic on. Deep-rous'd, I feel SUMMER. m \A sacred terror, a severe delight, Creep thro' my mortal frame; and thus, methinks, A voice, than human more, th' abstracted ear lOf fancy strikes. " Be not of us afraid, iPoor kindred man! thy fellow-creatures, we From the same parent-pow'r our beings drew. The same our lord, and laws, and great pursuit. Once some of us, like thee, through stormy life, Toil'd, tempest-beaten, ere we could attain This holy calm, this harmony of mind, iWhere purity and peace immingle charms. Then fear not us; but with responsive song, Amid these dim recesses, undisturb'd By noisy folly and discordant vice, ;0f nature sing with us, and nature's God. Here frequent, at the visionary hour. When musing midnight reigns or silent noon, ! Angelic harps are in full concert heard, And voices chanting from the wood-crownVl hill, The deep'ning dale, or inmost sylvan giade: I A privilege bestow'd by us, alone, 90 SUMMER. On contemplation, or the hallowVI ear Of poet, swelling to seraphic strain." And art thou, Stanlev, of that sacred band? Alas, for us too soon! Though rais'd above The reach of human pain, above the flight Of human joy; yet, with a mingled ray Of sadly-pleas'd remembrance, must thou feel A mother's love, a mother's tender woe: Who seeks thee still, in many a former scene; Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely-beaming eyes, Thy pleasing converse, by gay lively sense Inspir'd: M'here moral wisdom mildly shone. Without the toil of art; and virtue glow'd. In all her smiles, without forbidding pride. But, O thou best of parents! wipe thy tears; Or rather to parental nature pay The tears of grateful joy, who for a while Lent thee this younger self, .this op'ning bloom Of thy enlighten'd mind and gentle worth. Believe the muse; the M'intry blast of death Kills not the buds of virtue; no, they spread. SUMMER. 91 Beneath the heav'nly beam of brighter suns, Through endless ages, into higher pow'rs. Thus up the mount, in airy vision wrapt, I stray, regardless whither; till the sound Of a near fall of water ev'ry sense Wakes from the charm of thought: swift shrinking back, I check my steps, and view the broken scene. Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood Rolls fair, and placid; where collected all, In one impetuous torrent, down the steep It thund'ring shoots, and shakes the country round. At first, an azure sheet, it rushes broad : iThen whit'ning by degrees, as prone it falls, And from the loud-resounding rocks below Pash'd in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless show'r. Nor can the tortur'd wave here find repose: But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks, Now flashes o'er the scattered fragments, now Aslant the hollow channel rapid darts; c)2 SUIVIMER. And falling fast from gradual slope to slope, With wild infracted course, and lessen'd roar, It gains a safer "bed, and steals, at last. Along the mazes of the quiet vale. Invited from the cliff, to whose dark brow He clings, the steep-ascending eagle soars, With upward pinions through the flood of day; And, giving full his bosom to the blaze. Gains on the sun; while all the tuneftd race, Smit by afflictive noon, disordered droop, Deep in the thicket; or, from bow'r to bow'r Responsive, force an interrupted strain. The stock-dove only through the forest cooes, Mournfully hoarse; oft ceasing from his plaint. Short interval of weary woe ! again ' The sad idea of his murdered mate. Struck from his side by savage fowler's guile, Across his fancy comes; and then resounds A louder song of sorrow through the grove. Beside the dcA^y border let me sit. All in the freshness of the humid air; SUMMER. 93 There in that hollow'd rock, grotesque and wild, An ample chair moss-lin'd, and over head By flow'ring umbrage shaded; where the bee I Strays diligent, and with th' extracted balm Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh. Now, while I taste the sweetness of the shade, I While nature lies around deep-luU'd in noon, Now come, bold fancy ! spread a daring flight, And view the wonders of the torrid zone : ij Climes unrelenting! with whose rage compar'd, Yon blaze is feeble, and yon skies are cool. See, how at once the bright-effulgent sun, ' Rising direct, swift chases from the sky 1 1 The short-liv'd twilight; and with ardent blaze ! 1 Looks gaily fierce through all the dazzling air: I He mounts his throne; but kind before him sends, j Issuing from out the portals of the morn, I The gen'ral breeze, to mitigate his fire, And breathe refreshment on a fainting world. Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crown'd ■ And barb'rous wealth, that see, each circling year, H 94 SUMMER. Returning suns and double seasons pass: Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big witb mines. That on the high equator ridgy rise, Whence many a bursting stream aurif 'rous plays : Majestic woods, of ev'ry vigorous green. Stage above stage, high waving o'er the hills ; Or to the far horizon wide diffus'd, A boundless deep immensity of shade. Here lofty trees, to ancient song unknown, The noble sons of potent heat and floods Prone rushing from the clouds, rear high to heav'n Their thorny stems, and broad around them throw Meridian gloom. Here, in eternal prime, Unnumbered fruits of keen delicious taste And vital spirit, drink amid the cliffs, And burning sands that bank the shrubby vales, Redoubled day, yet in their rugged coats A friendly juice to cool its rage contain. Bear me, Pomona! to thy citron groves; To where the lemon and the piercing lime, With the deep orange, glowing through the green, I SUMMER. 95 'I Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclin'd Beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes, ' Fann'd by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit. Deep in the night the massy locust sheds, ' Quench my hot limbs; or lead me through the maze, j Embow'ring endless, of the Indian fig; I Or, thrown at gayer ease on some fair brow, i I Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cool'd, ' Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave, . I And high palmetos lift their graceful shade. " ! stretch'd amid these orchards of the sun, ' Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl, And from the palm to draw its fresh'ning wine ! More bounteous far than all the frantic juice ! Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorn'd; Nor, creeping through the woods, the gelid race Of berries. Oft in humble station dwells Unboastful worth, above fastidious pomp. Witness, thou best Anana, thou the pride Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er 96 SUMMER. The poets imag'd in the golden age: Quick let me strip thee of thy tufted coat, Spread thy ambrosial stores, and feast with Jove ! From these the prospect varies. Plains inimens Lie stretch'd below, interminable meads, And vast savannahs, where the wand'ring e^^e, Unfix t, is in a verdant ocean lost. Another Flora there, of bolder hues. And richer sweets, beyond our garden's pride. Plays o'er the fields, and show'rs with sudden banc Exuberant spring: for oft these valleys shift Their green-em broider'd robe to fiery brown, And swift to green again, as scorching suns, Or streaming dews and torrent rains, prevail. Along these lonely regions, where retir'd, From little scenes of art, great nature dwells In awful solitude, and nought is seen But the wild herds that own no master's stall. Prodigious rivers roll their fatt'ning seas: On whose luxuriant herbage, half-conceal'd, Like a fall'n cedar, far diffus'd hi? train. SUMMER. 97 Cas'd In green scales, the crocodile extends. The flood disparts: behold! in plaited mail, Behemoth rears his head. Glanc'd from his side, The darted steel in idle shivers flies: He fea.rless walks the plain, or seeks the hills; Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds, In wid'ning circle round, forget their food, And at the harmless stranger wond'ring gaze. Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream, And where the Ganges rolls his sacred wave; Or mid the central depth of black'ning woods, High-rais'd in solemn theatre around, Leans the huge elephant: wisest of brutes! O truly wise ! with gentle might endow'd, Tliough pow'rful, not destructive! Here he sees Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth, And empires rise and fall; regardless he Of what the never resting race of men Project: thrice happy! could he 'scape their guile, Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps; 98 SUMMER. Or with his tow'iy grandeur swell their state, The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert, And bid him rage amid the mortal fray, Astonish'd at the madness of mankind. Wide o'er the windino; umbrae'e of the floods. Like vivid blossoms glowing from afar, Thick swarm the brighter birds. For nature's hand, That with a sportive vanity has deck'd The plumy nations, there her gayest hues Profusely pours. But, if she bids them shine, Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day, Yet frugal still, she humbles them in song. Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent 4 Proud Montezuma's realm, whose legions cast A boundless radiance waving on the sun. While Philomel is ours; while in our shades. Through the soft silence of the list'ning night, The sober-suited songstress trills her lay. But come, my muse, the desert-barrier burst, A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky : And, swifter than the toiling caravan, SUMMER. 99 Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar; ardent climb The Nubian mountains, and the secret bounds Of jealous Abyssinia boldly pierce. Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mask Of social commerce com.'st to rob their wealth; No holy fury thou, blaspheming heav'n, With consecrated steel to stab their peace, And through the land, yet red from civil wounds, / To spread the purple tyranny of Rome. Thou, like the harmless bee, mayst freely range. From mead to mead bright with exalted flow'rs, r' From jasmine grove to grove, mayst wander gay, Through palmy shades and aromatic woods. That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills, And up the more than Alpine mountains wave. There on the breezy summit, spreading fair, For many a league; or on stupendous rocks. That from the sun-redoubling valley lift. Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops; Where palaces, and fanes, and villas rise; And gardens smile around, and cultur'd fields; 100 SUMMER. And fountains gush; and careless herds and flocks Securely stray; a world within itself. Disdaining all assault: there let me draw Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales, Profusely breathing from the spicy groves, And vales of fragrance; there at distance hear The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep From disembowel'd earth the virgin gold; And o'er the varied landscape, restless, rove, Fervent with life of ev'ry fairer kind; A land of wonders ! which the sun still eyes With ray direct, as of the lovely realm Inamour'd, and delighting there to dwell, Howchang'd the scene! In blazing height of noon, The sun, oppress'd, is plung'd in thickest gloom. Still horror reigns, a dreary twilight round. Of struggling night and day malignant mix'd. For to the hot equator crowding fast, Where, highly rarefy 'd, the yielding air Admits their stream, incessant vapours roll, Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd; v| SUMMER. 101 Or whirl'd tempestuous by the gusty wind, j Or silent borne along, heavy and slow, With the big stores of steaming oceans charged. Mean-time, amid these upper seas, condens'd Around the cold aerial mountain's brow, , And by conflicting M^inds together dash'd, The thunder holds his black tremendous throne: From cloud to cloud the rending lightnings rage; Till, in the furious elemental war Dissolv'd, the whole precipitated mass Unbroken floods and solid torrents pours. The treasures these, hid from the bounded search Of ancient knowledge; whence, with annual pomp, Rich king of floods ! o'erflows the swelling Nile. j I From his two springs, in Gojam's sunny realm, Pure-welling out, he through the lucid lake Of fair Dambea rolls his infant-stream. I There, by the naiads nurs'd, he sports away His playful youth, amid the fragrant isles, That with unfading verdure smile around. Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks; 102 SUMMER. And gath'ririg many a flood, and copious fed Vvlth all the meliow'd treasures of the sky, Winds in progressive majesty along: Through splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze, Now wanders wild o'er solitary tracts Of life-deserted sand; till, glad to quit The joyless desert, down the Nuhian rocks From thund'ring steep to steep, he pours his urn, And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave. His brother Niger too, and all the floods In which the fuU-form'd maids of Afric lave Their jetty hmbs; and all that from the tract Of woody mountains stretch'd through gorgeous Ind Fail on CormandeFs coast, or Malabar; From Menam's orient stream, that nightly shines | With insect-lamps, to where Aurora sheds On Indus' smiling banks the rosy show'r: All, at this bounteous season, ope their urns, And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land. Nor less thy world, Columbus, drinks, refreslfd, The lavish moisture of the melting year. I SUMMER. 103 Wide o'er his isles, the branching Oronoque Rolls a brown deluge; and the native drives To dwell aloft on life-sufficing trees, At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms. Swell'd by a thousand streams, impetuous hurl'd From all the roaring Andes, huge descends The mighty Orellana. Scarce the muse Dares stretch her wing o'er this enormous mass Of rushing water; scarce she dares attempt The sea-like Plata; to whose dread expanse, Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course, Our floods are rills. With unabated force, In silent dignity they sweep along, And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds, And fruitful deserts, worlds of solitude, Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain, Unseen, and unenjoy'd. Forsaking these. O'er peopled plains they fair-diffusive flow, And many a nation feed, and circle safe, In their soft bosom, many a happy isle; The seat of blameless Pan, vet undisturb'd / 104 SUMMER. By christian crimes and Europe's cruel sons.' Thus pouring on they proudly seek the deep, Whose vanquished tide, recoiling from the shock, Yields to the liquid weight of half the globe ; And ocean trembles for his green domain. But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth? This gay profusion of luxurious bliss? This pomp of nature? what their balmy meads, Their pow'rful herbs, and Ceres void of pain ? By vagrant birds dispersVI, and wafting winds, What their unplanted fruits? what the cool draughts, Th' ambrosial food, rich gums, and spicy health, Their forests yield? Their toiling insects what, Their silky pride, and vegetable robes? Ah ! what avail their fatal treasures, hid Deep in the bowels of the pitying earth, Golconda's gems, and sad Potosi's mines; Where dwelt the gentlest children of the sun? What all that Afric's golden rivers roll,' Her od'rous woods, and shining iv'ry stores? Ill-fated race ! the soft'ning arts of peace> SUMMER. "^105^/ Whate'er the humanizing muses teach; The godhke wisdom of the tempcr'd hreast; Progressive truth, the patient force of thought; Investigation calm, whose silent pow'rs Command the world ; the light that leads to heav'n ; Kind equal rule, the government of laws, And all-protecting freedom, which alone Sustains the name and dignity of man: These are not theirs. The parent-sun himself Seems o'er this world of slaves to tyrannize; And, Av'ith oppressive ray, the roseate bloom Of beauty blasting, gives the gloomy hue. And feature gross: or worse, to ruthless deeds, Mad jealousy, blind rage, and fell revengejf^ — '^' Their fervid spirit fires. Love dwells not there, The soft regards, the tenderness of life, The heart- shed tear, th' ineffable delight Of sweet humanity: these court the beam Of milder climes; in selfish fierce desire, And the wild fury of voluptuous sense, There lost. The very brute creation there 105 SUMMER. \ This rage partakes, and burns with horrid fire. Lo ! the green serpent, from his dark abode, Which e'en imagination fears to tread, At noon forth issuing, gathers up his train In orbs Immense, then, darting out anew, Seeks the refreshing fount; by which diffus'd, HethroM'shisfokls; and while,with threat'ningtongue, And deathful jaws erect, the monster curls His flaming crest, all other thirst appalfd, Or shiv'ring flies, or check'd at distance stands, Nor dares approach. But still more direful he, The small close-lurking minister of fate, Whose high-concocted venom through the veins A rapid lightning darts, arresting swift The vital current: form'd to humble man, 'This child of vengeful nature! There, sublim'd To fearless lust of blood, the savage race Roam, licens'd by the shading hour of guilt And foul misdeed, when the pure day has shut His sacred eye. The tyger darting fierce Impetuous on the prey his glance has doom'd : SUMMER. 107 The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er With many a spot, the beauty of the waste; And, sconcing all the taming arts of man, The keen hyena, fellest of the fell. These, rushing from th' inhospitable woods Of Mauritania, or the tufted isles, That verdant rise amid the Lybian wild, Innum'rous glare around their shaggy king, Majestic, stalking o'er the printed sand; And, with imperious and repeated roars, Demand their fated food. The fearful flocks Crowd near the guardian swain; the nobler herds, I Where, round their lordly bull, in rural ease, They ruminating lie, with horror hear I The coming rage. Th' awaken'd village starts; And to her flutt'ring breast the mother strains Her thoughtless infant. From the pirate's den, 1 Or stern Morocco's tyrant fang escap'd, I The wretch half wishes for his bonds again: j While, uproar all, the wilderness resounds, i From Atlas eastward to the frighted Nile. i- 108 SUMMER. Unhappy he! who from the first of joys, Society, cut oflp* is left alone -Amid this world of death. Day after day. Sad on the jutting eminence he sits. And views the main that ever toils below; Still fondly forming in the farthest verge, Where the round ether mixes with the wave, Ships, dim-disco ver'd, dropping from the clouds. At ev'ning, to the setting sun he turns A mournful eye, and down his dying heart Sinks helpless; while the wonted roar is up, , And hiss continual, through the tedious night. Yet here, e'en here, into these black abodes Of monsters, unappall'd, from stooping Rome, And guilty Caesar, liberty retir'd. Her Cato following through Numidian wilds : Disdainful of Campania's gentle plains. And all the green delights Ausonia pours; When for them she must bend the servile knee, And fawaiing take the splendid robber's boon. Nor stop the terrors of those regions here. SUMMER. 109 Com miss ion 'd demons oft, angels of wratli, Let loose the raging elements. Breath'd hot. From all the boundless furnace of the sky, And the wide-glitt'ring waste of burning sand, A suffocating wind the pilgrim smites With instant death. Patient of thirst and toil. Son of the desert, e'en the camel feels, Shot through his withered heart, the fiery blast. Or from the black-red ether, bursting broad, Sallies the sudden whirlwind. Straight the sands, Commov'd around, in gath'ring eddies play: Nearer and nearer still they dark'ning come; Till, with the gen'ral all-involving storm Swept up, the whole continuous wilds arise; And, by their noon-day fount dejected thrown, Or sunk at night in sad disastrous sleep, Beneath descending hills, the caravan Is buried deep. In Cairo's crowded streets Th' impatient merchant, wond'ring, waits in vain, And Mecca saddens at the Ions: delay. T3ut chief at sea, whose ev'ry flexile wave no SUMMER. Obeys the blast, the aerial tumult swells. In the dread ocean, undulating wide, • Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe^ The circling Typhon, whirled from point to point, Exhausting all the rage of all the sky. And dire Ecnephia reign. Amid the heav ns, Falsely serene, deep in a cloudy speck Compress'd, the mighty tempest brooding dwells: Of no regard, save to the skilful eye, Fiery and foul, the small prognostic hangs Aloft, or on the promontory's brow Musters its force. A faint deceitful calm, A fluttering gale, the demon sends before, To tempt the spreading sail. Then down at once, Precipitant, descends a mingled mass Of roaring winds, and flame, and rushing floods. In wild amazement fix'd the sailor stands. Art is too slow : by rapid fate oppress'd, His broad-wing'd vessel drinks the whelming tide, Hid in the bosom of the black abyss. With such mad seas the daring Gama fought, SUMMER. Ill For many a day, and many a dreadful night, Incessant, lab'ring round the stormy cape; By bold ambition led, and bolder thirst Of gold. For then from ancient gloom emerg'd The rising world of trade: the genius, then, Of navigation, that, in hopeless sloth, Had slumber'd on the vast Atlantic deep. For idle ages, starting, heard at last The Lusitanian prince; who, heav'n-inspir'd. To love of useful glory rous'd mankind, And in unbounded commerce mix'd the world. Increasing still the terrors of these storms, His jaws hornfic arm'd with threefold fate, Here dwells the direful shark. - Lur'd by the scent- I Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death, iBehold ! he rushing cuts the briny flood, Swift as the gale can bear the ship along; \nd, from the partners of that cruel trade, Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons. Demands his share of prey; demands themselves. The stormy fates descend: one death involves 2 \VJ> SUMMER. V Tyrants and slaves; when straight, their mangled limbi Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal. When o'er this world, by equinoctial rains Flooded immense, looks out the joyless sun, And draws the copious steam: from swampy fens, Where putrefaction into life ferments, And breathes destructive myriads; or from woods,- Impenetrable shades, recesses foul, In vapours rank and blue corruption wrapt, Whose gloomy horrors yet no desp'rate foot Has ever darVl to pierce; then, wasteful, forth Walks the dire pow'r of pestilent disease. A thousand hideous fiends her course attend, Sick nature blasting, and to heartless woe, And feeble desolation, casting down The towVing hopes and all the pride of man. Such as, of late, at Carthagena quench'd The British fire. You, gallant Vernon, saw The miserable scene; you, pitying, saw To infant weakness sunk the warrior's arm; SUMMER. 1J3 i Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form, Tlie hp pale-quiv'ring, and the beamless eye No more with ardour bright: you heard the groans Of agonizing ships, from shore to shore; Heard, nightly plung'd amid the sullen waves, The frequent corse; while on each other fixVl, ; In sad presage, the blank assistants seem'd, Silent, to ask whom fate would next demand. What need I mention those inclement skies, Where, frequent o'er the sick'ning city, plague, The fiercest child of Nemesis divine, Descends? From Ethiopia's poison'd woods, From stifled Cairo's filth, and fetid fields With locust-armies putrefying heap'd, I This great destroyer sprung. Her awful rage The brutes escape ; man is her destin'd prey, lutemp'rate man! and, o'er his guilty domes, She draws a close incumbent cloud of death; Uninterrupted by the living winds, Forbid to blow a wholesome breeze; and stain'd With many a mixture by the sun, suffus'd, 114 SUMMER. Of angry aspect. Princely ^yisdom, then, Dejects his watchful eye; and from the hand Of feeble justice, ineffectual, drop The sword and balance: mute the voice of joy, And hush'd the clamour of the busy world. Empty the streets, with uncouth verdure clad; Into the worst of deserts sudden turn'd The cheerful haunt of men: unless escap'd From the doom'd house, where matchlesshorror reign; Shut up by barb'rous fear, the smitten wretch. With frenzy wild, breaks loose; and, loud to heav'] Screaming, the dreadful policy arraigns, Inhuman, and unwise. The sullen door. Yet uninfected, on its cautious hinge Fearing to turn, abhors society: Dependants, friends, relations, love himself, Savag'd by woe, forget the tender tie, The sweet engagement of the feeling heart. But vain their selfish care : the circling sky. The wide enliv'ning air is full of fate; And, i>J;ruck by turns, in solitary pangs SUMMER. 115 They fall, iinblest, untended, and unmourn'd. Thus o'er the prostrate city black despair Extends her raven wing; Avhile, to complete The scene of desolation, stretched around, The grim guards stand, denying all retreat. And give the flying wretch a better death. Much yet remains unsung: the rage intense Of brazen-vaulted skies, of iron fields. Where drought and famine starve the blasted year: Fir'd by the torch of noon to tenfold rage, Th' infuriate hill that shoots the pillar'd flame; And, rous'd within the subterranean world, • Th' expanding earthquake, that resistless shakes Aspiring cities from their solid base, And buries mountains in the flaming gulph. But 'tis enough; return, my vagrant muse: A nearer scene of horror calls thee home. Behold, slow-settling o'er the lurid grove Unusual darkness broods; and growing gains The full possession of the sky, surcharg'd With Avrathful vapour, from the secret beds., 116 SUMMER. J Where sleep the min'ral generations, drawn. fl Thence nitre, sulphur, and the fiery spume Of fat bitumen, steaming on the day, With various-tinctur'd trains of latent flame, Pollute the sky, and in yon baleful cloud, A redd'ning gloom, a magazine of fate, Ferment; till, by the touch ethereal rous"d, The dash of clouds, or irritating war Of fighting Vvinds, while all is calm below, They furious spring. A boding silence reigns, Dread through the dun expanse; save the dull sound That from the mountain, previous to the storm, Rolls o'er the mutt'ring earth, disturbs the flood, And shakes the forest-leaf v/ithout a breath. Prone, to the lowest vale, the aerial tribes Descend : the tempest-loving raven scarce Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze The cattle stand, and on the scowling heav'ns Cast a deploring eye; by man forsook, Who to the crowded cottage hies him fast, Or seeks the shelter of the downward cave. SUMMER. 117 'Tis list'ning fear, and dumb amazement all: When to the startled eye the sudden glance Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud; And following slow'r, in explosion vast, The thunder raises his tremendous voice. At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heav'n, The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes, And rolls its awful burden on the wind. The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds: till over head a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts, I And opens wider; shuts and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal Crush'd horrible, convulsing heav'n and earth. Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail, I Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquencli'd, Th' unconquerable lightning struggles through, Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, 118// SUMMER. And fires the mountains with redoubled rage. Black from the stroke, above, the smould'ring; pint Stands a sad shatter'd trunk ; and, stretch'd below, A lifeless group the blasted cattle lie : Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look They wore alive, and ruminating still In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull, And ox half-rais'd. Struck on the castled cliff, The ven'rable tower and spiry fane Resign their aged pride. The gloomy woods Start at the flash, and from their deep recess, Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake. Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud The repercussive roar: Avith mighty crush, Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky, Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowden's peak, Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. Far-seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, And Thule bellows through her utmost isles. Guilt hears appall'd, with deeply troubled thought SUMMER. 119 And yet not always on the guilty head Descends the fated flash. Young Celadon And his Amelia were a matchless pair; With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace, The same, distinguish'd by their sex alone: Hers the mild lustre of the blooming morn, And his the radiance of the risen day. They lov'd : but such their guileless passion was. As in the dawn of time informed the heart Of innocence, and undissembling truth. 'Twas friendship heighten'd by the mutual wish, Th' enchanting hope, and sympathetic glow, Beam'd from the mutual eye. Devoting all To love, each was to each a dearer self; Supremely happy in th' awaken'd pow'r Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades, Still in harmonious intercourse they liv'd The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart, Or sigh'd and look'd unutterable things. So pass'd their life, a clear united stream. By care unruffled ; till, in evil hour, 120 SUMMER. The tempest caught them on the tender walk, Heedless how far, and where its mazes stray 'd, While, with each other hlest, creative love Still bade eternal Eden smile around. Presaging instant fate her bosom heav'd Unwonted sighs, and stealing oft a look Of the big gloom, on Celadon her eye Fell tearful, wetting her disorder'd cheek. In vain assuring love, and confidence In heav'n, repress'd her fear; it grew, and shook Her frame near dissolution. He perceiv'd Th' unequal conflict, and as angels look On dying saints, his eyes compassion shed, With love illumin'd high. '' Fear not," he said, *' Sweet innocence! thou stranger to offence, And inward storm ! He, who yon skies involves In frowns of darkness, ever smiles on thee With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft That wastes at midnight, or th' undreaded hour ' Of noon, (lies harmless: and that very voice, Which thunders terror through the guilty heart, : I SUMMER. 121> Witli tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine. 'Tis safety to be near tliee sure, and thus To clasp perfection." From liis void embrace, Mysterious heav'n ! that moment, to the ground, A blacken'd corse, was struck the beauteous maid. But who can paint the lover, as he stood, Pierc'd by severe amazement, hating Hfe, Speechless, and fix'd in all the death of woe i So, faint resemblance! on the marble tomb, The well-dissembled mourner stooping stands, For ever silent, and for ever sad. As from the face of heav'n the shattered clouds ' Tumultuous rove, th' interminable sky Sublimer swells, and o'er the world expands A purer azure. Through the lighten'd air A higher lustre and a clearer calm, Diffusive, tremble; while, as if in sign Of danger past, a glitt'ring robe of joy, Set off abundant by the yellow ray. Invests the fields; and nature smiles reviv'd. 'Tis beauty all, and grateful song around, 1212 SUMMER. Join'd to the low of kiiie, and num'rous bleat Of flocks thick-nibbling through the clover'd vale. And shall the hymn be marr'd by thankless man, Most favour'd; who with voice articulate Should lead the chorus of this lower world? Shall he, so soon forgetful of the hand Tliat hush'd the thunder, and serenes the sky, Extinguish'd feel that spark the tempest wak'd, That sense of pow'rs exceeding far his own, Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears? Cheer'd by the milder beam, the sprightly youth Speeds to the well-known pool, whose crj^stal depth A sandy bottom shews. A while he stands Gazing th' inverted landscape, half afraid To meditate the blue profound below; Then plunges headlong down the circling flood. His ebon tresses, and his rosv cheek Instant emerge; and through th' obedient wave, At each short breathing by his lip repell'd, With arms and legs according well, he makes. As humour leads, an easy-winding path; I SUMMER. 12S While, from his polish'd sides, a dewy light Effuses on the pleas'd spectators round. This is the purest exercise of health. The kind refresher of the summer-heats; Nor, when cold winter keens the bright'ning flood. Would I weak-shiv'ring linger on the brink. Thus life redoubles, and is oft preserv'd, By the bold swimmer, in the swift illapse Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs Knit into force; and the same Roman arm, That rose victorious o'er the conquer'd earth, First learn'd, while tender, to subdue the wave. E'en, from the body's purity, the mind Receives a secret sympathetic aid. Close in the covert of an hazel copse, Where winded into pleasing solitudes Runs out the rambling dale, young Damon sat, Pensive, and pierc'd with love's delightful pangs. There to the stream that down the distant rocks Hoarse-murm'ring fell, and plaintive breeze that play 'd Among the bending willows, falsely he 124 SUMIMER. Of Miisidora's cruelty complained. She felt his flame; but deep within her breast, In bashful coyness, or in maiden pride, The soft return conceal'd; save when it stole In side-long glances from her downcast eye, Or from her swelling soul in stifled sighs. Touch'd by the scene, no stranger to his vows, He fram'd a melting lay, to try her heart; And, if an infant passion struggled there. To call that passion forth. Thrice happy swain ! A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate Of mighty monarchs, then decided thine. For lo! conducted by the laughing loves, This cool retreat his Musidora sought: Warm in he!r cheek the sultry season glow'd; And, rob'd in loose array, she came to bathe ''i Her fervent limbs in the refreshing stream. What shall he do ? In sweet confusion lost. And dubious flutt'rings, he a while remain'd : A pure ingenuous elegance of soul, A delicate refinement, known to fi:\Vj I SUMMER. 125 Perplex'd his breast, and urg'd him to retire: But love forbade. Ye prudes in virtue, say, Say, ye severest, what would you have done ? Mean-time, this fairer nymph than ever blest Arcadian stream, with timid eye around The banks surveying, stripp'd her beauteous limbs, To taste the lucid coolness of the flood. Ah then ! not Paris on the piny top Of Ida panted stronger, when aside The rival-goddesses the veil divine Cast unconfin'd, and gave him all their charms, Than, Damon, thou; as from the snowy leg. And slender foot, th' inverted silk she drew; As the soft touch dissolv'd the virgin zone; And, through the parting robe, th' alternate breast, With youth wild-throbbing, on thy lawless gaze In full luxuriance rose. But, desp'rate youth, How durst thou risk the soul-distracting view; As from her naked limbs, of glowing white, Harmonious swell'd by nature's finest hand, In folds loose-floating fell the fainter lawn ; ]26 SUMMER. And fair-expos"cl she stood, shrunk from herself, With fancy bhishing, at the doubtful breeze Alarm'd, and starting hke the fearful fawn? Then to the flood she rush'd ; the parted flood Its lovely guest with closing waves receiv'd; And ev'ry beauty soft'ning, ev'ry grace Flushing anew, a mellow lustre shed : As shines the lily through the crystal mild; Or as the rose amid the morning dew, Fresh from Aurora's hand, more sweetly glows. While thus she wanton'd, now beneath the M'ave But ill conceal'd; and now with streaming locks, That half embrac'd her in a humid veil, Rising again, the latent Damon drew Such madd'ning draughts of beauty to the soul, As for a while o'erwhelm'd his raptur'd thought. With luxury too daring. Check'd, at last, By love's respectful modesty, he deem'd The theft profane, if aught profane to love Can e'er be deem'd; and, struggling from the shad< With headlong hurry fled: but first these lines, SUMMER. 127 I Trac'd by his ready pencil, on the bank ! With trembling hand he threw: '' Bathe on, my fair, Yet unbeheld save by the sacred eye Of fiiithfid love : I go to guard thy haunt. To keep from thy recess each vagrant foot, And each licentious eye." With wild surprise, As if to marble struck, devoid of sense, A stupid moment motionless she stood: So stands the statue that enchants the world. So bending tries to veil the matchless boast. The mingled beauties of exulting Greece. Recov'ring, swift she flew to find those robes Which blissful Eden knew not; and, array'd In careless haste, th' alarming paper snatch'd. But, when her Damon's well-known hand she saw, Her terrors vanish'd, and a softer train Of mixt emotions, hard to be describ'd, Her sudden bosom seiz'd: shame void of guilt. The charming blush of innocence, esteem ^'']And admiration of her lover's flame, By modesty exalted: e'en a sense 2 128 SUMMER. Of self-approving beauty stole across Her busy thought. At length, a tender calm Hush'd by degrees the tumult of her soul; And on the spreading beech, that o'er the stream Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan pen Of rural lovers this confession carv'd, Which soon her Damon kiss'd with weeping joy: " Dear youth ! sole judge of what these verses mea By fortune too much favour'd, but by love, Alas! not favour'd less, be still as now Discreet; the time may come you need not fly." The sun has lost his rage; his downward orb Shoots nothing now but animating warmth. And vital lustre; that, with various ray, Lights up the clouds, those beauteous robes of heav'j J Incessant roll'd into romantic shapes, The dream of waking fancy ! Broad below, Cover'd with rip'ning fruits, and swelling fast Into the perfect year, the pregnant earth And all her tribes rejoice. Now the soft hour Of walking comes: for him who lonely loves SUMMER. 129 To seek the distant hills, and there converse With nature; there to harmonize his heart, 5 And in pathetic song to hreathe around The harmony to others. Social friends, Attun'd to happy unison of soul; To whose exalting eye a fairer world, Of which the vulgar never had a glimpse, Displays its charms ; whose minds are richly fraught With philosophic stores, superior light; And in whose breast, enthusiastic, burns Virtue, the sons of int'rest deem romance; Now caird abroad enjoy the falling day: Now to the verdant portico of woods, To nature's vast lyceum, forth they walk; av'iJBy that kind school where no proud master reigns. The full free converse of the friendly heart, Improving and improv'd. Now from the world, Sacred to sweet retirement, lovers steal. And pour their souls in transport, which the sire Of love, approving, hears, and calls it good. Which wav, Amanda, shall we bend our course? 130 SUMMER. The choice perplexes. Wherefore should we choose All is the same with thee. Say, shall we wind Along the streams? or walk the smiling mead? Or court the forest-glades? or wander wild Among the waving harvests? or ascend, While radiant Summer opens all its pride, Thy hill, delightful Sliene? Here let us sweep The boundless landscape: now the raptur'd eye, Exulting swift, to huge Augusta send, Now to the sister-hills that skirt her plain. To lofty Harrow noAV, and now to where Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow. In lovel}^ contrast to this glorious view Calmly magnificent, then will we turn To where the silver Thames first rural grows. There let the feasted eye unwearied stray: , ^ ! Luxurious, there, rove through the pendent Avood;' I That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat; And, stooping thence to Ham's embow'ring walks Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retir'd. With her the pleasing partner of his heart, SUMMER. 131 The worthy Queensb'ry yet laments his Gay, And polish'd Cornbury wooes the willing muse, Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames; Fair-winding up to where the muses haunt In Twit'nam's bow'rs, and for their Pope implore The healing god; to royal Hampton's pile, To Clermont's terrass'd height, and Esher's groves, Where in the sweetest solitude, embrac'd By the soft windings of the silent mole, From courts and senates Pelham finds repose. Enchanting vale! beyond whate'er the muse Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung! vale of bliss! O softly-swelling hills! On which the pow'r of cultivation lies, And joys to see the wonders of his toil. Heav'ns ! what a goodly prospect spreads around, dsj Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires, And glitt'ring towns, and gilded streams, till all bj The stretching landscape into smoke decays ! Happy Britannia! where the queen of arts, Inspiring vigour, liberty abroad 132 SUMMER. Walks, uncoiilin'd, e'en to thy farthest cots, And scatters plenty with unsparing hand. Rich is thy soil, and mercifid thy clime; Thy streams unfailing in the summer's drought; Unmatch'd thy guardian-oaks; thy valleys float With golden waves: and on thy mountains, flocks Bleat numberless; Avhile, roving round their sides, Bellow the black'ning herds in lusty droves. Beneath, thy meadows glow, and rise unquell'd Against the mower's scythe. On ev'ry hand Thy villas shine. Thy country teems with wealth; And property assures it to the swain, Pleas'd, and unwearied, in his guarded toil. Full are thy cities with the sons of art; And trade and joy, in ev'ry busy street, Mingling are heard : e'en drudgery himself. As at the car he sweats, or dusty hews The palace-stone, looks gay. Thy crowded ports, Where rising masts an endless prospect yield, With labour burn, and echo to the shouts Of hurried sailor, as he hearty waves SUMMER. 13a His last adieu, and loos'ning ev'ry sheet, Resigns the spreading vessel to the wind. Bold, firm, and graceful, are thy gen'rous youth, By hardship sinew'd, and by danger fir'd, Scattering the nations where they go; and first Or on the listed plain, or storm}^ seas. Mild are thy glories too, as o'er the plans Of thriving peace thy thoughtful sires preside; In genius, and substantial learning, high; For ev'ry virtue, ev'ry worth renown'd; Sincere, plain-hearted, hospitable, kind; Yet like the nuist'ring thunder, Avhen provok'd The dread of tyrants, and the sole resource Of those that under grim oppression groan. Thy sons of glory many ! Alfred thine, In whom the splendour of heroic war. And more heroic peace, when govern'd well, Combine ; whose hallow'd name the virtues saint, And his own muses love; the best of kings! With him thy Edwards and thy Henrys shine. Names dear to fame; the first who deep impressed. 134 SUMMER. On haughty Gaul the terror of thy arms, That awes her genius still. In statesmen thou, And patriots, fertile. Thine a steady More, Who, with a gen'rous though mistaken zeal, "Withstood a brutal tyrant's usefid rage, Like Cato hrm, like Aristides just, Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor, A dauntless soul erect, who smiFd on death. Frugal, and wise, a Walsingham is thine ; A Drake, who made thee mistress of the deep, And bore thy name in thunder round the world. Then flam'd thy spirit high : but who can speak The num'rous worthies of the maiden reign? In Raleigh mark their ev'ry glory mix'd; Raleigh, the scourge of Spain ! whose breast with all The sage, the patriot, and the hero burn'd. Nor sunk his vigour when a coward-reign The warrior fetter'd, and at last resigned, To glut the vengeance of a vanquished foe. Then, active still and unrestrain'd, his mind Explor'd the vast extent of ages past, SUMMER. 135 And with his prison-hours enrich'd the world; Yet found no times, in all the long research, So glorious, or so base, as those he prov'd, In which he conquered, and in which he bled. Nor can the muse the gallant Sidney pass, The plume of warl with early laurels crown'd, The lover's mjrtle, and the poet's bay. A Hambden too is thine, illustrious land, Wise, strenuous, firm, of unsubmitting soul, Who stem'd the torrent of a downward age, To slav'ry prone, and bade thee rise again, In all thy native pomp of freedom bold. Bright, at his call, thy age of men effulg'd, Of men on whom late time a kindling eye Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read. Bring ev'ry sweetest flow'r, and let me strew The grave where Russel lies ; whose temper'd blood, With calmest cheerfulness for thee resign'd, Stain'd the sad annals of a giddy reign; Aiming at lawless pow'r, though meanly sunk In loose inglorious luxury. With him 136 SUMMER. His friend, the British Cassius, fearless bled; Of high determin'd spirit, roughly brave, By ancient learning to th' enlighten'd love Of ancient freedom warm'd. Fair thy renown In awful sages and in noble bards; Soon as the light of dawning science spread Her orient ray, and wak'd the muses' song. Thine is a Bacon; hapless in his choicQ, y Unfit to stand the civil storm of state, And through the smooth barbarity of courts. With firm but pliant virtue, forward still To urge his course: him for the studious shade Kind nature form'd, deep, comprehensive, clear. Exact, and elegant; in one rich soul, Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully join'd. t The great deliv'rer he ! who from the gloom '^c^^ I Of cloister'd monks, and jargon-teaching schools, Led forth the true philosophy, there long Held in the magic chain of words and forms, i And definitions void : he led her forth, I' \ Daughter of heav'n ! that slow ascending still. • SUMMER. . 137 Investigating sure the chain of things, i With radiant finger points to heav'n again.J_j The gen'rous Ashley thine, the friend of man; Who scann'd his nature with a brother's eye, His weakness prompt to shade, to raise his aim, To touch the liner movements of the mind, And with the moral beauty charm the heart. Why need 1 name thy Boyle, whose pious search Amid the dark recesses of his works. The great Creator sought? And why thy Lock-c, Who made the whole internal world his own? Let NcAvton, pure intelligence, whom God To mortals lent, to trace his boundless works From laws sublimely simple, speak thy fame In all philosophy. For lofty sense, Creative fancy, and inspection keen Through the deep windings of the human heart, Is not wild_Shakspeare thine and nature's boast? Is not each great, each amiable muse Of classic ages in thy Milton met? A genius universal as his theme; 138 SUMMER. Astonishing as chaos, as the bloom Of blowing Eden fair, as heav'n sublime. Nor shall my verse that elder bard forget, The gentle Spenser, fancy's pleasing son; Who, like a copious river, pour'd his song O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground: Nor thee, his ancient master, laughing sage, Chaucer, whorie native manners-painting verse, Well-moraliz'd, shines through the gothic cloud Of time and language o'er thy genius thrown. May my song soften, as thy daughters I, Britannia, hail I for beauty is their ov/n, The feeling heart, simplicity of life, And elegance, and taste: the faultless form, Sliap'd by the hand of harmony; the cheek, Wbere the live crimson, through the native white Soft shooting, o'er the face diffuses bloom, And ev'ry nameless grace; the parted lip, Like the red rose-bud moist with morning dew, Breathing dehght; and, under flowing jet, ^-j'^^r^unny ringlets, or of circling brown, SUMMER. 139 The neck slight- shaded, and the swelling breast; The look resistless, piercing to the soul, And by the soul inform'd, when drest in love She sits high-smiling in the conscious eye. Island of bliss ! amid the subject seas, That thunder round thy rocky coasts, set up, At once the wonder, terror, and delight. Of distant nations; whose remotest shores I Can soon be shaken by thy naval arm ; Not to be shook thyself, but all assaults Baffling, as thy hoar cliffs the loud sea-wave. O Thou ! by whose almighty nod the scale Of empire rises, or alternate falls, Send forth the saving virtues round the land. In bright patrol : while peace, and social love ; The tender-looking charity, intent On gentle deeds, and shedding tears through smiles; Undaunted truth, and dignity of mind; Courage composed, and keen; sound temperance, Healthful in heart and look; clear chastity, With blushes redd'ning as she moves along, 140 SUMMER. Disorder'd at the deep regard she draws; Rough industry; activity untir'd, With copious hfe inform'd, and all awake: While in the radiant front, superior shines That first paternal virtue, public zeal; Who throws o'er all an equal wide survey, And, ever musing on the common w^eal, Still labours glorious with some great design. LoAv walks the sun, and broadens by degrees, Just o'er the verge of day. The shifting clouds Assembled gay, a richly-gorgeous train. In all their pomp attend his setting throne. Air, earth, and ocean smile immense. And now, As if his weary chariot sought the bow'rs Of Amphitrite, and her tending nymphs, (So Grecian fable sung) he dips his orb; Now half-immers'd: and now a golden curve Gives one bright glance, then total disappears. r^For ever running an enchanted round. Passes the day, deceitful, vain, and void; As fleets the vision o'er the formful brain, SUMMER. 141 This moment hurrying wild th" impassion'd soul, The next in nothing lost. 'Tis so to him, The dreamer of this earth, an idle blank: A sight of horror to the cruel wretch, Who all day long in sordid pleasure roll'd, Himself an useless load, has squander'd vile, 'Upon his scoundrel train, what might have cheerVl A drooping family of modest worth. I But to the gen'rous still-improving mind, That gives the hopeless heart to sing for joy, ' Diffusing kind beneficence around, Boastless, as now descends the silent dew; To him the long review of order'd life . I Is inward rapture, only to be felt. I Confessed from yonder slow-extinguish'd clouds, All ether soft'ning, sober ev'ning takes Her wonted station in the middle air; ' A thousand shadows at her beck. First this She sends on earth; then that of deeper dye Steals soft behind ; and then a deeper still, In circle following circle, gathers round, 142 SUMMER. To close the face of things. A fresher gale Begins to wave the wood, and stir the stream, Sweeping with shadowy gust the fields of corn; While the quail clamours for his running mate. Wide o'er the thistly lawn, as swells the breeze, A whit'ning shower of vegetable down Amusive floats. The kind impartial care Of nature nought disdains: thoughtful to feed Her lowest sons, and clothe the coming year. From field to field the feather'd seeds she wings. His folded flock secure, the shepherd home Hies, merry-hearted; and by turns relieves The ruddy milk-maid of her brimming pail; The beauty whom perhaps his witless heart. Unknowing what the joy-mixt anguish means, Sincerely loves, by that best language shewn Of cordial glances, and obliging deeds. Onward they pass, o'er many a panting height, And valley sunk, and unfrequented; where At fall of eve the fairy people throng, In various game, and revelry, to pass SUMMER. 143 The summer-night, as village-stories tell. But far about they wander from the grave Of him, whom his ungentle fortune urg'd Against his own sad breast to lift the hand Of impious violence. The lonely tower Is also shunn'd; whose mournful cliambers hold, So night-struck fancy dreams, the yelling ghost. Among the crooked lanes, on ev'ry hedge, The glow-worm lights his gem ; and, thro' the dark, A moving radiance twinkles. Ev'ning yields The world to night; not in her winter-robe Of massy stygian woof, but loose array'd . Jn mantle dun. A faint erroneous ray, Glanc'd from th' imperfect surfaces of things. Flings half an image on the straining eye; While wav'ring woods, and villages, and streams, '\ And rocks, and mountain- tops, that long retain 'd Tlr ascending gleam, are all one swimming scene, ; Uncertain if beheld. Sudden to heav'n Thence weary vision turns; where, leading soft I The silent hours of love, with purest ray 144 SUMMER. Sweet Venus shines; and from her genial rise, When day-light sickens till it springs afresh, Unrivaird reigns, the fairest lamp of night. As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink, With cherish'd gaze, the lamhent lightnings shoot Across the sky; or horizontal dart In wondrous shapes: by fearful murm'ring crowds Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs, That more than deck, that animate the sky, The life-infusing suns of other worlds; Lo ! from tlie dread immensity of space Returning, with accelerated course. The rushing comet to the sun descends; And as he sinks below the shading earth, With awful train projected o'er the heav ns, The guilty nations tremble. But, above Those superstitious horrors that enslave The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith And blind amazement prone^ th' enlighten'd few, Whose godlike minds philosophy exalts, The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy SUMMER. 145 « — — Divinely great; they in their pow'rs exult, That wondrous force of thought, which mounting spurns This dusky spot, and measures all the sky; While, from his far excursion through the wilds 'Of barren ether, faithful to his time, They see the blazing wonder rise anew, In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent To work the will of all-sustaining love: From his huge vap'ry train perhaps to shake Reviving moisture on the num'rous orbs. Through which his long ellipsis winds; perhaps To lend new fuel to declining suns, To light up worlds, and feed th' eternal fire. With thee, serene philosophy, with thee. And thy bright garland, let me crown my song! Effusive source of evidence, and truth! A lustre shedding o'er th' ennobled mind, Stronger than summer-noon; and pure as that^ Whose mild vibrations sooth the parted soul, 1 New to the dawning of celestial day. 146 SUMMER. Hence thro' her nourished pow'rs, enlarged by thee, She springs aloft, with elevated pride. Above the tangling mass of low desires, , That bind the flutt'ring crowd; and, angel-wing'd, The heights of science and of virtue gains, Where all is calm and clear; with nature round, Or in the starry regions, or th' abyss, To reason's and to fancy's eye display'd : The first up-tracing, from the dreary void, The chain of causes and effects to him. The world-producing essence, who alone Possesses being; while the last receives The whole magnificence of heav'n and earth, And evTy beauty, delicate or bold. Obvious or more remote, with livelier sense, Diffusive painted on the rapid mind. Tutor'd by thee, hence poetry exalts Her voice to ages; and informs the page With music, image, sentiment, and thought, Never to die ! the treasure of mankind. Their highest honour, and their truest joy ! SUMMER. 147 Without thee what were imenhghten'd man? A savage roaming through the woods and wilds, In quest of prey; and with th' unfashion'd fur Rough-clad; devoid of ev'ry finer art, And elegance of life. Nor happiness Domestic, mix'd of tenderness and care, Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss, Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool Mechanic; nor the heav'n-conducted prow Of navigation bold, that fearless braves -The burning line or dares the wintry pole,^ Mother severe of infinite delights I Nothing, save rapine, indolence, and guile, And woes on woes, a still-revolving train! Whose horrid circle had made human life Than non-existence worse : but, taught by thee, Ours are the plans of policy, and peace; To live like brothers, and conjunctive all y' '-• t Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds Ply the tough oar, philosophy directs 148 SUMMER. The ruling helm; or like the lib'ral breath Of potent heav'n, invisible, the sail Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along. Nor to this evanescent speck of earth Poorly conlm'd, the radiant tracts on high Are her exalted range; intent to gaze Creation through; and, from that full complex Of never-ending wonders, to conceive Of the sole being right, who spoke the word, And nature mov'd complete. With inward view, Thence on th' ideal kingdom swift she turns Her eye ; and instant, at her pow'rful glance, Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear; Compound, divide, and into order shift. Each to his rank, from plain perception up To the fair forms of fancy's fleeting train: To reason then, deducing truth from truth; And notion quite abstract; where first begins The world of spirits, action c^U, and life Unfetter'd, and unmix'd. But here the cloud, So wills Eternal Providence, sits deep. SUMMER. 149 I- Enougli for us to know tliat this dark state,. In wayward passions lost, and vain pursuits, This infancy of being, cannot' prove The final issue of the works of God, By boundless love and perfect wisdom form'd, And ever rising with the rising mind. Clieck'd, ;it last, By love's respectful modesty, he deeni'd The theft profane, if aught profane to love Can e'er be deem'd; and, struggling from the shade, With headlonz hurrv fled 1 AUTUMN. ,^ J.^j '.v>i^^:,T"J-?^i-^-L-' :^ Or when the mournful tale her mother told. Of wliat her faithless fortune promis'd once, Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dew y star Of ev'iiiug, shone in tears I THE ARGUMENT. Tie subject proposed. Addressed to Mr. Onslow. A prospect of the fields ready for harvest. Reflections in praise of industry raised by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harvest storm. Shooting and hunting, tlieir barbarity. A ludicrous account of fox-hunting. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A description of fogs^ frequent in the latter part of Autumn, whence a digression^ enquiring into the rise of foun- tains and rivers. Birds of season considered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the nortliern and western isles of Scotland. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the discoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dusky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning : to which succeeds a calm, pure, sun-shiny day, such as usually shuts up the season. The harvest being gathered in, the country dissolved in joy. The whole concludes with .1 panegyric on a philosophical country life. AUTUMIff. AUTUMN. Crown 'D with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf, While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the doric reed once more, Well pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the wintry frost Nitrous prepar'd; the various-blossom'd Spring Put in white promise forth; and Summer-suns Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view, Full, perfect all, and swell my glorious theme. Onslow ! the muse, ambitious of thy name, To grace, inspire, and dignify her song. Would from the public voice thy gentle ear A while engage. Thy noble cares she knows, The patriot virtues that distend thy thought, 156 AUTUMN. Spread on thy front, and in thy bosom glow; While list'ning senates hang upon thy tongue, Devolving through the maze of eloquence '| A roll of periods sweeter than her song. But she too pants for public virtue, she, Though weak of pow'r, yet strong in ardent will, Whene'er her country rushes on her heart, Assumes a bolder note, and fondly tries To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame. When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days. And Libra weighs in equal scales the year; From heav'n's high cope the fierce effulgence shool Of parting Summer, a serener blue, With golden light enliven'd, v/ide invests The happy world. Attemper'd suns arise, Sweet-beam'd, and shedding oft through luci< clouds A pleasing calm ; while broad, and brown, below Extensive harvests hang the heavy head. Rich, silent, deep, they stand; for not a gale AUTUMN. 157 Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain : A calm of plenty ! till the ruffled air Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow. " Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky; The clouds fly diff'rent; and the sudden sun By fits effulgent gilds th' illumined field, And black by fits the shadows sweep along. A gaily-checker'd heart -expanding-view, Far as the circling eye can shoot around,. Unbounded tossing in a flood of corn. These are thy blessings, industry ! rough pow'r! Whom labour still attends, and sweat, and pain; vYet the kind source of ev'ry gentle art, l,And all the soft civility of life: iRaiser of human kind ! by nature cast, Naked, and helpless, out amid the woods rAnd wilds, to rude inclement' elements; "With various seeds of art deep in the mind I llmplanted, and, profusely pour'd around, » 'Materials infinite; but idle all. IStill unexerted, in th' unconscious breast, o \ 158 AUTUMN. Slept the lethargic pow'rs; corruption still. Voracious, swallow'd what the lib'ral hand Of bounty scatter'd o'er the savage year: And still the sad barbarian, roving, mix'd With beasts of prey; or for his acorn-meal Fought the fierce tusky boar; a shiv'ring wretch! Aghast, and comfortless, when the bleak north. With Winter charg'd, let the mix'd tempest fly, ' Hail, rain, and snow, and bitter- breathing frost: Then to the shelter of the hut he fled ; And the wild season, sordid, pin'd away. For home he had not : home is the resort Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty ; where, Supporting and supported, polish'd friends. And dear relations, mingle into bliss. But this the rugged savage never felt, E'en desolate in crowds; and thus his days / RoU'd heavy, dark, and unenjoy'd, along; A waste of time ! till industry approach'd, And rous'd him from his miserable sloth : His faculties unfolded ; pointed out AUTUMN. 159 W^here lavish nature the directing hand ^ 3f art demanded; shew'd him how to raise His feeble force by the mechanic pow'rs, To dio' the min ral from the vaulted earth, L)n what to turn the piercing rage of fire, )n what the torrent, and the gathered blast; jave the tall ancient forest to his ax ; Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the stone, Till by degrees the finished fabric rose; i'ore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur, ^nd wrapt them in the woolly vestment warm, )r bright in glossy silk, and flowing lawn; Vith wholesome viands fill'd his table, pour'd ['he sfen'rous <>:lass around, inspir'd to wake 'he life-refining soul of decent wit: •Tor stopp'd at barren bare necessity; Jut still advancing bolder, led him on pomp, to pleasure, elegance, and grace; [ind, breathing high ambition through his soul, et science, wisdom, glory, in his view, llnd bade him be the lord of all below. 160 AUTUMN. Then gathering men their natural pow'rs con bin'd, And form'd a public; to the general good Submitting, aiming, and conducting all. For this the patriot-council met, the full, The free, and fairly represented whole; For this they plann'd the holy guardian laws, Distinguish'd orders, animated arts. And v/ith joint force oppression chaining, set Imperial justice at the helm; yet still To them accountable: nor slavish dream'd That toiling millions must resign their weal, And all the honey of their search, to such As for themselves alone themselves have rais'd. Hence ev'ry form of cultivated life In order set, protected, and inspir'd, Into perfection wrought. Uniting all. Society grew numerous, high, polite, And happy. Nurse of art ! the city rearVl In beauteous pride her tow'r-encircled head ; And, stretching street on street, by thousands dre , AUTUMN. 161 r 1 From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew :' To bows strong straining, her aspiring sons. Then commerce brought into the public walk ^/ The busy merchant; the big warehouse built; Rais'd the strong crane; chok'd up the loaded street With foreign plenty; and thy stream, O Thames, Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods! Chose for his grand resort. On either hand. Like a long wintry forest, groves of masts Shot up tbeir spires; the bellying sheet between Possess'd the breezy void; the sooty hulk Steer'd sluggish on; the splendid barge along Row'd, regular, to harmony; around, The boat, light-skimming, stretch'd its oary wings; 1 While deep the various voice of fervent toil '! From bank to bank increas'd; whence ribb'd with ; oak, To bear the British thunder, black, and bold, The roarins: vessel rush'd into the main. Then too the pillar'd dome, magnilic, heav'd re«j Its ample roof; and luxury within 152 AUTUMN. Pour'd out her glitt'ring stores : the canvas smooth, With glowing Hfe protub'rant, to the view Embodied rose; the statue seem'd to breathe, And soften into flesh, beneath the touch y^ / Of forming art, imagination-flush'd. All is the gift of industry; whate'er Exalts, embellishes, and renders life Delightful. Pensive Winter cheer'd by him Sits at the social fire, and happy hears Th' excluded tempest idly rave along ; His harden'd fingers deck'd the gaudy Spring- Without him Summer were an arid waste; Nor to th' autamnal months could thus transmit Those full, mature, immeasurable stores, That, waving round, recall my wand'ring song. Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky, And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the spreading day; Before the ripen'd fields the reapers stand. In fair array; each by the lass he loves, To bear the rougher part, and mitigate By nameless gentle offices her toil. AUTUMN. 163 At once they stoop and swell the lusty sheaves; While through their cheerful hand the rural talk, The rural scandal, and the rural jest, Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time, And steal unfelt the sultry hours away. Behind the master walks, builds up the shocks; And, conscious, glancing oft on ev'ry side His sated eye, feels his heart heave with joy. The gleaners spread around, and here and there, Spike after spike, their scanty harvest pick. Be not too narrow, husbandmen ! but fling From the full sheaf, with charitable stealth, The lib'ral handful. Think, oh grateful think ! How good the God of harvest is to you; Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields; ^\'hile these unhappy partners of your kind Wide hover round you, like the fowls of heav'n, And ask their humble dole. The various turns Of fortune ponder; that your sons may Mant What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give. The lovely young Lavinia once had friends;' jr. iGi AUTUMN. And fortune smil'd, deceitful, on her birth. For, in her helpless years depriv'd of all, Of evTy stay, save innocence and heav'n, She, with her widow'd mother, feeble, old, And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd Among the windings of a woody vale; By solitude and deep surrounding shades, But more by bashful modesty, conceal'd. Together thus they shunn'd the cruel scorn Which virtue, sunk to poverty, would meet From giddy passion and low-minded pride: Almost on nature's common bounty fed : Like the gay birds that sung them to repose, Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare. Her form was fresher than the morning rose, When the dew wets its leaves; unstain'd and pure, As is the lily, or the mountain snow. The modest virtues mingled in her eyes, Still on the ground dejected, darting all Their humid beams into the blooming flow'rs: Or when the mournful tale her mother told, AUTUMN. I6r, Of what her faithless fortune promised once, Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dewy star Of ev'ning, shone in tears. A native grace Sat fair-proportion'd on her polish'd limbs, Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire, Beyond the pomp of dress; for loveliness Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, But is when unadorn'd adorn'd the most. . Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self, Recluse amid the close-embow'ring wood^. As in the hollow breast of Appenine, Beneath the shelter of encircling hills, A myrtle rises, far from human eye, * And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild : So flourish'd blooming, and unseen by all, The sweet Lavinia; till, at length, compell'd By strong necessity's supreme command, With smiling patience in her looks, she went To glean Palemon's fields. The pride of swains Palemon was, the gen'rous, and the rich; Who led the rural life in all its joy 156 AUTUMN. And elegance, such as Arcadian song Transmits from ancient uncorrupted times; When tyrant custom had not shackled man, But free to follow nature was the mode. He then, his foncy with autumnal scenes Amusing, chanc'd beside his reaper-train To walk, when poor Lavinia drew his eye Unconscious of her pow'r, and turning quick With unaffected blushes from his gaze: He saw her charming, but he saw not half The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd. That very moment love and chaste desire Sprung in his bosom, to himself unknown; For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh, Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn, Should his heart own a gleaner in the field; And thus in secret to his soul he sigh'd. " What pity ! that so delicate a form, By beauty kindled, where enliv'ning sense And more than vulgar goodness seem to dwell, Should be devoted to the rude embrace AUTUMN. 167 Of some indecent clown ! She looks, methinks, Of old Acasto's line; and to my mind Recalls that patron of my happy life, From whom my lib'ral fortune took its rise; Now to the dust gone down ; his houses, lands, And once fair-spreading family, dissolv'd. 'Tis said that in some lone obscure retreat, Urg'd by remembrance sad, and decent pride. Far from those scenes which knew their better davs, His aged widow and his daughter live, Whom yet my fruitless search could never find. Romantic wish! would this the daughter were!" When, strict enquiring, from herself he found She was the same, the daughter of his friend. Of bountiful Acasto; who can speak The mingled passions that surpris'd his heart, And through. his nerves in shiv'ring transport ran? Then blaz'd his smother'd flame, avow'd, and bold ; And as he view'd her, ardent, o'er and o'er. Love, gratitude, and pity, wept at once. Confus'd, and frighten'd at his sudden tears, 168 AUTUMN. Her rising beauties flush'd a higher bloom, As thus Palemon, passionate and just, Pour'd out the pious rapture of his soul. " And art thou then Acasto's dear remains: She, whom my restless gratitude has sought, So long in vain? O heav'ns ! the very same, The soften'd image of my noble friend, Alive his ev'ry look, ev'ry feature. More elegantly touch'd. Sweeter than Spring! Thou sole surviving blossom from the root That nourish'd up my fortune! Say, ah where, In what sequester'd desert, hast thou drawn The kindest aspect of delighted heav'n? Into such beauty spread, and blown so fiiir; Though poverty's cold wind, and crushing rain, Beat keen, and heavy, on thy tender years? O let me now, into a richer soil, Transplant thee safe ! where vernal suns, and show'rs, Diffuse their warmest, largest influence; And of my garden be the pride, and joy! Ill it befits thee, oh it ill befits I'T. AUTUxMN. ]69 Acasto's daughter, his whose open stores, Though vast, were little to his ample heart, The father of a country, thus to pick The very refuse of those harvest fields, Which from his bounteous friendship I enjoy. Then throw that shameful pittance from thy hand, But ill applied to such a rugged task; The fields, the master, all, my fair, are thine; If to the various blessings which thy house Has on me lavish'd, thou wilt add that bliss. That dearest bliss, the pow'r of blessing thee!" Here ceas'd the youth: yet still his speaking eye Express'd the sacred triumph of his soul, With conscious virtue, gratitude, and love, Above the vulgar joy divinely rais'd. Nor waited he reply. Won by the charm Of goodness irresistible, and all In sweet disorder lost, she blush'd consent. The news immediate to her mother brought, While, pierc'd with anxious thought, she pin'd away The lonely moments for Lavinia's fate; 170 • AUTUMN. Amaz'd, and scarce believing what she heard, Joy seiz'd her wither'd veins, and one bright gleam Of setting life shone on her ev'ning hours : Not less enraptur'd than the happy pair; Who flourish'd long in tender bliss, and rear'd A num'rous offspring, lovely like themselves. And good, the grace of all the country round. Defeating oft the labours of the year, The sultry south collects a potent blast. At first the groves are scarcely seen to stir Their trembling tops; and a still murmur runs Along the soft-inclining fields of corn: But as the aerial tempest fuller swells, And in one mighty stream, invisible, Immense, the whole excited atmosphere Impetuous rushes o'er the sounding world : Strain'd to the root, the stooping forest pours A rustling show'r of yet untimely leaves. High-beat, the circling mountains eddy in. From the bare wild, the dissipated storm, And send it in a torrent down the vale. AUTUMN. 171 Exposd, and naked, to its utmost rage, Through all the sea of harvest rolling round, The billowy plain floats wide; nor can evade, Though pliant to the blast, its seizing force; Or whirl'd in air, or into vacant chaff Shook waste. And sometimes too a burst of rain. Swept from the black horizon, broad, descends In one continuous flood. Still over head The mingling tempest weaves its gloom, and still The deluge deepens; till the fields around Lie sunk, and flatted, in the sordid wave. Sudden the ditches swell; the meadows swim. Red, from the hills, innumerable streams Tumultuous roar; and high above its banks The river lift; before M'hose rushing tide. Herds, flocks, and harvests, cottages, and swains, Roll mingled down: all that the winds had spar'd In one wild moment ruin\l; the big hopes. And well-earn'd treasures of the painful year. Fled to some eminence, the husbandman Helpless beholds the miserable wreck 179, AUTUMN, Driving along; his drowning ox at once Descending, with his labours scatter'd round, He sees ; and instant o'er his shiv'ring thought Comes Winter uuDrovided, and a train C Of clamant children dear. Ye masters, then, Be mindful of the rough laborious hand, That sinks you soft in elegance and ease; Be mindful of those limbs in russet clad, Whose toil to yours is warmth, and graceful pride; And oh be mindful of that sparing board, Which covers yours with luxury profuse, Makes your glass sparkle, and your sense rejoice! Nor cruelly demand what the deep rains, And all-involving winds, have swept away. Here the rude clamour of the sportsman's joy,. { The gun fast-thund'ring, and the winded horn. Would tempt the muse to sing the rural game: How in his mid-career, the spaniel struck, Stiff, by the tainted gale, with open nose, Outstretch'd, and finely sensible, draws full, Fearfid, and cautious, on the latent prey; AUTUMN. 173 As In the sun the circling covey bask Their varied plumes, and watchful ev'ry way, Through the rough stubble tui:n the secret eye. Caught in the meshy snare, in vain they beat Their idle wings, entangled more and more: Nor on the surg-es of the boundless air, Though borne triumphant, are they safe; the gun, Glanc'd just and sudden from t'he fowler's eye, Overtakes their sounding pinions; and again, Immediate, brings them from the tow'ring wing 'Dead to the ground; or drives them wide-dispers'd, Wounded, and wheeling various, down the wind. These are not subjects for the peaceful muse, Nor will she stain with such her spotless song; Then most delighted, when she social sees jThe whole mix'd animal creation round lAlive and happy. 'Tis not joy to her, ^ , I V- \^ iThis flilsely-cheerful barb'rous game of death; iThis rage of pleasure, which the restless youth Awakes, impatient, with the gleaming morn; (When beasts of prey retire, that all night long, r 174 AUTUMN. Urg'cl by necessity, had rangVl the dark, As if their conscious ravage shun'd the light, Asham'd. Not so the steady tyrant man, Who with the thoughtless insolence of pow'r Inflam'd, beyond the most infuriate wrath Of the M'orst monster that e'er roam'd the waste. For sport alone pursues the cruel chace, Amid the beamings of the gentle days. Upbraid, ye rav'ning tribes, our M^anton rage, For hunger kindles you, and lawless want; But lavish fed, in nature's bounty roll'd, To joy at anguish, and delight in blood, Is what vour horrid bosoms never knew. Poor is the triumph o'er the timid hare! Scar'd from the corn, and now to some lone seat Retir'd: the rushy fen; the ragged furze, Stretch'd o'er the stony heath; the stubble chapt; The thistly lawn; the thick-entangled broom; Of the same friendly hue, the wither'd fern; The fallow ground laid open to the sun, ' Concoctivc; and the nodding sandy bank. ! AUTUMN. 175 Hting* o'er the mazes of the mountain brook. Vain is her best precaution; though she sits Conceal'd, with fokling ears; unsleeping eyes, By nature rais'd to take th' horizon in ; And head couch'd close betwixt her hairy feet, In act to spring away. The scented dew Betrays her earl}^ labyrinth; and deep, In scatter'd sullen op'nings, far behind. With ev'rv breeze she hears the comino; storm. But nearer, and more frequent, as it loads ' The sighing gale, she springs amaz'd, and all The savage soul of game is up at once : The pack full-op'ning, various; the shrill horn Resounded from the hills; the neighing steed, Wild for the chace; and the loud hunter's shout; O'er a weak, harmless, flying creature, all Mix'd in mad tumult, and discordant joy. The stag too, singled from the herd, where long- He rang'd the branching monarch of the shades, Before the tempest drives. At first, in speed He, sprightly, puts his faith; and, rous'd by fear. 176 AUTUMN. Gives all his swift aerial soul to flight; Against the breeze he darts, that way the more To leave the less'ning murd'rous cry behind; Deception short! though fleeter than the winds Blown o'er the keen-air'd mountain by the north, He bursts the thickets, glances through the glades And plunges deep into the wildest wood ; If slow, yet sure, adhesive to the track Hot-steaming, up behind him come again Th' inhuman rout, and from the shady depth Expel him, circling through his ev'ry shift. He sweeps the forest oft; and sobbing sees The glades, mild op'ning to the golden day; Where, in kind contest, Avith his butting friends He wont to struggle, or his loves enjoy. Oft in the full-descending flood he tries To lose the scent, and lave his burning sides: Oft seeks the herd ; the watchful herd, alarm'd, With selfish care avoid a brother's woe. What shall he do? His once so vivid nerves, So full of buoyant spirit, now no more AUTUMN. 177 Inspire the course; but fainting breathless toil, Sick, seizes on his heart: he stands at bay; And puts his last weak refuge in despair. ^' The big round tears run down his dappled face; 1, He groans in anguish; while the growling pack, m ^lood-happy, hang at his fair jutting chest, And mark his beauteous checker'd sides with gore. Of this enough. But if the silvan youth, Whose fervent blood boils into violence, Must have the chace; behold, despising flight, ' The rous'd-up lion, resolute, and slow. Advancing full on the protended spear, And coward-band, that circling wheel aloof. Slunk from the cavern, and the troubled Arood, ' See the grim wolf; on him his shaggy foe Vindictive fix, and let the ruffian die: Or, growling horrid, as the brindled boar Grins fell destruction, to the monster's heart Let the dart lighten from the nervous arm. These Britain knows not; give, ye Britons, then Your sportive fury, pityless, to pour I ■ 178 AUTUMN. Loose on the nightly robber of the fold : Him, from his craggy Mending haunts unearth'd, Let all the thunder of the chace pursue. Throw the broad ditch behind you; o'er the hedge High bound, resistless; nor the deep morass Refuse, but through the shaking wilderness Pick your nice way; into the perilous flood Bear fearless, of the raging instinct full; And as you ride the torrent, to the banks Your triumph sound sonorous, running round. From rock to rock, in circling echoes tost; Then scale the mountains to their woody tops; Rush down the dang'rous steep; and o'er the lawn, In fancy SAvallowing up the space between, Pour all your speed into the rapid game. For happy he ! who tops the wheeling chace ; Has ev'ry maze evolv'd, and ev'ry guile Disclos'd; who knows the merits of the pack; Who saw the villain seiz'd, and dying hard. Without complaint, though by an hundred mouths Relentless torn: O glorious he, beyond AUTUMN. 179 His daring peers! when the retreating horn Calls them to ghostly halls oF- grey renown, With woodland honours graced; the fox's fur, Depending decent from the roof; and spread Round the drear walls, with antic figures fierce, The stag's large front : he then is loudest heard, When the night staggers with severer toils, With feats Thessalian centaurs never knew. And their repeated M^onders shake the dome. But first the fuel'd chimney blazes wide; The tankards foam; and the strong table groans Beneath the smoking sirloin, stretch'd immense, Prom side to side; in which, with desp'rate knife, They deep incision make, and talk the while Of England's glory, ne'er to be defac'd While hence they borrow vigour: or amain Into the pasty plungd, at intervals. If stomach keen can intervals allow, Relating all the glories of the chace. Then sated hunger bids his brother thirst Produce the mighty bowl; the mighty Ijowl, 180 AUTUMN. Swell'd high with fiery juice, steams lib'ral round A potent gale, delicious, as the breath Of Maia to the love-sick shepherdess, On violets diffus'd, Avhile soft she hears Her panting shepherd stealing to her arms. Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn, Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat Of thirty years; and now his honest front Flames in the light refulgent, not afraid E'en with the vineyard's best produce to vie. To cheat the thirsty moments, whist a while AValks his dull round, beneath a cloud of smoke, Wreath'd, fragrant, from the pipe; or the quick dice, In thunder leaping from the box, awake The sounding gammon: while romp-loving miss Is haul'd about, in gallantry robust. At last these puling idlenesses laid Aside, frequent and full, the dry divan Close in firm circle; and set, ardent, in For serious drinking. Nor evasion sly, AUTUxMN. 181 Nor sober sliift, is to the puking wretch Indulg'cl apart; but earnest, brimming bowls Lave ev'ry soul, the table floating round, And pavement, faithless to the fuddled foot. Thus as they swim in mutual swill, the talk, Vocif'rous at once from twenty tongues. Reels fast from theme to theme ; from horses, hounds. To church or mistress, politics or ghost, In endless mazes, intricate, perplex'd. j\Iean-time, with sudden interruption, loud, Th' impatient catch bursts from the joyous heart; That moment touchVl is ev'ry kindred soul; And, op'ning in a fuU-mouth'd cry of joy. The laugh, the slap, the jocund curse go round; While, from their slumbers shook, the kenncl'd hounds Mix in the music of the day again. As when the tempest, that has vex'd the deep The dark night long, with fainter murmurs falls: So gradual sinks their mirth. Their feeble tongues. Unable to take up the cumbrous word, 132 AUTUMN. Lie quite dissolv'd. Before their maudlin eyes, Seen dim, and blue, the double tapers dance, I Like the sun wading through the misty sky. Then sliding soft, they drop. Confus'd above, Glasses and bottles, pipes and gazetteers, As if the table e'en itself was drunk, Lie a wet broken scene; and wide, below. Is heap'd the social slaughter: where astride The lubber pow'r in iilthy triumph sits, Slumbrous, inclining still from side to side. And steeps them drench'd in potent sleep till morn> Perhaps some doctor, of tremendous paunch. Awful and deep, a black abyss of drink. Outlives them all; and from his buried flock Hetiring, full of rumination sad, Laments the weakness of these latter times. But if the rougher sex by this fierce sport Is hurried wild, let not such horrid joy E'er stain the bosom of the British fair. Far be the spirit of the chace from them ! Uncomely courage, unbeseeming skill; AUTUMN. 183 To spring the fence, to rein the prancing* steed; The cap, the whip, the mascuhne attire; In Mliich they roughen to the sense, and all The winning softness of their sex is lost. In them 'tis graceful to dissolve at woe; I ^'^^ With ev'ry motion, ev'r}^ word, to wave Quick o'er the kindling cheek the ready blush; And from the smallest violence to shrink Unequal, then the loveliest in their fears; And by this silent adulation, soft, To their protection more engaging man. O may their eyes no miserable sight, Save weeping lovers, see ! a nobler game, Through love's enchanting wiles pursued, yet fled, In chace ambiguous. May their tender limbs Float in the loose simplicity of dress! And, fashion'd all to harmony, alone Know they to seize the captivated soul, In rapture warbled from love-breatliing lips; To teach the lute to languish; with smooth step, Disclosing motion in its ev'ry charm. 184 « AUTUMN. To swim along, and swell the mazy dance; To train the foliage o'er the snowy lawn; To guide the pencil^ turn the tuneful page; To lend new flavour to the fruitful year, And heio-hten nature's dainties: in their race To rear their graces into second life; To give society its highest taste; Well-order'd home man's best dehght to make; And by submissive wisdom, modest skill. With cv'ry gentle care-eluding art, To raise the virtues, animate the bliss, And sweeten all the toils of human life: This be the female dignity, and praise. Ye swains now hasten to the hazel bank; Where, down yon dale, the wildly- winding brook Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array, Fit for the thickets and the tangling shrub, Ye virgins come. For you their latest song The woodlands raise; the clust'ring nuts for you The lover finds amid the secret shade; And, where they burnish on the topmost bough. AUTUMN. 185 With active vigour crushes down the tree; Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk, A glossy show'r, and of an ardent brown, As are the ringlets of Melinda's hair: Melinda! form'd with ev'ry grace complete, Yet these neglecting, above beauty wise, And far transcending sucli a vulgar praise. Hence from the busy joy-resounding fields, In cheerful error, let us tread the maze Of Autumn, unconfin'd; and taste, reviv'd. The breath of orchard big with bending fruit. Obedient to the breeze and beating ray, From the deep-loaded bough a mellow show'r Incessant melts aM^ay. The juicy pear Lies, in a soft profusion, scattered round. A various sweetness swells the gentle race; By nature's all-refining hand prepar'd; Of temper'd sun, and water, earth, and air. In ever-changing composition mixt. Such, falling frequent through the chiller night, The fragrant stores, the wide-projected heaps 186 AUTUMN. i Of apples, which the kisty-handed year, Iniium'rous, o'er the blushino- orchard shakes. A various spirit, fresh, deHcious, keen, Dwells in their gelid pores; and, active, points The piercing cyder for the thirsty tongue: Thy native theme, and boon inspirer too, Phillips, Pomona's bard, the second thou Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfetter'd verse, With British freedom sing the British song: How, from Silurian vats, high-sparkling wines Foam in transparent floods; some strong, to cheer The wintry revels of the lab'ring hind; And tasteful some, to cool the summer-hours. In this glad season, while his swxetest beams The sun sheds equal o'er the meeken'd day; O lose me in the green delightful walks Of, Dodington, thy seat, serene, and plain; Where simple nature reigns; and cv'ry view. Diffusive, spreads the pure Dorsetian downs. In boundless prospect; yonder shagg'd with wood, Here rich v/ith harvest, and there white with flocks ! AUTUMN. 187 Mean-time the grandeur of thy lofty dome, Far-splendid, seizes on the ravish'd eye. New beauties rise with each revolving day; New columns swell; and still the fresh Spring finds New plants to quicken, and new groves to green; Full of thy genius all! the muses' seat: .Where in the secret bow'r, and winding walk, For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay. Here wand'ring oft, fir'd with the restless thirst Of thy applause, I solitary court J\\ inspiring breeze: and meditate the book Of nature ever_ open; aiming thence, Warm from theheart, to learn the moral song. Here, as I steal along the sunny wall, j Where Autumn basks, with fruit empurpled deep. My pleasing theme continual prompts my thought; Presents the downy peach; the shining plum; The ruddy, fragrant, nectarine; and dark. Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig. The vine too here her curling tendrils shoots; Hangs out her clusters, glowing to the south; o 188 AUTUMN. And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky. Turn we a moment fancy's rapid flight To vig'rous soils, and climes of fair extent; Where, by the potent sun elated high, The vineyard swells refulgent on the day; Spreads o'er the vale; or up the mountain climbs, Profuse; and drinks amid the sunny rocks, From cliff to cliff increas'd, the heighten'd blaze. Low bend the weighty boughs. The clusters clear Half through the foliage seen, or ardent flame, Or shine transparent; while perfection breathes White o'er the turgent film the living dew. As thus they brighten with exalted juice, Touch'd into flavour by the mingling ray; The rural youth and virgins o'er the field. Each fond for each to cull th' autumnal prime, Exulting rove, and speak the vintage nigh. Then comes the crushing swain; the country floats And foams unbounded with the mashy flood; That by degrees fermented, and refin'd. Round the rais'd nations pours the cup of joy: \ AUTUMN. 189 The claret smooth, red as the lip we press In sparkling fancy, while we drain the bowl; The mellow-tasted burgundy ; and quick, As is the wit it gives, the gay champaign. Now, by the cool declining year condens'd, Descend the copious exhalations, check'd As up the middle sky unseen they stole, And roll the doubling fogs around the hill. No more the mountain, horrid, vast, sublime, Who pours a sweep of rivers from his sides, And high between contending kingdoms rears The rocky long division, fills the view With great variety; but in a night Of gath'ring vapour, from the baffled sense ■ Sinks dark and dreary. Thence expanding far. The huge dusk, gradual, swallows up the plain: I Vanish the woods; the dim-seen river seems I it' I Sullen, and slow, to roll the misty wave. E'en in the height of noon opprest, the sun Sheds M-eak, and blunt, his wide-refracted ray; Whence olarina; oft, with manv a broaden'd orb, 2 190 AUTUMN. He frights the nations. Indistinct on earth, Seen through the turhid air, beyond the hfe Objects appear; and, wilder'd, o'er the waste The shepherd stalks gigantic. Till at last Wreath'd dun around, in deeper circles still Successive closing, sits the genVal fog- Unbounded o'er the world; and, mingling thick, A formless grey confusion cov^ers all. As Avhen of old (so sung the Hebrew bard) Light, uncollected, through the chaos urg'd Its infant way; nor order yet had drawn His lovely train from out the dubious gloom. These roving mists, that constant now begin To smoke along the hilly country, these, With weighty rains, and melted Alpine snows. The mountain-cisterns fill, those ample stores Of water, scoop'd among the hollow rocks; Whence gush the streams, tlie ceaseless fountains play, And their unfailing wealth the rivers draw. Some sages say, that, Avhere the num'rous wa\e AUTUMN. njl For ever lashes tlie resounding shore, Drill'd through tlie sandy stratum, ev'ry way, The waters with tlie sandy stratum rise; Amid whose angles infinitely strain'd. They joyful leave their jaggy salts behind, And clear and sweeten, as they soak along. Nor stops the restless fluid, mounting still, Though oft amidst th' irriguous vale it springs; But to the mountain courted by the sand, That leads it darkling on in faithful maze, Far from the parent-main it boils again Fresh into day; and all the glitt'ring hill Is bright with spouting rills. But hence this vain Amusive dream ! why should the waters love To take so far a journey to the hills, When the sweet valleys offer to their toil Inviting quiet, and a nearer bed? I Or if, by blind ambition led astray, ' They must aspire, why should they sudden stop : Among the broken mountain's rushy dells. And, ere they gain its highest peak, desert 192 AUTUMN. Th' attractive sand that charm'd their course SQ long? I Besides, the hard agglomerating salts, The spoil of ages, would impervious choke Their secret channels; or, by slow degrees, High as the hills protrude the swelling vales: Old ocean too, suck'd through the porous globe, Had long ere now forsook his horrid bed, And brought Deucalion's watry times again. Say then, where lurk the vast eternal springs, That, like creating nature, lie conceal'd From mortal eye, yet with their lavish stores Refresh the globe, and all its joyous tribes? O thou pervading genius, giv'n to man. To trace the secrets of the dark abyss, O lay the mountains bare! and wide display Their hidden structure to th' astonish'd view 1 Strip from the branching Alps their piny load; The huofe incumbrance of horrific woods From Asian Taurus, from Imaus stretch'd Athwart the roving Tartar's sullen bounds ! , AUTUMN. ]93 ^* Give op'ning Hemus to my searching eye, And high Olympus, pouring many a stream ! O from the sounding summits of the north. The Dofrine hills, through Scandinavia roll'd To farthest Lapland and the frozen main; From lofty Caucasus, far seen by those Who in the Caspian and black Euxine toil; From cold Riphean rocks, which the wild Russ Believes the stony girdle of the world; And all the dreadful mountains, wrapt in storm, Whence wide Siberia draws her lonely floods; sweep th' eternal snows ! Hung o'er the deep, That ever works beneath his sounding base, Bid Atlas, propping heav'n, as poets feign. His subterranean wonders spread! unveil The miny caverns, blazing on the day. Of Abyssinia's cloud-compelling cliffs. And of the bending mountains of the moon ! O'ertopping all these giant-sons of earth, Let the dire Andes, from the radiant line Stretched to the stormy seas that thunder round 194 AUTUMN. The southern pole, their hideous deeps unfold ! Amazing scene! Behold! the glooms disclose, I see the rivers in their infant beds! Deep, deep I hear them, lab'ring to get free! I see the leaning strata, artful rang'd; The gaping fissures to receive the rains. The melting snows, and ever-dripping fogs. Strow'd bibulous above I see the sands, The pebbly gravel next, the layers then Of mingled moulds, of more retentive earths. The gutter'd rocks and mazy-running clefts; That, while the stealing moisture they transmit, Retard its motion, and forbid its waste. Beneath th' incessant weeping of these drains, I see the rocky siphons stretch'd immense, The mighty reservoirs, of hardened chalk, Or stiff compacted clay, capacious form'd. O'erflowing thence, the congregated stores, The crystal treasures of the liquid world, Through the stirr'd sands a bubbling passage burst And welling out, around the middle steep, AUTUMN. 195 Or from the bottoms of the bosom\l hills, In pure effusion flow. United, thus, Th' exhaling sun, the vapour-burden'd air, The gelid mountains, that to rain condens'd These vapours in continual current draw, And send them, o'er the fair-divided earth, In bounteous rivers to the deep again, A social commerce hold, and firm support The full-adjusted harmony of things. When x^utumn scatters his departing gleams, Warn'd of approaching Winter, gather'd, play The swallow-people; and toss'd wide around, 'O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift, The feather'd eddy floats: rejoicing once, Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire; In clusters clung, beneath the mould'ring bank, And where, unpierc'd by frost, the cavern sweats; Or rather into warmer climes convey 'd, With other kindred birds of season, there They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months Invite them welcome back: for, thronging, now 1.96 AUTUMN. Innum'rous wings are in commotion all. Where the Rhine loses his majestic force In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep, By diligence amazing, and the strong Unconquerahle hand of liberty, The stork-assembly meets; for many a day, Consulting deep, and various, ere they take Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky. And now their rout design'd, their leaders chose, Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vig'rous wings; And many a circle, many a short essay, Wheefd round and round, in congregation full The figur'd flight ascends; and, riding high Th' aerial billows, mixes with the clouds. Or where the northern ocean, in vast whirls, Boils round the naked melancholy isles Of farthest Thule, and th' Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides; Who can recount what transmigrations there Are annual made? what nations come and go? And how the living clouds on clouds arise? AUTUMN. 197 Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air, And rude-resounding shore are one wild cry. Here the plain harmless native his small flock, And herd diminutive of many hues, Tends on the little island's verdant swell, The shepherd's sea-girt reign; or, to the rocks Dire-clinging, gathers his ©various food; Or sweeps the fishy shore; or treasures up The plumage, rising full, to form the bed Of luxury. And here a Avhile the muse, Hio-h hov'rino' o'er the broad cerulean scene, Sees Caledonia, in romantic view: Her airy mountains, from the waving main, Invested with a keen diffusive sky, Breathing the soul acute; her forests huge, Incult, robust, and tall, by nature's hand Planted of old; her azure lakes between, Pourd out extensive, and of watry wealth Full; winding deep, and green, her fertile vales; With many a cool translucent brimming flood Wash'd lovely, from the Tweed (pure j)arcnt stream. 198 AUTUMN. Whose past'ral banks first heard my Doric reed, With, silvan Jed, thy tributary brook) To Avhere the north-inflated tempest foams O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak: Nurse of a people, in misfortune's school Train'd up to hardy deeds; soon visited By learning, M^ien before the gothic rage She took her western flight. A manly race. Of unsubmitting spirit, wise, and brave; Who still through bleeding ages struggled hard, < (As well unhappy Wallace can attest, Great patriot hero! ill-requited-chief !) To hold a gen'rous undiminished state; Too much in vain! Hence of unequal bounds Impatient, and by tempting glory borne O'er ev'ry land, for ev'ry land their life Has flow'd profuse, their piercing genius plann'd, And swell'd the pomp of peace their faithful toil. As from their own clear north, in radiant streams, Bright over Europe bursts the boreal morn. Oh is there not some patriot, in whose pow'r AUTUiAIN. li)9 That best, that godlike luxury is plac'd, Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn, Through late posterity? some, large of soul, To cheer dejected industry ? to give A double harv^est to the pining sv/ain? And teach the lab'ring hand the sweets of toll? How, by the finest art, the native robe To weave; how, white as hyperborean snow, To form the lucid lawn; with vent'rous oar How to dash wide the billow; nor look on, Shamefully passive, M'hile Batavian fleets Defraud us of the glitt'ring finny swarms That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores; How all-enliv'ning trade to rouse, and wing The prosp'rous sail, from ev'ry growing port, Uninjur'd, round the sea-encircled globe; And thus, in soul united as in name, Bid Britain reign the mistress of the deep? Yes, there are such. And full on thee, Arg} le, Her hope, her stay, her darling, and her boast, From her first patriots and her heroes sprung, 200 AUTUMN. Thy fond imploring country turns her eye; In thee, with all a mother's triumph, sees Her ev'ry virtue, ev'ry grace combin'd, Her genius, wisdom, her engaging turn, Her pride of honour, and her courage tried. Calm, and intrepid, in the very throat Of sulph'rous war, on Tenier's dreadful field. Nor less the palm of peace in wreathes thy brow: For, pow'rful as thy sword, from thy rich tongue Persuasion flows, and wins the high debate; While mix'd in thee combine the charm of youth, The force of manhood, and the depth of age. Thee, Forbes, too, whom ev'ry worth attends, As truth sincere, as weeping friendship kind, Thee, truly gen'rous, and in silence great, Thy country feels through her reviving arts, Plann'd by thy wisdom, by thy soul inform'd; And seldom has she known a friend like thee. But see the fading many-colour'd woods, Shade deep'ning over shade, the country round Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk, and dun, AUTUMN. 201 Of ev'ry hue, from wan declining green To sooty dark. These now the lonesome muse, Low whisp'ring, lead into their leaf-strown walks, And give the season in its latest view. Mean-time, light shadowing all, a sober calm Fleeces unbounded ether: whose least wave Stands tremulous, uncertain where to turn The gentle current : while illumin'd wide, The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the sun. And through their lucid veil his soften'd force Shed o'er the peaceful world. Then is the time, For those whom wisdom and Avhom nature charm, To steal themselves from the degen'rate crowd, ! And soar above this little sceue of things; To tread low-thoughted vice beneath their feet; To sooth the throbbing passions into peace; j And woo lone quiet in her silent walks. Thus solitary, and in pensive guise, Oft let me wander o'er the russet mead. And thro' the sadden'd grove, where scarce is hcanl One dying strain to cheer the woodman's toil. ^02 • AUTUMN. Haply some widow'd songster pours his plaint, Far, in faint warblings, through the tawny copse. While congregated thrushes, linnets, larks, And each wild throat, whose artless strains so late Swell'd all the music of the swarming shades, Robb'd of their tuneful souls, now shivVing sit On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock; With not a brightness waving o'er their plumes, And nought save chatt'ring discord in their note. O let not, aim'd from some inhuman eye, The gun the music of the coming year Destroy; and harmless, unsuspecting harm, Lay the weak tribes a miserable prey, In mingled murder, flutt'ring on the ground! The pale descending year, yet pleasing still, A gentler mood inspires; for now the leaf Incessant rustles from the mournful grove; Oft startling such as, studious, walk below, And slowly circles through the waving air. But should a quicker breeze amid the boughs Sob, o'er the sky the leaf^y deluge streams- 1 AUTUMN. 203 Till chok'd, and matted with tlie dreary showV, The forest- walks, at ev'ry rising gale, Roll wide the withered M^aste, and whistle bleak. Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields; And, shrunk into their beds, the flow'ry race liTheir sunny robes resign. E'en what remain 'd !0f stronger fruits falls from the naked tree; And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around Tlie desolated prospect thrills the soul. He comes ! he comes ! in ev'ry breeze the pow'r • Of philosophic melancholy comes ! y^ His near approach the sudden-starting tear, The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air, The soften'd feature, and the beating heart, I Pierc'd deep with many a virtuous pang, declare. I O'er all the soul his sacred influence breathes ! i Inflames imagination; through the breast I Infuses ev'ry tenderness; and far I Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought. I Ten thousand thousand fleet ideas, such As never mingled with the vulgar dream, H 204 AUTUMN. Crowd fast into the mind's creative eye. As fast the correspondent passions rise, As varied, and as high; devotion rais'd To rapture, and divine astonishment: The love of nature unconfin'd, and, chief. Of human race; the large ambitious wish To make them blest; the sigh for suff'ring worth Lost in obscurity; the noble scorn Of tyrant-pride; the fearless great resolve; The wonder which the dying patriot draws, Inspiring glory through remotest time; Th' awaken'd throb for virtue, and for fame; The sympathies of love, and friendship dear; With all the social offspring of the heart. O bear me then to vast embow'ring shades. To twilight groves, and visionary vales; To Aveeping grottoes, and prophetic glooms; Where ano-el forms athwart tlie solemn dusk Tremendous sweep, or seem to sweep along; And voices more than human, through the void Deep-sounding, seize th' enthusiastic ear! i AUTUMN. 205 Or is this gloom too iiuicli ? Tlien lead, ye po\v'rs, rhat o'er the garden and the rural seat 'reside, which shining through the cheerful land n countless numhers hlest Britannia sees; ) lead me to the wide-extended walks, The fair majestic paradise of Stowe I ^ot Persian Cyrus on Ionia's shore li'er saw such silvan scenes; such various art )y genius fir'd, such ardent genius tam'd 5y cool judicious art; that, in the strife, Ul-beauteous nature fears to be outdone. \nd there, O Pitt, thy country's early boast, .'here let me sit beneath the shelter'd slopes, )r in that temple where, in future times, thou well shalt merit a distinguish'd name; ■Ud, with thy converse blest, catch the last smiles |)f Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods. I'Vhile there with thee th' enchanted round I walk, 'rhe regulated wild, gay fancy then Vill tread in thought the groves of attic land; *VilI from thy standard taste refine her own. -206 AUTUMN. Correct her pencil to the purest truth Of nature, or, the unimpassion'd shades Forsaking, raise it to the human mind. Or if hereafter she, Avith juster hand, Shall draw the tragic scene, instruct her thou, To mark the varied movements of the heart, ■I What ev'ry decent character requires, And ev'ry passion speaks: O through her strain Breathe thy pathetic eloquence! that moulds Th' attentive senate, charms, persuades, exalts, Of honest zeal th' indignant lightning throws. And shakes corruption on her venal throne. While thus we talk, and through Elysian vales Delighted rove, perhaps a sigh escapes: What pity, Cohham, thou thy verdant files Of order'd trees shouldst here inglorious range, Instead of squadrons flaming o'er the field. And long embattled hosts ! when the proud foe, The faithless vain disturber of mankind, Insulting Gaul, has rous'd the world to war; When keen, once more, within their bounds to pr( t AUTUMN. 207 Those polish'd robbers, those ambitious slaves, The British youth would hail thy wise command, Thy temper'd ardour and thy vet'ran skill. The western sun withdraws the shortenVl day; And humid ev'ning, gliding o'er the sky, |[n her chill progress, to the ground condens'd !rhe vapours throws. AVhere creeping waters ooze, ^Vhere marshes stagnate, and whei'e rivers wind, I 'Cluster the rolling fogs, and swim along The dusky mantled lawn. Mean- while the moon FuU-orb'd, and breaking thro' the scattered clouds, Shews her broad visage in the crimson 'd east. Turn'd to the sun direct, her spotted disk, Where mountains rise, umbrageous dales descend, lAnd caverns deep, as optic tube descries, lA smaller earth, gives us his blaze again, ■Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day. ;Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop, I iNow up the pure cerulean rides sublime. 'Wide the pale deluge floats, and streaming mild tO'er the sky'd mountain to the shadowy vale, 1 208 AUTUMN. While rocks and floods reflect the quiv'ring gleam, The whole air whitens with a boundless tide Of silv^er radiance, trembling round the world. jM But when half blotted from the sky her light, Fainting, permits the starry fires to burn With keener lustre through the depth of heav°n; Or near extinct her deaden'd orb appears, And scarce appears, of sickly beamless white; Oft in this season, silent from the north a A blaze of meteors shoots: ensweeping first The lower skies, they all at once converge High to the crown of heav'n, and all at once Relapsing quick as quickly reascend, And mix, and thwart, extinguish, and renew. All ether coursing in a maze of light. From look to look, contagious thro' the crowd, ^he panic runs, and into wondrous shapes Th' appearance throws: armies in meet arra}^, Throng'd with aerial spears, and steeds of fire; Till the long lines of full-extended war In bleeding fight commixt, the sanguine flood I AUTUMN. 209 Rolls a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heav'ii. As thus they scan the visionary scene, On all sides swells the superstitious din, Incontinent; and busy frenzy talks Of blood and battle; cities overturned, And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk, Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame; Of sallow famine, inundation, storm; Of pestilence, and ev'ry great distress; Empires subvers'd, when ruling fate has struck Th' unalterable hour: e'en nature's self Is deem'd to totter on the brink of time. Not so the man of philosophic eye. And inspect sage; the waving brightness he I Curious surveys, inquisitive to know The causes, and materials, yet unfix'd, ' Of this appearance beautiful and new. Now black, and deep, the night begins to fall, 1 A shade immense. Sunk in the (juenching gloom, i ' Magnificent and vast, are heav'n and earth. ; Order confounded hes; all beauty void; 1 210 AUTUMN. Distinction lost; and gay variety One universal blot : such the fair pow'r Of light, to kindle and create the whole. Drear is the state of the benighted wretch, Who then, bewilder'd, A\^anders through the dark, Full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge; Nor visited by one directive ray, From cottage streaming, or from airy hall. Perhaps impatient as he stumbles on. Struck from the root of slimy rushes, blue. The wildfire scatters roundj or gather'd trails A length of flame deceitful o'er the moss; Whither decoy'd by the fantastic blaze, Now lost and now renew'd, he sinks absorpt, Piider and horse, amid the miry gulph : While still, from day to day, his pining wife And plaintive children his return await. In wild conjecture lost. At other times, Sent by the better genius of the night. Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane, The meteor sits; and shews the narrow path, AUTUMN. 211 That winding leads through pits of death, oi' else Instructs him how to take the dang'rous ford. The lengthen'd night elaps'd, the morning shines ^ Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright, Unfolding fair the last autumnal day. And now the mounting sun dispels the fog; The rigid hoar-frost melts before his beam; And hung on ev'ry spray, on ev'ry blade Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round. Ah see where robb'd, and murder'd, in that pit Lies the still-heaving hive! at ev'ning snatch'd. Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, And fix'd o'er sulphur: while, not dreaming ill, The happy people, in their waxen cells, Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoic'd To mark, full-flowing round, their copious stores. Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends; And, us'd to milder scents, the tender race, By thousands, tumble from their honey 'd domes, Convolved, and agonizing in the dust. 212 . AUTUMN. « And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring, Intent from flow'r to flow'r? for this you toifd t*j| Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away? For this in Autumn search'd the blooming waste, Nor lost one sunny gleam? for this sad fate? Oman! tyrannic lord ! how long, how long, Shall prostrate nature groan beneath your rage, Aw^aiting renovation? When oblig'd. Must you destroy? Of their ambrosial food Can you not borrow; and, in just return, Afford them shelter from the wintry winds; Or, as the sharp year pinches, with their own Again regale them on some smiling day? See where the stony bottom of their town Looks desolate, and wild ; with here and there A helpless number, who the ruin'd state Survive, lamenting weak, cast out to death. Thus a proud cit}', populous and rich, Full of the works of peace, and high in joy, At theatre or feast, or sunk in sleep, (As late, Palermo, was thy fate) is seiz'd AUTUMN. 213 By some dread earthquake, and convulsive hurl'd J, Sheer from the hlack foundation, stench-involv'd, Into a gulph of hkie sulphureous flame. Hence ev'ry harsher sight! for now the day, O'er heav'n and earth diffus'd, grows warm, and high, Infinite splendour ! wide investing all. How still the breeze! save what the filmy threads Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain. How clear the cloudless sky ! how deeply ting\l With a peculiar blue! th' ethereal arch How swell'd immense ! amid whose azure thron'd The radiant sun how gay ! how calm below The gilded earth! the harvest-treasures all Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms, Sure to the SM^ain ; the circling fence shut up; And instant Winter's utmost rage defied. While, loose to festive joy, the country round Laughs with the loud sincerity of mirth, Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-strung youth, 1214 AUTUMN. By the quick sense of music taught alone, Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance. Her evVy charm ahroad, the village-toast. Young, buxom, warm, in native beauty rich, Darts not unmeaning looks; and, where her eye Points an approving smile, Avith double force, The cudgel rattles, and the wrestler twines. Age too shines out; and, garrulous, recounts The feats of youth. Thus they rejoice; nor think That, with to-morrow's sun, their annual toil Begins again the never-ceasing round. .y^ Oh knew he but his happiness, of men . The happiest he ! who far from public rage, Deep in the vale, with a choice few retired, Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life. What tho' the dome be wanting, whose proud gate. Each morning, vomits out the sneaking crowd Of flatt'rers false, and in their turn abus'd? Vile intercourse! What though the glitt'ring robe, Of ev'ry hue reflected Hght can give. Or floating loose, or stiff with mazy gold. i AUTUMN. 215 The pride and gaze of fools, oppress him not? What though, from utmost land and sea purvey Vl, For him each rarer tributary life Bleeds not, and his insatiate table heaps With luxury, and death? What thouoh his bowl Flames not with costly juice; nor sunk in beds, Oft of gay care, he tosses out the night. Or melts the thouo-htless hours in idle state? What though he knows not those fantastic joys. That still amuse the wanton, still deceive; A face of pleasure, but a heart of pain ; Their hollow moments undelighted all? Sure peace is his; a solid life, estrangVl To disappointment, and fallacious hope: Rich in content, in nature's bounty rich. In herbs and fruits; whatever greens the Spring, When heav'n descends in show'rs; or bends the bough When Summer reddens, and when Autumn beams; Or in the wintry glebe whatever lies Conceard, and fattens with the richest sap: 1 Ql6 AUTUMN. These are not wanting; nor the milky drove. Luxuriant, spread o'er all the lowing vale; Nor bleating mountains; nor the chide of streams, And hum of bees, inviting sleep sincere Into the guiltless breast, beneath the shade, Or thrown at large amid the fragrant hay; Nor ought besides of prospect, grove, or song, Dim grottoes, gleaming lakes, and fountain clear. Here too dwells simple truth; plain innocence; Unsullied beauty; sound unbroken youth. Patient of labour, with a little pleas'd; Health ever blooming; unambitious toil; Calm contemplation, and poetic ease. Let others brave the flood in quest of gain. And beat, for joyless months, the gloomy wave. Let such as deem it glory to destroy, Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek; Unpierc'd, exulting in the widow's wail, The virgin's shriek, and infant's trembling cry. Let some, far distant from their native soil, Urg'd or by v.-ant or harden'd avarice, AUTUMN. 217 Find other lands beneath another sun. Let this through cities work his eager way, By legal outrage and established guile, The social sense extinct; and that ferment Mad into tumult the seditious herd, Or melt them down to slavery. Let these Insnare the wretched in the toils of law, Fomenting discord, and perplexing right, An iron race ! and those of fairer front But equal inhumanity, in courts. Delusive pomp, and dark cabals delight; Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile, And tread the weary labyrinth of state. While he, from all the stormy passions free I ! That restless men involve, hears, and but hears, j At distance safe, the human tempest roar, i Wrapt close in conscious peace. The fall of kings, X The rage of nations, and the crush of states, i Move not the man, who, from the Morld escap'd, In still retreats, and flow'ry solitudes. To nature's voice attends, from month to month. / / 21S AUTUMN. And clay to day, through the revolving year; Admiring, sees her in her ev'ry shape; Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart; Takes what slie lib'ral gives, nor thinks of" more. He, when young Spring pj'otrudes the bursting gems, Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale Into his freslien"d soul; her genial hours He full enjoys; and not a beauty blows, And not an op'ning blossom breathes in vain. In Summer he, beneath the living shade. Such as o'er frigid Tempe wont to M'ave, Or Hemus cool, reads what the muse, of these Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung; Or what she dictates writes; and oft, an eye Shot round, rejoices in the vig'rous year. When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world, And tempts the sickled swain into the field, Seiz'd by the gen'ral joy, his heart distends With gentle throes; and through the tepid gleams Deep musing, then he best exerts his song. E'en winter wild to him is full of bliss. AUTUMN. <219 The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste, Ahriipt, and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth, A\rake to solemn thought. At night the skies, Disclos'd, and kindled, by refining frost. Pour ev'Yv lustre on th' exalted eye. A friend, a book the stealing hours secure. And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing, O'er land and sea imagination roams ; Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind. Elates his being, and unfolds his pow'rs; Or in his breast heroic virtue burns. The touch of kindred too and love he feels; The modest eye, whose beams on his alone 1 1 I ■ Ecstatic shine; the little strong embrace i Of prattling children, twin'd around his neck, I And emulous to please him, calling forth j The fond parental soul. Nor purpose gay, I ' Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns ; I ' For happiness and true philosophy Are of the social still, and smiling kind. / I 220 AUTUMN. This is the life which those Avho fret in guilt, And guilty cities, never knew; the life __ Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt, When angels dwelt, and God himself, with man! O nature ! all sufficient ! over all ! Inrich me with the knowledge of thy works! Snatch me to heav'n; thy rolling wonders there, World beyond world, in infinite extent. Profusely scattered o'er the blue immense. Shew me; their motions, periods, and their laws, Give me to scan; through the disclosing deep Light my blind way; the min'ral strata there; Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world; O'er that the rising system, more complex, Of animals; and higher still, the mind. The varied scene of quick-compounded thought, And where the mixing passions endless shift; These ever open to my ravish'd eye: A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust I But if to that unequal; if the blood, In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid AUTUMN. That best ambition; under closing shades, Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook, And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin, Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song; And let me never never stray from thee! Perhaps some doctor, of tremendous pauncli, Auful and cieep, a black abyss of drink, Outlives them all; and from his buried flock Retiring, full of rumination sad, Laments the weakness of these latter times. WINTER. r'y^7-^'--»ii^iiM^' but wanders on From hill to dale, still more nnd more astray: Impatient flouncing through the drifted heaps, Stung with the thoughts of home I I THE xMlGUMENT. The subject proposed. Address to the earl of Wilmington. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of tlie season, various storms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the snows: a man perishing among them j whence reflections on the wants and miseries of human life. The wolves descending from the Alps and Apennines, A winter- evening described: as spent by philosophers j by the country people; in tlie city. Frost. A view of Winter within the polar circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflections on a future State* WINTLR, S28 WINTER. Look'd out the joyous Spring, look'd out and sniil'i To thee, the patron of her first essay. The muse, O Wilmington! renews her song. Since has she rounded the revolving year: Skimm'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne. Attempted through the Summer-blaze to rise; Then swept o'er Autumn with a shadowy gale; And now among the wintry clouds again, Roll'd in the doubling storm, l-she tries to soar; To swell her note with all the rushing \rinds;J To suit her sounding cadence to the floods; v^ As is her theme, her numbers wildly greaJt.:^""''^ Thrice happy ! could she fill thy judging ear With bold description, and with manly thought. Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone, And how to make a mighty people thrive; But equal goodness, sound integrity, A firm unshaken uncorrupted soul Amid a sliding age, and burning strong, Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal, A steady spirit regularly free; WINTER.^ 2iit) it These, each exalting eacli, the statesman light Into the patriot; these, the public hope And eye to thee converting, bid the muse Record what envy dares not flatt'ry call. : Now when the cheerless empire of the skv To Capricorn the Centaur archer yields, And fierce Aquarius, stains th' inverted year; Hung o'er the farthest verge of heav'n, 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 cloth'd 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. Nor is the night unwish'd; while vital heat, Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forsake. Mean-time, in sj^ble cincture, shadows vast, Deep-ting'd and damp, and congregated clouds, And all the vap'ry turbulence of heav'n. Involve the face of things. Thus Winter falls, 5 Q 1 230 WINTER. A heavy gloom oppressive o'er the world, Through nature shedding influence mahgn,, And rouses up the seeds of dark disease The soul of man dies in him, loathing life,' And black with more than melancholy viewsy The cattle droop; and o'er the furrow'd land, Fresh from the plough, the dun discolour'd flocks, Untended spreading, crop the wholesome root. Along the woods, along the moorish fens, Sighs the sad genius of the coming storm; And up among the loose disjointed cliffs. And fractur'd mountains wild, the brawling brook And cave, presageful, send a hollow moan, Resounding long in list'ning fancy's ear. Then comes the father of the tempest forth, Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obscur Drive thro' the mingling skies with vapour foul; Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods,' That grumbling wave below. Th' unsightly plain Lies a brown deluge; as the low-bent clouds Pour flood on flood, yet> unexhausted still 1 I WINTER. 231 Combine, and cleejrning into night shut up The day's fair face. The wanderers of heav'n, Each to his home, retire; save those that love To take their pastime in the troubled air. Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool. The cattle from th' untasted fields return, And ask, with meaning low, tlieir wonted stalls. Or ruminate in the contiguous shade. Thither the household feath'ry people crowd, The crested cock, with all his female train, pensive, and dripping; while the cottage-hind j;| Hangs o'er th' enliv'ning blaze, and taleful there Recounts his simple frolic: much he talks. And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows Without, and rattles on his liumble roof. Wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swell'd. And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread, At last the rous'd-up river pours along: Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, From the rude mountain, and the mossy wild, Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far; 232 WINTER. Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads, Calm, sluggish, silent; till again, constrainVl Between two meeting hills, it bursts a way, Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream; There gath'ring triple force, rapid, and deep, It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through. Nature ! great parent, whose unceasing hand Rolls round the seasons of the changeful year. How mighty, how majestic, are thy works ! With what a^pleasi no- c[read they swell the soul! That sees astonish'd ! and astonish'd sings ! Ye too, ye winds! that now begin to blow, With boist'rous sweep, I raise my voice to you. Where are your stores, ye pow'rful beings ! say, Wliere your aerial magazines reserv'd, To swell the brooding terrors of the storm ? In what far distant region of the sky, Hush'd in deep silence, sleep ye when 'tis calm? When from the pallid sky the sun descends, With many a spot, that o"er his glaring orb Uncertain wanders, stain'd; red heiy streaks L WINTER. 1233 Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds Stagger with dizzy poise, as doubting yet Which master to obey : while rising slow, Blank in the leadeix-^olour'd east, the moon Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. Seen through the turbid fluctuating air, The stars obtuse emit a shi^'er'd ray; Or frequent seem to shoot athwart the gloom, And long behind them trail the whit'ning blaze. Snatch'd in short eddies, plaj^s the wither'd leaf; And on the flood the dancing feather floats. With broaden'd nostrils to the sky up turn'd, The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale. E'en as the matron, at her nightly task, With pensive labour draws the flaxen thread, '. The wasted taper and the crackling flame ; Foretell the blast. But chief the plumy race, i The tenants of the sky, its changes speak. 'i \ Retiring from the downs, where all day long I ! They pick'd their scanty fare, a black'ning train ^' Of clanVrous rooks thick urge their Meary flight, 234 WINTER. And seek the closing shelter of the grove; I Assiduous, in his bow'r, the wailing owl ' Plies his sad song. The cormorant on high Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land. Loud shrieks the soaring hern; and with wild wing The circling sea-fowl cleave the flaky clouds. Ocean, unequal pressed, with broken tide And blind commotion heaves; while from the shore. Eat into caverns by the restless wave, And forest-rustling mountains, comes a voice, That solemn sounding bids the world prepare. Then issues forth the storm Avith sudden burst, And hurls the vHiole precipitated air, i Down, in a torrent. On the passive main Descends th' ethereal force, and with strong gust Turns from its bottom the discolour'd deep. Through the black night that sits immense around, Lash'd into foam, the fierce conflicting brine Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn: Mean-time the mountain-billows, to the clouds In dreadful tumult swell'd, surge above surge. WINTER. 235 Burst into chaos with tremendous roar, And anchored navies from their stations drive, Wild as the winds across the howling waste Of mighty waters: now th' inflated wave Straining they scale, and now impetuous shoot Into the secret chambers of the deep, The wintry Baltic thund'ring o'er their heads. Emerging thence again, before the breath Of full-exerted heav'n they Aving their course, And dart on distant coasts; if some sharp rock, Or shoal insidious break not their career, And in loose fragments fling them floating round. Nor less at land the loosen'd tempest reigns. The mountain thunders: and its sturdv sons Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they shade. Lone on the midnight steep, and all aghast, The dark wayfaring stranger breathless toils, And, often falling, climbs against the blast. Low waves the rooted forest, vex'd, and sheds What of its tarnish'd honours yet remain; Dash'd down, and scatter'd, by the tearing wind's 236 WINTER. Assiduous fury, its gigantic limbs. Thus struggling through the dissipated grove, The whirling tempest raves along the plain; And on the cottage thatch'd, or lordly roof, Keen-fast'ning, shakes them to the solid base. Sleep frighted flies; and round the rocking dome, For entrance eager, howls the savage blast. Then too, they say, through all the burden'd air. Long groans are heard, shrill sounds, and distant sighs, . That, utter'd by the demon of the night, Warn the devoted wretch of woe and death. Huge uproar lords it wide. The clouds commix'd With stars swift-gliding sweep along the sky. All nature reels. Till nature's king, who oft Amid tempestuous darkness dwells alone, And on the wings of the careering wind Walks dreadfully serene, commands a calm; Then straight air, sea, and earth, arehush'd at once. As yet 'tis midnight deep. The weary clouds, Slow-meeting, mingle into solid gloom. Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep. V WINTER. 237 Let me associate with the serious iiight,^^ And contemplation her sedate compeer; \ Let me shake off th' intrusive cares of day, And lay the meddlino;; senses all aside. Where now, ye lying vanities of life! — S\jD^^ Ye ever-tempting, ever-cheating, train ! -^ — . , Where are you mi-W? and what is your amount? Vexation, disappointment, and remorse. Sad, sick'ning thought! and yet deluded man, A scene of crude disjointed visions past, And broken slumbers, rises still resolv'd, With new flushed hopes, to run the giddy round. ^ Father of light and life ! thou good supreme ! O teach me what is good! t-each me thyself! \ Save me from follv, vanitv, and vice, I * From cv'ry low pursuit! and feed my soul | With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss I The keener tempests rise: and fuming dun From all the livid east, or piercing north, Thick clouds ascend; in M'hose capacious womb 238 WINTER. A vap'ry deluge lies, to snow congeal'd. Heavy they roll their fleecy world along; And the sky saddens with the gather'd storm. Thro' the hush'd air the whit'ning show'r descends, At first thin-wav'ring, till at last the flakes Fall broad and wide, and fast, dimming the day, With a continual flow. The cherish'd fields Put on their winter-robe of purest white. 'Tis brightness all; save where the new snow melts Along the mazy current. Low, the woods Bow their hoar head; and, ere the languid sun Faint from the west emits his ev'ning ray. Earth's universal face, deep hid, and chill. Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide The works of man. Drooping, the lab'rer-ox Stands cover'd o'er with snow, and then demands The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heav'n, Tam'd by the cruel season, crowd around The winnowing store, and claim the little boon Which providence assigns them. One alone, The red-breast, sacred to the household gods, WINTER. 239 Wisely regardful of th' embroiling sky, In joyless fields, and thorny thickets, leaves His shiv'ring mates, and pays to trusted man His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor, Eyes all the smiling family askance. And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is: Till more familiar grown, the table-crumbs Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare, Though timorous of heart, and hard beset By death in various forms, dark snares, and dogs, And more unpitying men, the garden seeks, Urg'd on by fearless want. The bleating kind Eye the bleak heav'n, and next the glist'ning earth, With looks of dumb despair; then, sad dispers'd, Dig for the wither'd herb through heaps of sno\v^ Now, shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind, Baffle the raging year, and fill their pens With food at will; lodge them below the storm, 238 WINTER. A vap'ry deluge lies, to snow coiigeal'd. Heavy they roll their fleecy world along; And the sky saddens with the gather'd storm. Thro' the hushed air the whit'ning show'r descends, At first thin-wav'ring, till at last the flakes Fall broad and wide, and fast, dimming the day. With a continual flow. The cherish'd fields Put on their winter-robe of purest white. 'Tis brightness all; save where the new snow melts Along the mazy current. Low, the woods Bow their hoar head; and, ere the languid sun Faint from the west emits his ev'ning ray. Earth's universal face, deep hid, and chill. Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide The works of man. Drooping, the lab'rer-ox Stands cover'd o'er with snow, and then demands The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heav'n, Tam'd by the cruel season, crowd around The winnowing store, and claim the little boon Which providence assigns them. One alone, The red-breast, sacred to the hou^hold gods, WINTER. 239 Wisely regardful of th' embroiling sky, In joyless fields, and thorny thickets, leaves His shiv'ring mates, and pays to trusted man His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor, Eyes all the smiling family askance, And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is : Till more familiar grown, the table-crumbs Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare. Though timorous of heart, and hard beset By death in various forms, dark snares, and dogs. And more unpitying men, the garden seeks, Urg'd on by fearless M'ant. The bleating kind Eye the bleak heav'n, and next the glist'ning earth, With looks of dumb despair; then, sad dispers'd, Dig for the wither'd herb through heaps of snow. Now, shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind, Bafile the raging year, and fill their pens With food at will; lodge them below the storm, 240 WINTER. , And watch them strict; for from the bellowing east, In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's M'ing Sweeps up the burden of whole wintry plains At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless flocks. Hid in the hollow of two neighboring hills, The billowy tempest whelms; till, upward urg'd, The valley to a shining mountain swells, Tipt with a wreath high-curling in the sky. As thus the snows arise; and foul, and fierce, All Winter drives along the darken'd air; In his own loose-revolving fields, the swain Disaster'd stands; sees other hills ascend, Of unknown joyless brow; and other scenes. Of horrid prospect, shag the trackless plain: Nor finds the river, nor the forest, hid Beneath the formless wild; but v/anders on From hill to dale, still more and more astray : Impatient flouncing through the drifted heaps. Stung with the thoughts of home; the thoughts of home Rush on his nerves, and call their vigour forth WINTER. 241 [ In many a vain attempt. How sinks his soul ! What black despair, what horror fills his heart ! When for the dusky spot, which fancy feign'd His tufted cottage rising through the snow, He meets the roughness of the middle waste, Far from the track, and blest abode of man; While round him night resistless closes fast, And ev'ry tempest, howling o'er his head. h . Renders the savage wilderness more wild. Then throng the busy shapes into his mind-, Of cover'd pits, unfathomably deep, A dire descent! beyond the pow'r of frost; Of faithless bogs; of precipices huge, Smooth'd up with snow; and, what is land unknown, What water, of the still unfrozen spring, !In the loose marsh or solitary lake, W^here the fresh fountain from the bottom boils. • These check his fearful steps; and down he sinks Beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift, Thinking o'er all the bitterness of death, Mix'd with the tender ano-uish nature shoots 242 WINTER. Through the wrung bosom of the dying man, \/ His wife, his children, and his friends unseen. In vain for him th' officious wife prepares The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm; In vain his Httle children, peeping out Into the mingling storm, demand their sire. With tears of artless innocence. Alas 1 Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold, Nor friends, nor sacred home. On ev'ry nerve The deadly Winter seizes; shuts up sense; And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold. Lays him along the snows, a stiffen'd corse, Stretch'd out, and bleaching in the northern blast. Ah little think the gay licentious proud. Whom pleasure, pow'r, and affluence surround; f They, who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth, ^-A'^ And wanton, often cruel, riot waste; KT^^^Ah little think they, while they dance along How many feel, this very moment, death And all the sad variety of pain. How many sink in the devouring flood, WINTER. 243 Or more devouring flame. How many bleed, "^ By shameful variance betwixt man and man. How many pine in want, and dungeon glooms; Shut from the common air, and common use Of their own limbs. How many drink the cup Of baleful grief, or eat the bitter bread Of misery. Sore pierc'd by wintry winds, How many shrink into the sordid hut Of cheerless poverty. How many shake With all the fiercer tortures of the mind. Unbounded passion, madness, guilt, remorse; Whence tumbled headlong from the height of life, They furnish matter for the tragic muse. E'en in the vale, where wisdom loves to dwell. With friendship, peace, and contemplation joinVl, How many, rack'd with honest passions, droop In deep retir'd distress. How many stand Around the death-bed of their dearest friends, And point the parting anguish. Thought fond mar Of these, and all the thousand nameless ills, That one incessant struggle render life, ^' ■ s ,,^j^/i^'>'\v\*-iC Ui 244 \ .kWINTER. !-t=» One scene of toil, of sufF'ring, and of fate,^,^^^y^ Vice in his high career would stand appall'd, And heedless rambling impulse learn to think; The conscious heart of charity would warm, And her wide wish benevolence dilate; jThe social tear would rise, the social sigh; I And into clear perfection, gradual bliss, j Refining still, the social passions work. And here can I forget the gen'rous band, Who, touch'd with human woe, redressive searched Into the horrors of the gloomy jail? Unpitied, and unheard, where mis'ry moans; Where sickness pines; where thirst and hunger burn, And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice. While in the land of liberty, the land Whose ev'ry street and public meeting glow With open freedom, little tyrants ragM; Snatch'd the lean morsel from the starving mouth; Tore from cold wintry limbs the tatter'd weed; E'en robb'd them of the last of comforts, sleep ; The free-born Briton to the dungeon chain'd. \ WINTER. i>45 Or, as the lust of cruelty prevail'd, At pleasure mark'd him with inglorious stripes; And crush'd out lives, by secret barb'rous ways. That for their country would have toil'd, or bled. great design ! if executed well, ' " SV^ith patient care, and ^ visdom-te mpe^'d, zeal. Ye sons of mercy! yet resume the search; Drag forth the legal monsters into light, Wrench from their hands oppression's iron rod, i And bid the cruel feel the pains they give. * M uch still u ntouched remains ; in this rank age, / Much is the patriot's weeding hand requir'd. The toils of law (what dark insidious men Have cumbrous added to perplex the truth, Pjp ^^ And lengthen simple justice into trade), y ,How glorious were the day that saw these broke, iAnd cv'ry man within the reach of right ! By wintry famine rous'd, from all the tract Of horrid mountains which the shining Alps, And wavy Apennines, and Pyrenees, Branch out stupendous into distant lands; tteam'd eager from the red horizon round, W^ith the fierce rage of -Winter deep suffus'd, \n icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool I Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career irrests the bick'ring stream. The loosen'd ice, Let down the flood, and half dissolv'd bv dav, Pvustles no more; but to the sedgy bank 262 WINTER. Fast grows, or gathers round the pointed stone, A crystal pavement, by the breath of heav'n Cemented firm ; till, seiz'd from shore to shore, The whole imprison'd river growls below. Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects A double noise; while, at his ev'ning watch, The village dog deters the nightly thief; The heifer lows; the distant water-fall Swells in the breeze; and, with the hasty tread Of traveller, the hollow-sounding plain Shakes from afar. The full ethereal round, Infinite worlds disclosing to the view. Shines out intensely keen; and, all one cope Of starry glitter, glows from pole to pole. From pole to pole the rigid influence falls. Through the still night, incessant, heavy, strong, And seizes nature fast. It freezes on; Till morn, late-rising o'er the drooping world, Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears The various labour of the silent night: Prone from the dripping eave, and dumb cascade, ^ . WINTER. 263 Whose idle torrents only sefem to roar, The pendent icicle; the frost-work fair, Where transient hues, and fancied figures rise; Wide-spouted o'er the hill, the frozen hrook, A livid tract, cold gleaming on the morn; The forest bent beneath the plumy wave; And by the frost refin'd the whiter snow, Incrusted hard, and sounding to the tread Of early shepherd, as he pensive seeks His pining flock, or from the mountain top, I Pleas'd with the slip'ry surface, swift descends. On blithsome frolics bent, the youthful swains, While ev'ry work of man is laid at rest, 'Fond o'er the river crowd, in various sport I [And revelry dissolved; where mixing glad, Happiest of all the train ! the raptur'd boy iLashcs the whirling top. Or, where the Rhine jBranch'd out in many a long canal extends, From ev'ry province swarming, void of care, Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep, On sounding skates, a thousand diff'rent ways, 264 WINTER. ' - In circling poise, swift as the winds, along, The then gay land is madden'd all to joy. Nor less the northern courts, wide o'er the snow, Pour a new pomp. Eager, on rapid sleds, Their vigorous youth in hold contention wheel The long-resounding course. Mean-time, to raise The manly strife, with highly hlooming charms, Flushed by the season, Scandinavia's dames. Or Russia's buxom daughters, glow around. Pure, quick, and sportful, is the wholesome day; But soon elaps'd. The horizontal sun, Broad o'er the south, hangs at his utmost noon: And, ineffectual, strikes the gelid cliff: His azure gloss the mountain still maintains. Nor feels the feeble touch. Perhaps the vale Relents a while to the reflected ray; Or from the forest falls the cluster'd snow. Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam Gay-twinkle as they scatter. Thick around Thunders the sport of those, who with the gun, And dog impatient bounding at the shot. WINTER. 265 Worse than the season, desolate tlie fields; And, adding to the ruins of the year, Distress the footed or the feather'd game. But what is this? Our infant Winter sinks, Divested of his grandeur, should our eye AstOnish'd shoot into the frigid zone; Where, for relentless months, continual night Holds o'er the glitt'ring waste her starry reign. There, through the prison of unbounded wilds, Barr'd by the hand of nature from escape. Wide roams the Russian exile. Nought around Strikes his sad eye, but deserts lost in snow; And heavy-loaded groves; and solid floods. That stretch, athwart the solitary vast, Their icy horrors to the frozen main; And cheerless towns far-distant, never bless'd. Save when its annual course the caravan Bends to the golden coast of rich Cathay, With ncM's of human-kind. Yet there life glows ; Yet cherish'd there, beneath the shining waste, ~ The furry nations harbour: tipt M'ith jet, Q6G WINTER. Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press: Sables, of glossy black; and d-ark-embrown'd, Or beauteous freak t with many a mingled hue, Thousands besides, the costly pride of courts. There, warm together press'd, the trooping deer Sleep on the new-falfn snows; and, scarce his head Rais'd o'er the heapy wreath, the branching elk Lies slumb'rino; sullen in the white abyss. The ruthless hunter wants nor dogs nor toils, Nor with the dread of sounding bows he drives The fearful flying race; with pond'rous clubs, As weak against the mountain heaps they push Their beating breast in vain, and piteous bray. He lays them quiv'ring on th' ensanguined snows, And with loud shouts rejoicing bears them home. There througli the piny forest half-absorpt. Rough tenant of these shades, the shapeless bear. With dangling ice all horrid, stalks forlorn; Slow-pac'd, and sourer as the storms increase. He makes his bed beneath th' inclement drift, And, with stern patience, scorning weak complaint. WINTER. 26r Hardens his heart against assailing want. Wide o'er the spacious regions of the north, That see Bootes urge his tardy wain, A hoist'rous race, by frosty Caurus pierc'd. Who little pleasure know and fear no pain, Prolific swarm. Thev once relum'd the flame Of lost mankind in polish'd slav'ry sunk, Drove martial horde on horde, with dreadful sweep Resistless rushing o'er th' enfeebled south, And gave the vanquislfd M^orld another form. Not such the sons of Lapland : wisely they Despise th' insensate barl:)"rous trade of war; They ask no more than simple nature gives, They love their mountains and enjoy their storms. No false desires, no pride-created wants, Disturb the peaceful current of their time; And through the restless ever-torturVl ]naze Of pleasure or ambition, bid it rage. Their rein-deer form their riches. These their tents, Their robes, their beds, and all their homely M-ealtli Supply, their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups. I 270 WINTER. And through his airy hall the loud misrule Of driving tempest is for ever heard : Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath; Here arms his winds with all-subduing frost; Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows, With which he now oppresses half the globe. Thence winding eastward to the Tartar's coast She sweeps the howling margin of the main; Where undissolving, from the first of time, Snows swell on snows amazing to the sky; And icy mountains high on mountains pifd, Seem to the shiv'ring sailor from afar, Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of clouds. Projected huge, and horrid, o'er the surge, Alps frown on alps; or rushing hideous down, As if old chaos Avas again return'd. Wide rend the deep, and shake the solid pole. Ocean itself no longer can resist The binding fury; but, in all its rage Of tempest taken by the boundless frost. Is many a fathom to the bottom chain'd, WINTER. £71 And bid to roar no more : a bleak expanse, Shagg'd o'er with, wavy rocks, cheerless, and void Of ev'ry life, that from the dreary months Flies conscious southward. Miserable they ! Who, here entangled in the gathering ice, Take their last look of the descending sun; While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost, The long long night, incumbent o'er their heads, Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's fate, As with first prow, (what have not Britons dar'd !) He for the passage sought, attempted since So much in vain, and seeming to be shut By jealous nature with eternal bars. In these fell regions, in Arzina caught, And to the stony deep his idle ship Immediate seal'd, he with his hapless crew, Each full exerted at his sev'ral task, Froze into statues; to the cordage glued The sailor, and the pilot to the helm. Hard by these shores, where scarce his freezing stream r^'^ WINTER. Rolls the wild Oby, live the last of men; ^ And half enliven'd by the distant sun, That rears and ripens man, as well as plants, Here human nature wears its rudest form. / Deep from the piercing season sunk in caves, Here by dull fires, and v/ith unjoyous cheer. They waste the tedious gloom. linmers'd in furs, ^ Doze the gross race. Nor sprightly jest, nor song, Nor tenderness they know; nor aught of life Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without. Till morn at length, her roses drooping all, Sheds a long twilight bright'ning o'er their fields, And calls the quiver'd savage to the chace. What cannot active government perform. New-moulding man? Wide-stretching from these shores, A people savage from remotest time, A huge neglected empire one vast mind, \ By heav'n inspir'd, from gothic darkness call'd. Immortal Peter! first of monarchs ! He His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens, WINTER. ^73 Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons; And while the fierce barbarian he subdued, To more exalted soul he rais'd the man. Ye shades of _ancient heroes, ye who toil'd Through long successive ages^to build up A lab'ring plan of state, behold at once The wonder done! behold the matchless prince! Who left his native throne, where reio-n'd till then A mighty shadow of unreal pOH''r; Who greatly spurn'd the slothful pomp of courts; And roaming ev'ry land, in ev'ry port His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand Unwearied plying the mechanic tool, , Gathered the seeds of trade, of useful arts, , Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill. Charg'd with the stores x)f Europe home he goes! Then cities rise amid the illumin'd waste; O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign; Far-distant flood to flood is social join'd; Th' astonish'd Euxine hears the Baltic roar; 274. WINTER. Proud navies ride on seas that never foam'd With daring keel before; and armies stretch Each way their dazzling files, repressing here The frantic Alexander of the north, \ And awing there stern Othinan's shrinking sons. Sloth flies the land, and ignorance, and vice, Of old dishonour proud; it glows around, Taught by the royal hand that rous'd the whole, One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade: For what his wisdom plann'd, and pow'r enforc'd, More potent still, his great example shew'd. Mutt'ring, the winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow hollow-blust'ring from the south. Subdued, The frost resolves into a trickling thaw. Spotted the mountains shine ; loose sleet descends, And floods the country round. The rivers swell, Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills, O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts, A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once; And, where they rush, the wide-resounding plain Is left one slimv waste. Those sullen seas, WINTER. Q75 That wash'd the ungenial pole, will rest no more Beneath the shackles of the mighty north; But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave. And hark ! the length'ning roar continuous runs Athwart the rifted deep: at once it bursts, And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds. Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd, That, tost amid the floating fragments, moors Beneath the shelter of an icy isle. While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks More horrible. Can human force endure Th' assembled mischiefs that besicGre them round? Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness. The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice, Now ceasing, now renew'd with louder rage. And in dire echoes bellowing round the main. More to embroil the deep, leviathan And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport. Tempest the loosen'd brine, while thro' the gloom, Far from the bleak inhospitable shore. Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks. u 276 WINTER. / Yet Providence, that ever-waking eye, Looks down Avith pity on the feeble toil Of mortals lost to hope, and lights them safe, Through all this dreary labyrinth oFHteT 'Tis done ! dread Winter spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. How dead the vegetable kingdom lies! How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends His desolate domain. Behold, fond man! See here thy pictured life; pass some few years, Thy flow'ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, Thy sober Autumn fading into age, And pale concluding Winter comes at last. And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled f Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes Of happiness? those longings after fame? Those restless cares? those busy bustling days? 0' Thosegay-spentjfestivenights? those veering thoughts , Lost between srood and ill, that shar'd thy life? All now are vanish'd ! Virtue sole survives, ^^ Immortal, never-failing friend of man, ^ \ His guide to happiness on high. And see! WINTER. 277 'Tis come, the glorious morn ! the second birth Of heav'n and earth ! awak'ning nature hears The new-creating M'^ord, and starts to hfe, In ev'ry heighten'd form, from pain and death For ever free. The great eternal scheme Involving all, and in a perfect whole Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads, To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace. Ye vainly wise! ye bhnd presumptuous! now, Confounded in the dust, adore that pow'r, And wisdom oft arraign'd: see now the cause. Why unassuming worth in secret liv'd. And died, neglected: why the good man's share In life was gall and bitterness of soul: Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd In starving solitude; while luxury. In palaces, lay straining her low thought. To form unreal wants: why heav'n-born truth, And moderation fair, wore the red marks Of superstition's scourge: why licens'd pain. That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe, Imbitter'd all our bliss. Ye good distrest! 278 WINTER. Ye noble few! who here unbending stand Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up a while, And what your bounded view, which only saw A little part, deem'd evil, is no more: The storms of wintry time will quickl}^ pass, And one unbounded Spring encircle all, Rapacious, at the mother's throat tliey fly. And tear the screaming infant from her breast. The godfike face of man avails him nought. H^ H Y M N. jf Ye that keep watch in heav'n, as earth asleep Unconscious lies, eifuse your mildest beams, Ye constellations, while your angels strike, Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre. Ife A H Y M N. 1 HESE, as they change, Ahnighty Father, these, Are but the varied God. The rolHng year Is fall of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring Thy beauty ^yalks, thy tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields; the soft'ning air is balm; Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles; And ev'ry sense, and ev'ry heart is joy. Tlien comes thy glory in the Summer months, With light and heat refulgent. Then thy sun Shoots full perfection through the swelling year: And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks; And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, By brooks and groves, in hollo w-whisp'ring gales. Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfin'd, And spreads a common feast for all that li\es. In Winter awful thou! M'ith clouds and storms Around thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest roH'd. X b 282 HYMN. Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing, Riding sublime, thou bidst the world adore, And humblest nature with thy northern blast. Mysterious round ! what skill, what force divine, Deep felt, in these appear ! a simple train. Yet so delightful mix'd, with such kind art, Such beauty and beneficence combin'd; Shade, unperceiv'd, so soft'ning into shade; And all so forming an harmonious whole; That, as they still succeed, they ravish still. But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, Man marks not thee, marks not the mighty hand, That, ever-busy, M'heels the silent spheres; Works in the secret deep; shoots, steaming, thence The fair profusion that o'erspreads the Spring: Flings from the sun direct the flaming day; Feeds ev'ry creature; hurls the tempest forth; And, as on earth this grateful change revolves, With transport touches all the springs of life. Nature, attend! join ev'ry living soul, Beneath the spacious temple of the sky. HYMN. 283 In adoration join; and, ardent, raise One gen'ralsong! To him, ye vocal gales. Breathe soft, whose spirit in your freshness breathes; O talk of him in solitary glooms! Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine Fills the brown shade with a religious awe. And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar, Who shake th' astonish'd world, lift high to heav'u Th' impetuous song, and say from v horn you rage. His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills; . And let me catch it as I muse along. Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound ; Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze Along the vale; and thou, majestic main, ^ • A secret world of wonders in thvself, Sound his stupendous praise; mIiosc greater voice Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall. Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flow'rs, In mingled clouds to him ; whose sun exalts, .Wliose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints. Ye forests bend; ye harvests wave, to him; 284 HYMN. Breathe your still song into the reaper's heart, As home he goes beneath the joyous moon. Ye that keep watch in heav'n, as earth asleep Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams. Ye constellations, M'hile your angels strike, Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre. Great source of day ! best image here below Of thy ci'eator, ever pouring wide. From world to world, the vital ocean round. On nature write with ev'ry beam his praise. The thunder rolls: be hush'd the prostrate world • While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn. Bleat out afresh, ye hills: ye mossy rocks. Retain the sound: the broad responsive low, Ye valleys, raise; for the Great Shepherd reigns; And his unsuff'ring kingdom yet will come. Ye woodlands all, awake: a boundless song- Burst from the groves! and when the restless day, Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep, Sweetest of birds! sweet philomela! charm The list'ning shades, and teach the night his praise HYMN. S85 I' Ye chief, for wiiom the whole creation smiles, At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all, Crown the great hymn! in swarming cities vast, Assembled men, to the deep organ join The long-resounding voice, oft breaking clear, At solemn pauses, through the swelling base; And, as each mingling flame increases eacli. In one united^ardour risjejto heav'n. fO ^ Or if you rather choose the rural shade, N^ And find a fane in ev'ry sacred grove]"- There let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's lay, The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre. Still sing the God of Seasons, as they roll. For me, when I forget the darling theme, Whether the blossom blows, the summer ray Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams, Or Winter rises in the black'niTig east; Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more. And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat! Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the crreen earth, to distant barb'rous climes, 286 HYMN. Rivers unknown to song ; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains; or his setting beam Flames on th' Atlantic isles; 'tis nought to me; Sin^e God is ever pr-esent,_ever fejt,.. In the void waste as in the city full; And where he vital breathes there must be joy. When e'en at last the solemn hour shall come, And wing my mystic flight to future worlds, , I cheerful will obey; there, with new pow'rs. Will rising wonders sing: I cannot go Where universal love not smiles around, Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their sons; From seeming evil still educing good, And better thence again, and better still, In infinite progression. But I lose ^^ Myself in him, in light ineffable: ^ Come then, expressive silence, muse his praise. THE INDEX AND GLOSSARY. J^, Page. Liae. Address to Amanda 24 3 to Mr, Hammond 253 l6 to Philosophy 145 14 to the Sun 6/ l6 to Mr. Onslow 155 g to the Earl of Wilmington 228 3 Advice to the fair-sex respecting hunting 182 17 to young men respecting love 48 1 Age, the manners of the present 14 8 Anana, the pine-apple 95 20 Appenine mountains described 245 1 8 Anglers, instructions for 19 9 Argyle, the duke of, his character Ip9 19 Autumn, description of 156 15 Augusta, the Roman name for London 130 9 Ausonia, a name given to Italy lOS 18 B. Bees, their haunts described 25 7 Behemotli, the hippopotamus, or river-horse 97 3 Birds, the ditferent species of them described 29 13 INDEX AND GLOSSARY. Page» Line, British Cassius, Algernon Sidney, an English admiral 136 1 Boys deceived by a rainbow 11 7 C. Celadon and Amelia, their melancholy story 1 1 p 2 Clouds, their use v 13 14 Couple, a happy, in the married state, description of . 54 5 Creator, the great, described, and where he dwells. .71 13 D. Damon and Musidora, their story related 123 17 Daughters of Britain described 138 11 Deluge, the universal, described ]5 20 Diversions, rural, described 213 IQ Dodington, Mr. his country-seat described 186 17 E. Elephant, desciiption of the . . . i 97 14 Evanescent,, hardly perceivable 148 4 Evening, fine, description of a summer's 141 15 F. Fair, the British, dissuaded from the exercise of the chase 1 82 17 proper employments for 183 5 Fear described 14 18 Fly-fishing, rules for 20 12 Fox-hunting, a description of 177 21 friths, a kind of fishing-nets IQQ 13 Frost, what it is, described 26l 7 INDEX AND GLOSSARY. G. Page- Lins. Ghosts, chiefly the dreams of fancy 143 7 Grove^ a solemn, described 87 18 H. Hare-hunting described 17^* 14 Hartford, the Countess of, addressed 1 5 Hay-making, description of SO 1 Harvest, a prospect of the fields ready for 156 20 Hymn to the sun 68 5 Husbandman, a, perishing in the snow 241 11 Huntsmen, how they entertain themselves after the chase is over 1/9 ^0 I. Jealousy, the effects of, in youth 52 10 T A , ,u ■ f 5 158 19 Industry, the praises or 1 l62 6 Inscription to the Countess of Hartford I 5 Invitation to walk in the fields early in the spring . . 24 9 L. Lark, the messenger of morn 29 5 Lavinia, her aflfecting story l63 2 1 Palemon's address to her iSS 4 Leviathan, the whale 275 l6 Life, a country, recommended 214 12 .... the pleasures of 217 21 .... the vanities of, their amount 237 ^ Lights, the nortliern, described 208 10 Love, a dissuasion from wild, juvenile, and irregular 48 1 Y INDEX AXD GLOSSARY. Page. Line. Love, genuine, proofs of 1-J2 \6 the matchless joys of ,56 ^ M. Man, the lord of the creation 9 7 Marriage, the true pleasures of 50 7 Melody, the voice of love 30 8 Mirth, drunken, description of J 81 5 Moon-light, description of 20/ 20 Musidora, secretly in love with Damon 124 2 verses written by her to Damon 128 8 N. Nemesis, a heathen deity, the arbiter of rewards and punishments 113 11 Night, described in the spring, after a shower 32 4 Nile, the river, described 101 \5 Nutting, description of 1 S4 1 9 P. Palemon, his address to Lavinia l68 4 Passions, the, description of. 14 13 Philosophy, the praises of 145 14 Philosophic life recommended, with the advantages of it 21 8 21 Ploughing, how performed 3 5 Prison, the miseries of a 244 1 1 Prospect, description of a rural 24 14 Pomona, the goddess of gardens 94 19 R. Rainbow, fine description of a 10 19 Reaping, description of 1O2 18 INDEX AXD GLOSSARY. Page. Line. Reflections on the motions of the planets 144 1 in praise of industry 15/ 11 Retirement, the proper time for ... 129 17 S. Seasons, the annual succession of the l6 7 Shene, the old name of Richmond 130 7 Shepherd and his flock, pleasing description of a ... . 86 l6 Sheep-shearing, description of 82 4 Shipwreck, description of a 112 IQ Skaiting described 263 21 Snow, description of a man perishing in the ....... 240 IQ Spirits, departed, their address to man Sp 4 State, the present, the infancy of being . . , 143 21 Stanley, a young lady well known to the author .... 90 3 Summer insects described 74 16 Swimming described and recommended 122 18 Sun, tl:e life of tlie creation 68 5 .... the various efi'ects of his beams on the works of nature 6q 20 T. Temple of Virtue, in Stow-gardens. described 205 14 Tempe and Hemus, lields in Thessaly 218 11 Thaw, a description of 2/4 ] 4 Thunder, where it resides 101 5 Typhon and Ecnephia, winds known only between the tropics 110 4 Traveller, a benighted, finely described 210 4 Trout-fishing, the time and instruments for it, de- scribed ig 4 INDEX AND GLOSSARY. V. Page- Line, Vanities of life, their amount 237 3 Vernon, admiral, his fate alluded to 112 IQ Virtue, the friend of man 2/6 21 Virtues, description of the 13Q 1 4 W. Walking early in the spring, recommended ■] in the summer, proper time for 1 28 20 in the autumn 201 1 1 Waterfall, description of a .... , pi Q Winter, in the frigid zone, described 205 6 rural amusements in 263 12 Woods, their appearance in autumn 200 1 8 Wool, the staple commodity of Great Britain 83 Q Y. Youth, the effects of love in 48 5 Zone, the torrid, described g3 y the frigid, description of 265 6 THE END. T. Sensley, Printer, B'jU Court, Fleet Street, ■<» a = 6 Y V V V V V V i; V V V M :^ V ^i& V V V 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book Is due on the last date stamped below, or on tlie date to which renewed. 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