Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

[47]

S

UMMER.

F

ROM bright'ning fields of ether fair disclos'd, Child of the Sun, refulgent SUMMER comes, In pride of youth, and felt thro' Nature's depth : He comes attended by the fultry hours,

And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning SPRING
Averts her blufhful face; and earth, and skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

5

HENCE, let me hafte into the mid-wood shade,
Where scarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom; 10
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 fing the glories of the circling year.

COME, Inspiration! from thy hermit feat,
By mortal feldom found: may fancy dare,
From thy fix'd ferious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on furrounding Heav'n, to steal one look

Creative of the Poet, every pow'r
Exalting to an ecstasy of foul.

[blocks in formation]

And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite :
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wisdom; the gay social sense,
By decency chastis'd; goodness and wit,
In feldom-meeting harmony combin'd;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For BRITAIN'S glory, Liberty, and Man:
O DODINGTON! attend my rural fong,
Stoop to my theme, inspirit ev'ry line,
And teach me to deferve thy just applaufe.

WITH what an awful world-revolving pow'r
Were first the unwieldy planets launch'd along
Th' illimitable void! Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years,
That oft has swept the toiling race of Men,
And all their labour'd monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchless, in their courfe;
To the kind temper'd change of night and day,
And of the seasons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful: Such TH' ALL PERFECT HAND!
That pois'd, impels, and rules the steady WHOLE.

WHEN now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd,

And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, observant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews,

25

30

35

40

45

At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east :
Till far o'er ether spreads the wid'ning glow;

And, from before the luftre of her face,

50

White break the clouds away. With quick'ned step, Brown Night retires: Young Day pours in apace,

And opens all the lawny profpect wide.

The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top

Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue, thro' the dusk, the smoaking currents shine;
And from the bladed field the fearful hare

[merged small][ocr errors]

Limps, aukward: while along the foreft-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze

At early passenger. Music awakes
The native voice of undissembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arise.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad shepherd leaves
His mossy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crouded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.

60

65

:

FALSELY luxurious, will not Man awake;
And, springing from the bed of floth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,
To meditation due and facred fong?
For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife?

70

To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half

The fleeting moments of too short a life;
Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul!

Or else to feverish vanity alive,

Wilder'd, and toffing thro' distemper'd dreams ?

[blocks in formation]

75

Who would in fuch a gloomy state remain
Longer than Nature craves; when every Muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To bless the wildly-devious morning-walk?

BUT yonder comes the powerful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the east. The less'ning cloud,
"The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo; now, apparent all,
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and coloured air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad;

80

85

And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and tow'rs, and wand'ring ftreams,
High-gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer Light! 90

Of all material beings first, and best!

Efflux divine! Nature's resplendent robe!
Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt
In unessential gloom; and thou, O Sun!
Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker! may I sing of thee?

95

'Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force, As with a chain indissoluble bound, Thy System rolls entire: from the far bourne

100

Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years; to Mercury, whose disk
Can scarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.

106

INFORMER of the planetary train! Without whose quick'ning glance their cumb'rous 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' unfetter'd mind, By thee fublim'd, down to the daily race The mixing myriads of thy fetting beam.

THE vegetable world is also thine,
Parent of Seasons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as thro' thy vast domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing state, it moves fublime.
Mean-time, th' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,

110

115.

Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up

A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car, 120 High-feen, the Seasons lead, in fprightly dance

Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours,

The Zyphers floating loose, the timely Rains,

Of bloom ethereal the light-footed Dews,

And foft'ned into joy the furly Storms.

125

These, in fuccessive turn, with lavish hand,

Show'r every beauty, every fragrance show'r,

Herbs, flow'rs, and fruits; till, kindling at thy touch,

From land to land is flush'd the vernal year.

E. 2

« ZurückWeiter »