Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields,
Where freshness breathes, and dafh the trembling drops
From the bent bush, as thro' the verdant maze 105
Of sweet-briar hedges I purfue my walks
Or taste the smell of dairy; or ascend
Some eminence, AUGUSTA, in thy plains,.
And fee the country, far diffus'd around.
One boundless blush, one white-empurpled fhower 110
Of mingled bloffoms; where the raptur'd eye
Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath
The fair profufion, yellow Autumn fpies..
IF, brush'd from Ruffian wilds, a cutting gale
Rife not, and fcatter from his humid wings
The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe
Untimely froft; before whofe baleful blast
The full-blown spring thro' all her foliage shrinks,
Joylefs and dead, a wide-dejected waste..
For oft, engender'd by the hazy north,
Myriads on myriads, infect-armies waft
Keen in the poifon'd breeze; and wasteful eat,
Thro' buds and bark, into the blackened core,
Their eager way. A feeble race! yet oft
The facred fons of vengeance! on whofe courfe 125
Corrofive famine waits, and kills the year.
To check this plague the skilful farmer chaff,
And blazing ftraw, before his orchard burns;
Till, all involv'd in smoke, the latent foe
every cranny fuffocated falls:
Or fcatters o'er the blooms the pungent duft
Of pepper, fatal to the frofty tribe :
'Or, when th' envenom'd leaf begins to curl,
With sprinkled water drowns them in their neft;
Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill,
The little trooping birds unwifely fcares.
Be patient, fwains; thefe cruel-feeming winds Blow not in vain. Far hence hey keep, repress'd, Thofe deepening clouds on clouds, furcharg'd with rain, That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne,
In endless train, would quench the fummer-blaze,
And, chearless, drown the crude unripened year.
THE north-eaft spends his
Within his iron cave, th' effufive fouth
Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven 145
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers diftent.
At first a dusky wreath they feem to rife,
Scarce Raining ether; but by faft degrees,
In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour fails
Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep
Sits on th' ́horizon round a fettled gloom:
Not fuch as wintry ftorms on mortals shed,
Oppreffing life; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,
The with of Nature. Gradual, finks the breeze, 155 Into a perfect calm; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver thro' the clofing woods,
Or ruffling turn the many-twinkling leaves
Of afpin tall. Th' uncurling floods, diffus'd
In glaffy breadth, feem thro' delufive lapfe
Forgetful of their courfe. "Tis filence all,.
And pleafing expectation. Herds and flocks.
Drop the dry fprig, and mute-imploring eye
The falling verdure. Hufh'd in fhort fufpence,
The plumy people streak their wings with oil, 165
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off;
And wait th' approaching fign to strike, at once,
Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales,
And forefts feem, impatient, to demand.
The promis'd fweetnefs. Man fuperior walks
Amid the glad creation, mufing praise,
And looking lively gratitude. At laft,
The clouds confign their treasures to the fields;
And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelufive drops, let all their moisture flow,
In large effufion, o'er the freshened world.
The ftealing shower is scarce to patter heard,
By fuch as wander thro' the foreft-walks,
Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the fhade, while Heaven defcends 1800
In univerfal bounty, fhedding herbs,
And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap ?.
Swift fancy fir'd anticipates their growth;
And, while the milky nutriment diftils,"
Beholds the kindling country colour round.
THUS all day long the full-diftended clouds Indulge their genial ftores, and well-fhower'd earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life;
Till, in the western sky, the downward fun
Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush
Of broken clouds, gay-fhifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance inftantaneous strikes
Th' illumin'd mountain, thro' the foreft ftreams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist,
Far fmoaking o'er th' interminable plain,
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems.
Moift, bright, and green, the landskip laughs around.
Full fwell the woods; their every mufic wakes,
Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks
Increas'd, the diftant bleatings of the hills,
The hollow lows refponfive from the vales,
Whence blending all the sweetened zephyr springs.
Mean time refracted from yon eastern cloud,
Beftriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds,
In fair proportion running from the red,
To where the violet fades into the sky.
Here, awful NEWTON, the diffolving clouds
Form, fronting on the fun, thy fhowry prism;
And to the fage-inftructed eye unfold
The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd
From the white mingling maze. Not fo the fwain ;
He wondering views the bright enchantment bend,
Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but amaz'd
Beholds th' amufive arch before him fly,
Then vanifh quite away. Still night fuceeds,.
A foftened fhade, and faturated earth
Awaits the morning-beam, to give to fight,
Rais'd thro' ten thousand different plastic tubes, 2203 The balmy treasures of the former day.
THEN fpring the living herbs, profufely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes:
Whether he steals along the lonely dale,
In filent fearch; or thro' the forest, rank
With what the dull incurious weeds account,
Burfts his blind way; or climbs the mountain-rock, Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow.
With fuch a liberal hand has Nature flung
Their feeds abroad, blown them about in winds,
Innumerous mix'd them with the nurfing mold,.
The moistening current, and prolific rain..
But who their virtues can declare? Who pierce, With vifion pure, into these secret stores.
235 Of health, and life, and joy? The food of Man,
While yet he liv'd in innocence, and told
A length of golden years; unflefh'd in blood,
A ftranger to the favage arts of life,
Death, rapine, carnage, furfeit, and difeafe;
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