THE ARGUMENT.
The fubject propofed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr. Doldington. An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of the feafons. As the face of Nature in this feafon is almost uniform, the progrefs of the poem is a defcription of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Summer infects defcribed. Hay-making. Sheep-fhearing. Noon-day. A woodland retreat. Groupe of herds and flocks. A folemn grove: how it affects a contemplative mind. A cataract, and rude scene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The ftorm over, a ferene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Transition to the profpect of a rich well-cultivated country; which introduces a panegyric on Great Britain. Sun-fet. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. concluding with the praise of philosophy.
ROM brightening fields of æther fair difclos'd, Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through 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.
Hence, let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, Where scarce a fun-beam wanders through the gloom; And on the dark-green grafs, befide the brink Of haunted stream, that by the roots of cak 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 serious eye, and raptur'd glance Shot on furrounding Heaven, to steal one look Creative of the Poet, every power Exalting to an ecstasy of foul.
And thou, my youthful Mufe's early friend, In whom the human graces all unite : Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart; Genius, and wifdom; the gay focial fenfe, By decency chaftis'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 Doddington! attend my rural fong, Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line, And teach me to deferve thy juft applaufe.
With what an awful world-revolving power Were first th' 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, matchlefs, in their course; To the kind-temper'd change of night and day, And of the seasons ever ftealing 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, obfervant of approaching day, The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews, At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east : Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow; And, from before the luftre of her face, White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step, Brown Night retires: Young Day pours in apace, And opens all the lawny prospect wide.
The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top
Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue, through the dusk, the smoaking currents fhine;
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, aukward; while along the forest-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early passenger. Mufic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy; And thick around the woodland hymns arife.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad shepherd leaves
His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells ; And from the crowded fold, in order, drives His flock, to tafte the verdure of the morn.
Falfely luxurious, will not Man awake; And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour, To meditation due and facred fong?
For is there aught in fleep can charm the wise ?
To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half
The fleeting moments of too fhort a life;
Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul!
Or else to feverish vanity alive,
Wilder'd, and toffing through diftemper'd dreams? Who would in fuch a gloomy state remain Longer than Nature craves; when every Mufe And every blooming pleasure wait without, To blefs the wildly devious morning-walk?
But yonder comes the powerful King of Day, Rejoicing in the eaft. The leffening 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 colour'd alr, He looks in boundless majesty abroad;
And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams, High-gleaming from afar. Prime chearer Light! Of all material beings first, and best ! Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe! Without whofe vesting beauty all were wrapt
In uneffential gloom; and thou, O Sun!
Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom best seen Shines out thy Maker! may I fing of thee? 'Tis by thy fecret, ftrong, attractive force, As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy fyftem rolls entire; from the far bourne Of utmoft Saturn, wheeling wide his round Of thirty years; to Mercury, whose disk Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye, Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze. Informer of the planetary train!
Without whofe quickening glance 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 fpirit; 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 Seafons! who the pomp precede That waits thy throne, as through thy vaft 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, Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up
A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car, 120 High-feen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours, The Zephyrs floating loofe, the timely Rains,
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