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 fkies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.
HENCE, let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, Where scarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom; 10 And on the dark-green grafs, befide 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 fteal one look
Creative of the Poet, every pow'r
Exalting to an ecftafy 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 wisdom; 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 DODINGTON ! attend my rural fong,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit ev'ry line,
And teach me to deferve thy just applause.
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 thoufand years, That oft has swept the toiling race of Men, And all their labour'd monuments away, Firm, unremitting, matchlefs, 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 fteady wнOLE.
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 ether spreads the wid'ning glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quick'ned ftep,
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 fmoaking currents shine
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 paffenger. Mufic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arise.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad fhepherd leaves
His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crouded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.
FALSELY luxurious, will not Man awake; And, fpringing 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?
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 thro' diftemper'd dreams?
Who would in fuch a gloomy state remain
Longer than Nature craves; when every Muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To blefs the wildly-devious morning-walk?
BUT yonder comes the powerful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the east. The lefs'ning cloud,
"The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
Llum'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;
And fheds the fhining day, that burnifh'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 firft, and beft!
Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe!
Without whofe vefting 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, firong, attractive force,
As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy Syftem rolls entire: from the far bourne
Of utmost 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 quick'ning glance their cumb'rous orbs
Were brute unlovely mafs, 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 thro' thy vaft domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing ftate, 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 Seafons lead, in fprightly dauce
Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours,
The Zyphers floating loofe, the timely Rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed Dews,
And foft'ned into joy the furly Storms.
Thefe, in fucceffive turn, with lavish hand,
Show'r every beauty, every fragrance fhow'r,
Herbs, flow'rs, and fruits; till, kindling at thy touch,
From land to land is flush'd the vernal year.
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