Sullen and sad, with all his rising train; Vapours, and clouds, and storms. Be these my theme, Skim'd the gay spring; on eagle-pinions borne, A firm, unshaken, uncorrupted soul These, each exalting each, the statesman light Hung o'er the farthest verge of heaven, the sun Scarce spreads thro' ether the dejected day. Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot His struggling grays, in horizontal lines; 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 listening Fancy's ear. Then comes the father of the tempest forth, Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obscure Drive thro' the mingling skies with vapour foul; Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods, That grumbling wave below. The unsightly plain Lies a brown deluge; as the low-bent clouds Pour flood on flood, yet unexhausted still Combine, and deepening into night shut up The day's fair face. The wanderers of heaven, 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 the untasted fields return, And ask, with meaning lowe, their wonted stalls, Or ruminate in the contiguous shade. Thither the houshold feathery people crowd, The crested cock, with all his female train, Pensive, and dripping; while the cottage-hind Hangs o'er th' enlivening blaze, and taleful there Recounts his simple frolick: much he talks, And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows Without, and rattles on his humble 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'-up river pours along: Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, From the rude mountain, and the mossy wild, Tumbling thro' rocks abrupt, and sounding far; Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads, Calm, sluggish, silent; till again, constrain'd Between two meeting hills, it bursts away, Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream; There gathering 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 pleasing dread they swell the soul ! That sees astonish'd! and astonish'd sings! Ye too, ye winds! that now begin to blow, With boisterous sweep, I raise my voice to you. Where are your stores, ye powerful beings! say, Where your aërial magazines reserv'd, To swell the brooding terrors of the storm? |