Untended fpreading, crop the wholesome root.

Along the woods, along the moorifh fens,

Sighs the fad Genius of the coming ftorm;

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And up among the loose disjointed cliffs,
And fractur'd mountains wild, the brawling brook
And cave, prefageful, fend a hollow moan
Refounding long in listening Fancy's ear.

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THEN comes the father of the tempeft forth, Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obfcure Drive thro' the mingling fkies with vapour foul; Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods, That grumbling wave below. The unfightly plain 76 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; fave thofe that love

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To take their pastime in the troubled air,

Or fkimming flutter round the dimply pool.
The cattle from the untafted fields return,

And afk, with meaning lowe, their wonted ftalls, 85
Or ruminate in the contiguous fhade.

Thither the houfhold feathery people crowd,
The crefted cock, with all his female train,

Penfive,

Penfive, and dripping; while the cottage-hind

Hangs o'er th' enlivening blaze, and taleful there 90 Recounts his fimple frolic: much he talks,

And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows Without, and rattles on his humble roof.

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WIDE o'er the brim, with many a torrent fwell'd, And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread, At laft the rous'd up river pours along : Refistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, From the rude mountain, and the moffy wild, Tumbling thro' rocks abrupt, and sounding far; Then o'er the fanded valley floating spreads, Calm, fluggish, filent; till again, constrain'd Between two meeting hills, it burfts away, Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid ftream; There gathering triple force, rapid, and deep,

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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 foul!
That fees astonish'd! and astonish'd fings!
Ye too, ye winds that now begin to blow,

With boisterous fweep, I raise my voice to you.
Where are your ftores, ye powerful beings! fay,
Where your aërial magazinės referv'd,

To fwell the brooding terrors of the storm?
In what far distant region of the sky,

Hufh'd in deep filence, fleep ye when 'tis calm?

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WHEN from the pallid fky the fun defcends, With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb Uncertain wanders, ftain'd; red fiery ftreaks Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds Stagger with dizzy poife, as doubting yet Which mafter to obey; while rising flow, Blank, in the leaden-colour'd eaft, the moon

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Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns.

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Seen thro' the turbid fluctuating air,

The ftars obtufe emit a fhivered ray;

Or frequent seem to fhoot athwart the gloom,

And long behind them trail the whitening blaze. Snatch'd in fhort eddies, plays the wither'd leaf; 130 And on the flood the dancing feather floats. With broadened noftrils to the fky up-turn'd, > The confcious heifer fnuffs the ftormy gale.. Even as the matron, at her nightly task,

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With penfive labour draws the flaxen thread,
The wafted taper and the crackling flame
Foretell the blaft. But chief the plumy race,
The tenants of the fky, its changes speak.
Retiring from the downs, where all day long
They pick'd their scanty fare, a blackening train 140
Of clamorous rooks thick-urge their weary flight,
And feek the clofing fhelter of the grove;

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Affiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl
Plies his fad fong. The cormorant on high
Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land.
Loud fhrieks the foaring hern; and with wild wing
The circling fea-fowl cleave the flaky clouds.
Ocean, unequal prefs'd, with broken tide

And blind commotion heaves; while from the shore, Eat into caverns by the restless wave,

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And foreft-ruftling mountain, comes a voice,
That folemn founding bids the world prepare.
Then iffues forth the ftorm with fudden burft,
And hurls the whole precipitated air,

-Down, in a torrent. On the paffive main

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Defcends th' ethereal force, and with ftrong guft

Turns from its bottom the difcolour'd deep.

Thro' the black night that fits immense around,

Lafh'd into foam, the fierce conflicting brine
Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn:
Mean-time the mountain-billows, to the clouds
In dreadful tumult fwell'd, furge above furge,
Burst into chaos with tremendous roar,
And anchor'd navies from their stations drive,
Wild as the winds across the howling wafte
Of mighty waters: now th' inflated wave
Straining they fcale, and now impetuous shoot
Into the fecret chambers of the deep,
The wintry Baltick thundering o'er their head.
Emerging thence again, before the breath
Of full-exerted heaven they wing their course,
And dart on diftant coafts; if fome fharp rock,
Or fhoal infidious break not their career,

And in loofe fragments fling them floating round.

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NOR lefs at land the loofened tempeft reigns. 175
The mountain thunders; and its sturdy fons
Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they fhade.
Lone on the midnight fteep, and all aghaft,

The dark way-faring ftranger breathless toils,
And, often falling, climbs against the blast.
Low waves the rooted foreft, vex'd, and sheds

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What