Along the woods, along the moorish fens,
Sighs the fad Genius of the coming ftorm;
And up among the loose disjointed cliffs,
And fractur'd mountains wild, the brawling brook
And cave, presageful, send a hollow moan,
Refounding long in liftening Fancy's ear.

Then comes the father of the tempeft forth,
Wrapt in black glooms. Firft 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
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 those that love
To take their pastime in the troubled air,
Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool.
The cattle from the untafted fields return,
And ask, with meaning lowe, their wonted stalls,
Or ruminate in the contiguous shade.
Thither the houfhold feathery people crowd,
The crefted cock, with all his female train,
Penfive, and dripping; while the cottage-hind
Hangs o'er th' enlivening blaze, and taleful there,

Recounts his fimple frolic: 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'd-up river pours along: Refiftlefs, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, From the rude mountain, and the moffy wild, Tumbling thro' rocks abrupt, and founding far; Then o'er the fanded valley floating fpreads, Calm, fluggish, filent; till again, constrain'd Between two meeting hills, it bursts away, Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid ftream 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 Seafons 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 stores, ye powerful beings! say, Where your aërial magazines 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?

When from the pallid fky the fun defcends,
With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb
Uncertain wanders, ftain'd; red fiery streaks
Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds
Stagger with dizzy poife, as doubting yet
Which mafter to obey: while rifing flow,
Blank, in the leaden-colour'd east, the moon
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns
Seen thro' the turbid fluctuating air,

The stars obtufe emit a fhivered ray;

Or frequent feem to shoot athwart the gloom,
And long behind them trail the whitening blaze.
Snatch'd in fhort eddies, plays the wither'd leaf;
And on the flood the dancing feather floats.
With broadened noftrils to the sky up-turn'd,
The conscious heifer fnuffs the ftormy gale.
Even as the matron, at her nightly task,
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

Of clamorous rooks thick urge their
weary flight,
And feek the closing shelter of the grove ;
Affiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl
Plies his fad fong. The cormorant on high

Wheels from the deep, and fcreams 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 fhore,
Eat into caverns by the restless wave,

And foreft-rustling mountains, comes a voice,
That folemn founding bids the world prepare.
Then iffues forth the ftorm with sudden burst,
And hurls the whole precipitated air,
Down, in a torrent. On the paffive main
Defcends th' ethereal force, and with ftrong guft
Turns from its bottom the discolour'd deep.
Thro' the black night that fits immenfe around,
Lafh'd into foam, the fierce conflicting brine
Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn:
Meantime the mountain-billows, to the clouds
In dreadful tumult fwell'd, furge above furge,
Burft into chaos with tremendous roar,
And anchor'd navies from their stations drive,
Wild as the winds across the howling waste

Of mighty waters: now th' inflated wave
Straining they fcale, and now impetuous shoot
Into the secret chambers of the deep,

The wintry Baltic 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 some sharp rock,
Or fhoal infiduous break not their career,
And in loose fragments fling them floating round.
Nor lefs at land the loofened tempeft reigns.
The mountain thunders; and its sturdy fons
Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they fhade.
Lone on the midnight fleep, and all aghast,
The dark way-faring ftranger breathlefs toils,
And, often falling, climbs against the blast.
Low waves the rooted foreft, vex'd, and fheds
What of its tarnish'd honours yet remain;
Dash'd down, and fcatter'd, by the tearing wind's
Affiduous fury, its gigantic limbs.

Thus ftruggling thro' the diffipated grove,
The whirling tempeft raves along the plain;
And on the cottage thatch'd, or lordly roof,
Keen-faftening, shakes them to the folid bafe.
Sleep frighted flies; and round the rocking dome,
For entrance eager, howls the favage blaft.