SU M M E R.

From brightening 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 sultry hours,
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning SPRING
Averts her blushful face; and earth, and skies,
All-smiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me halte into the mid-wood shade,
Where scarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom ;
And on the dark-green grafs, beside 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-seat, By mortal seldam found : may Fancy dare,

From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on surrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the Poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of foul ?

And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite :
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wisdom; the gay social sense,
By decency chastis'd; goodnefs and wit,
In seldom-meeting harmony combin’d :
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man:
O DopingTON! attend my rural song,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deserve thy just applause.

With what an awful world-revolving power Were first the unwieldy planets launch'd along Th’illimitable void! Thus to remain, Amid the flux of

many thousand

years, That oft has fwept the toiling race of Men, And all their labour'd monuments away, Firm, unremitting, matchless, in their course; 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 WHOLE.

When now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd, And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze, Short is the doubtful empire of the night; And soon, observant of approaching day, The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews, At first faint-gleaming in the dappled cast: Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow; And, from before the lustre of her face, White break the clouds away. With quickened Atep, 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, thro' the dusk, the {moaking 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 passenger. Music awakes The native voice of undissembled joy : And thick around the woodland hymns arise. Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad shepherd leaves His mofly cottage, where with Peace he dwells ;