The ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed. Infcribed to the Countess of HART

FORD. The season is described as it affects the various parts of Nature, ascending from the lower to the higher; with digreffions arising from the subjeét. Its influence on inanimate Matter, on Vegetables, on brute Animals, and last on Man; concluding with a dissuasive from the wild and irregular pasion of Love, opposed to that of a pure and happy kind,

S P RIN G.

TOME, gentle SPRING, ethereal Mildness, come,

And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud,

While mufic wakes around veil'd in a shower Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.

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O HARTFORD, fitted or to shine in courts
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain
With innocence and meditation join'd
In soft assemblage, listen to my song,
Which thy own Season paints; when Nature all
Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.

AND see where surly WINTER passes off, Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts: His blafts obey, and quit the howling hill, The shatter'd foreft, and the ravag'd vale; While softer gales succeed, at whose kind touch, 15 Diffolving snows in livid torrents lost, The mountains lift their green heads to the sky. B 2 ì

As

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As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd,
And Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving fleets
Deform the day delightless: so that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulpht
To shake the founding marsh; or from the shore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath,
And fing their wild notes to the listening waste.

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At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun, And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more Th' expansive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold; But, full of life and vivifying foul, Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin, 30 Fleecy and white, o’er all-furrounding heaven.

Forth fly the tepid airs; and unconfin'd, Unbinding earth, the moving foftness strays. Joyous, th' impatient husbandman perceives Relenting nature, and his lufty steers

35 Drives from their stalls, to where the well-usod plough Lies in the furrow, loosened from the frost. There, unrefusing to the harness'd yoke, They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil, Cheard by the simple song and soaring lark, Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share

The

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