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SUMME R.

VOL. I.

D

DINGTON.

The ARGUMENT.

The fubject propos'd. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr. DoAn introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of the feafons. As the face of Nature in this feafon is almoft uniform, the progress of the poem is a defcription of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Summer infects defcribed. Hay-making. Sheep-fhearing. Noon-day. A woodland retreat. Groupe of herds and flocks. A folemn grove. How it affects a contemplative mind. A cataract, and rude fcene. View of fummer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The ftorm over, a ferene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Tranfition to the profpect of a rich well-cultivated country; which introduces a panegyric on GREAT BRITAIN. Sun-fet. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praife of philofophy

SUMM E R.

FRO

ROM brightening fields of ether fair disclos'd, Child of the fun, refulgent Su M M ER comes, In pride of youth, and felt thro' Nature's depth: He comes attended by the fultry hours, And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;

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While, from his ardent look, the turning SPRING
Averts her blushful face; and earth, and skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

HENCE, let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, Where scarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom; 10 And on the dark-green grafs, befide the brink Of haunted ftream, that by the roots of oak Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large, And fing the glories of the circling year!

COME, Infpiration! from thy hermit-feat, By mortal feldom found: may Fancy dare, From thy fix'd ferious eye, and raptur'd glance

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Shot

Shot on furrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the Poet, every power
Exalting to an ecftafy of foul.

AND thou, my youthful mufe's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite:
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wifdom; the gay focial fenfe,
Ey decency chaftis'd; goodness and wit,
In feldom-meeting harmony combin'd;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal,
For BRITAIN'S glory, Liberty, and Man:
O DODINGTON! attend my rural fong,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy juft applause.

WITH what an awful world-revolving power,
Were first th' unwieldy planets launch'd along
Th' illimitable void! Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years,

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That oft has fwept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchlefs, in their courfe;
To the kind-temper'd change of night and day,
And of the feafons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful: Such TH' ALL-PERFECT HAND;
That pois'd, impels, and rules the fteady whole.

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WHEN

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