35

40

And fing their wild notes to the listening waste. 25

Ar last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
Th' expansive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold;
Bat, full of life and vivitying soul,
Lifts the light clouds fublime,and spreads them thin,
Fleecy and white, o'er all-surrounding Heaven. 31

Forth fly the tepid airs: and unconfin'd,
Unbinding earth, the moving softness itrays.
- Joyous, th’impatient husbandman perceives
Relencing Nature, and his lusty fteers
Drives from their stalls, to where the well-usd
Lies in the furrow, loosen'd from the frost. (plough
There, unrefusing to the harness'd yoke,
They lend their thoulder, and begin their toil,
Chear'd by the simple song and soaring lark.
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share
The master leans, removes th'obstructing clay,
Winds the whole work, and fidelong lays the globe.

Wsite t'iro' the neighbouring fields the lower stalks
With measur'd step ; and liberal throws the grain
Into the faithful bofom of the ground:
The harrow follows harsh, and thuts the scene.

Be gracious, Heav'n ! for now laborious man
Has done his part.

Ye fostering breezes blow!
Ye fnfiering dews, ye tender ihowers, descend ! 50
And temper all, thou world-reviving fun,
In:o the perfect year! Nor ye who live
In lixury and ease, in pomp and pride,
Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear :
Such themes as there the rural Maro sung 55
To wide-imperial Rome, in the full height
Of elegance and taste. by Greece refin'd.
In ancient times, the facred plough employ'd
The kings, and awful fathers of mankind:
And some, with whom compar'd your infect tribes 6o
Are but the beings of a summer's day,
Have held the scale of empire, ruld the storm
Of mighty war; then, with viqtorious hand,
Difdaininy little delicacies, seiz'd
The plough, and greatly independant scorn'd
All the vile-ftores corruption can bestow.

Yd

46

65

70

Ye

generous Britoni, venerate the ploughi 1
Ando'cr your hills, and long witdieçaring vales,
Let Autumn Ipread his treasures to the lun,
Luxuriant and untouided! as the fea,
Far thro' his azure turbulent dimain,
Your empire owns and fro:ti a theutand shores
WÁfts all the pomp of life into your po k»;
So with superior biron may joer ich foil,
Exuberant, Nature's better bleliings pour 75
O’er every land, the naked nation's cloathë
Alid be th' exhauftless granary of a world!

Nor only thro' the lenient air this change,
Delicious, breathes ; the penetrative fuii,
His force de p-darting to the dark retreat 8
Oi vegetation, sets the fan i'g power
At large, to wander o'er the veidlant earth,
In' various hues'; but chiefly thee, gay Grien !
Thou smiling Nature's univerfal ribe !
United light and thade! where the fight dwells. 85
With growing Itrength, and ever-new delight.

From the moist meadow to the wither'd bill,
Leit by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs,
And swells, and deepens, to the cherith'! eye.
The hawthorn whitens: and the juicy grovės 90
Pur forth their buds, unfolding by degrees,
Till the whole leafy foreit stands display'd,
In full luxuriance, to the lighing gales;
Where the deer ruffle thro' che twining brake,
And the birds fing conceald. At once, array'd
In all the colour's oftre Authing year,
By Nature's swift and secret-working hand,
The garden glows, and in the liberal air
With lavish flagrance; the promis’d fruit
Lies yet a little emb unperceivid,

100
Within it's criminal Now froin the town
Bar ed in singleep, and noisome damps,
Oft let me wanger o'er the dewy fields, (drops
Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling
From the bent buth, as thro' the veidunt maze
Of sweet-Briar hedges I pursuc my walk;
Or taste the smell of dairy; or afcend
Some
eminence, Augufia, in thy plains,
A 4

And

50

95

S.

JOS

I20

And see the country, far diffus'd around.
One boundless bluth, one white empurpled shower
Of mingle: blossoms ; where the raptur'd eye 111
Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath
The fair profufion, yellow Autumn tpies.

If, bruih'd from Russian wilds, a cutting gale
Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings 115
The clammy

mildew;

; or, dry-blowing, bieathe
Untimely frost ; before whole baleful blast
The full-blown spring thro' all her foliage shrinks,
Joyless and dead, a wide dejected walle.
For oft, engender'd by the hazy north,
Myriads on myriads, insect armies wast
Keen in the poison'd breeze ; and waiteful cat,'
Thro' buds and bark, into the blackened core,
Their eager way. A feeble race ! yet oft
The sacred sons of vengeance ! on whose course 125
Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year.
To check this plague the skilful farmer, chaff,
And blazing straw, before his orchard burns ;
Till, all involv'd in smoke, the latent foe
From every crafiny suffocated falls :

130
Or seaticrs o'er the blooms the pungent duft
Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe :

Or, when th' invenom'd leaf begins to curl,
With sprinkled water drowns them in their neft;
Nór, while they pick them up with busy bill, 135
The little trooping birds unwisely fcares.

Be patient, swains; these crucl-feeming winds
Blois not in vain. Far hence they keep, reprefs-d
Thore deep'ning clouds on clouds, furcharg'd with
That o'er the vatt, Aclantic hittier borne, [rain,
In end'ess train,would quench the fummer-blaze, 141
And, chearless, drown the crude unripen'd year.

The north-east spends his rage; he now, shut up Within his iron cave, th' effufive south

144 Warms the wide air, and o'cr the void of heaven Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers diffent. At first a dulky wreath they seem to rise, Scarce itaining ether; but by falt degrees, In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour sails along the loaded sky, and mingi ng deep

150

160

Sits on th' borizon round a settled gloom.
Not such as wintry-storms on mortals ihed,
Oppressing life ; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,
The wish of natuic. Gradual, finks the breeze,
Into a perfect calm; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver thro' the closing wonds,
Or ruftling turn the many twinkling leaves
(if aspin tall. Th’uncurling Hoods, diffus'd
In glaily breadth, seem thro'aelusive lapse
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis filence all,
And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks
Drop the dry sprig, and mure-imploring eye
The falling verdure. Huth'd in short fufpence,
The plumy people itreak their wings with oil, 165
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off ;
And waitth' approaching sign to strike, at once,
Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales,
And foreits seem, impatient, tu demand
The promis'd sweetness. Man superior walks 170
Amid the glad creation, muling praise,
And looking lively gratitude. Atlast,
The clouds consign their treasures to the selds;
And, foftly thaking on the dimpled pool
Prelulive drops, let all their moitture, flow,

175
In large effufion, o'er the freshen'd world.
The stealing thower is scarce to patter heard,
By such as wander thro' the forest-walks,
Beneath ih umbrageous, multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the shade, while heaven descends
In univerfal bounty, shedding herbs,
And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap?
Swift fancy fir'd anticipates their growth;
And, while the milky nutriment distills,
Beholds the kindling counery colour round. 185

Thys all day long the tuil-diftended clouds
Indulge their genial stores, and well-shower'd earth
Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life;
Till, in the western sky, the downward fun
Looks effulgent, from amid the flush

190
Of broken clouds, gay-thifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance instantancous Anikes

5

1

out,

AS

Th'

200

21a

Th'illu nind mountain, thro' the foreft streams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mift,
Far smoaking o'er the interminable plain, 195
In twinkling myri.ds lights the dewy gems.
Moist, bright, and green, the landskip laughs around.
Full fwell the woods; their every music wakes,
Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brook's
Increas'd, the d. ftant bleatings of the hills,
The hollow lows responsive from the vales,
Whence blending all the sweetned zephyr Springs,
Meaytime refracted from yan eastern cloud,
Beltriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds, 205
In fair proportion running from the red,
To where the violet fades into the sky.
Here, awful Newton, the diffolving clouds
Form, fronting on the sun, thy showery prism;
And to the sage-instructed eye utfold
The various i wine of light, by thee disclos'd!
From the white mingling maze. Not so the swain ;
He wondering views the bright enchantment bende
Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but amaz’d 215
Beholds th' amufive arch before him fly,
Then vanith quite away. Still night fucceeds,
A fotter'd thade, and saturated earth
Awaits the morning beam, to give to light,
Rais'd tire? ten thousand different plastic tubes, 220
The balmy treafures of the former day:

The spring the living herbs, profusely wild,
D'er all the deep green carth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes :
Whether he steals along the lonely dale,

225
In filent search; or throw the foreft, rank
With what the dull incurious weeds account,
Burits h's blind way; or climbs the mourtain-rock,
Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow.
With fuch a liberal hand has Nature Aung 230
Their reed's abroad, blown them about in winds,
Irinumerous mix'd them with the nursing mold,
The moistening current, and prolific rain.
But who theit virtues can deciare ! Woo pierce,