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SPRING

VOL. I.

B SN

The ARGUMENT.

The fubject propofed. Infcribed to the Countess of HARTFORD. The feafon is defcribed as it affects the various parts of Nature, afcending from the lower to the higher; with digreffions arising from the subject. Its influence on inanimate Matter, on Vegetables, on brute Animals, and laft on Man; concluding with a diffuafive from the wild and irregular paffion of Love, oppofed to that of a pure and happy kind.

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SPRIN G.

C

OME, gentle SPRING, ethereal Mildness, come,

And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud,

While mufic wakes around veil'd in a fhower

Of fhadowing rofes, on our plains defcend.

O HARTFORD, fitted or to fhine in courts 5 With unaffected grace, or walk the plain With innocence and meditation join'd In foft affemblage, liften to my fong, Which thy own Seafon paints; when Nature all Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.

AND fee where furly WINTER paffes off, Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts: His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,

The fhatter'd foreft, and the ravag'd vale;

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While fofter gales fucceed, at whofe kind touch, 15 Diffolving fnows in livid torrents loft,

The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.

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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.

AT laft from Aries rolls the bounteous fun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
Th' expanfive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold;
But, full of life and vivifying foul,

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Lifts the light clouds fublime, 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 hufbandman perceives Relenting nature, and his lufty steers

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Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough
Lies in the furrow, loofened from the froft.
There, unrefufing to the harness'd yoke,
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,
Chear'd by the fimple song and foaring lark.
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the fhining share

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The

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