Page images
PDF
EPUB

For oft, engender'd by the hazy north,
Myriads on myriads, infect armies warp
Keen in the poifon'd breeze; and wasteful eat,
Thro' buds and bark, into the blacken'd core,
Their eager way. A feeble race! yet oft
The facred fons of vengeance; on whose course
Corrofive 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 fmoke, the latent foe
fuffocated falls :

From every cranny
Or fcatters o'er the blooms the pungent dust
pepper, fatal to the frofty tribe :

Of

Or, when th' envenom'd leaf begins to curl,
With fprinkled water drowns them in their neft;
Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill,
The little trooping birds unwifely fcares.

Be patient, fwains; these cruel-feeming winds
Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep reprefs'd
Those deep'ning clouds on clouds, furcharg'd with rain,
That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne,
In endless train, would quench the fummer-blaze,
And, cheerlefs, drown the crude unripen'd year.
The north-east spends his rage; he now shut up
Within his iron cave, th' effufive south

Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers diftent.
At first a dusky wreath they seem to rise,

Scarce ftaining ether; but by swift degrees,
In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour fails
Along the loaded fky, and mingling deep
Sits on th' horizon round a fettled gloom :
Not fuch as wint❜ry storms on mortals shed,
Oppreffing life; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,
The wish of Nature. Gradual finks the breeze
Into a perfect calm; that not a breath

Is heard to quiver thro' the clofing woods,
Or rustling turn the many twinkling leaves
Of afpin tall. Th' uncurling floods, diffus'd
In glaffy breadth, seem thro' delufive lapfe
Forgetful of their courfe. 'Tis filence all,
And pleafing expectation. Herds and flocks
Drop the dry sprig, and mute-imploring eye
The falling verdure. Hufh'd in fhort fufpence,
The plumy people ftreak their wings with oil,
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off;
And wait th' approaching fign to strike, at once,
Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales,
And forefts feem, impatient, to demand

The promis'd sweetness. Man fuperior walks
Amid the glad creation, mufing praife,
And looking lively gratitude. At last,

;

The clouds confign their treasures to the fields
And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelufive drops, let all their moisture flow,
In large effufion, o'er the freshen'd world.
The ftealing shower is scarce to patter heard,
By fuch as wander thro' the forest walks,
Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the fhade, while Heaven defcends
In univerfal bounty, fhedding herbs,

And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap?
Swift fancy fir'd anticipates their growth;
And, while the milky nutriment diftils,
Beholds the kindling country colour round.
Thus all day long the full-diftended clouds
Indulge their genial stores, and well-fhower'd earth
Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life;

Till, in the western sky, the downward fun
Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flufh

Of broken clouds, gay. fhifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance inftantaneous ftrikes

Th' illumin'd mountain, thro' the foreft ftreams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist,

Far fmoking o'er th' interminable plain,

In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems.
Moift, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around.
Full fwell the woods; their very mufic wakes,
Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks
Increas'd, the diftant bleatings of the hills,
And hollow lows refponfive from the vales,
Whence blending all the sweeten'd zephyr springs.
Mean time, refracted from yon eastern cloud,
Beftriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds,
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 fun, thy showery prism ;
And to the fage-instructed eye unfold

The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd
From the white mingling maze. Not fo the boy;
He wondering views the bright enchantment bend,
Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but amaz'd
Beholds the amusive arch before him fly,
Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds,
A foften'd fhade, and faturated earth
Awaits the morning-beam, to give to light,

Rais'd thro' ten thousand different plastic tubes,
The balmy treasures of the former day.

Then spring the living herbs, profufely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes:
Whether he fteals along the lonely dale,

In filent fearch; or thro' the forest, rank
With what the dull incurious weeds account,
Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain-rock,
Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow.
With fuch a liberal hand has Nature flung
Their feeds abroad, blown them about in winds,
Innumerous mix'd them with the nurfing mold,
The moistening current, and prolific rain.

But who their virtues can declare? who pierce,
With vision pure, into these secret stores
Of health, and life, and joy? the food of Man,
While yet he liv'd in innocence, and told
A length of golden years; unflesh'd in blood,
A ftranger to the favage arts of life,

Death, rapine, carnage, furfeit, and disease ;
The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world.

The first fresh dawn then wak'd the gladden'd race Of uncorrupted Man, nor blufh'd to fee

The fluggard fleep beneath its facred beam;

« PreviousContinue »