The fubject propofed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr. Doddington. An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of the feafons. As the face of Nature in this fer fon is almost 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 scene. View of Summer in the
torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The storm 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. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. concluding with the praise of philofophy.
ROM brightening fields of æther fair difclos'd,
Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through Nature's depth :
He comes attended by the fultry hours,
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring
Averts her blufshful face; and earth, and skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.
Hence, let me haste into the mid-wood shade,
Where scarce a fun-beam wanders through the gloom;
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-seat,
By mortal feldom found: may Fancy dare,
From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on furrounding Heaven, to fteal 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,
By 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 Doddington! attend my rural fong,
Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy juft applause.
With what an aweful world-revolving power
Were first th' unwieldy planets launch'd along
Th' illimitable void! Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thoufand years,
That oft has swept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away.
Firm, unremitting, matchless, in their course;
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 steady whole,
When now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd,
And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, obfervant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews,
At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east:
Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step, Brown Night retires: Young Day pours in apace, And opens all the lawny profpect wide,
The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top
Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue, through the dusk, the smoking currents shine; And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, aukward; while along the forest-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early passenger. Mufic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arife.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon clad fhepherd leaves
His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crouded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to tafte the verdure of the morn.
Falfely luxurious, will not Man awake;
And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,
To meditation due and facred fong?
For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife?
Longer than Nature craves; when every Mufe
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To bless the wildly devious morning walk?
But yonder comes the powerful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the eaft. The leffening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
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