Ease and alternate labour, useful life, To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign. SUMMER. ARGUMENT. The subject proposed. Invocation. Address to Mr. Dodington. An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the succession of the seasons. As the face of Nature in this season is almost uniform, the progress of the poem is a description of a summer's day. The dawn. Sun-rising. Hymn to the sun, Forenoon. Summer insects described. Hay-making. Sheepshearing. Noon-day. A woodland retreat. Group of herds and flocks. A solemn 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 serene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Transition to the prospect of a rich well-cultivated country; which introduces a panegyric on Great-Britain. Sun-set. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of philosophy. FROM brightening fields of ether fair disclos’d, While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring Hence, let me haste into the mid-wood shade, Where scarce a sun-beam wanders through the gloom; And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large, And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend, In whom the human graces all unite: Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart; Genius, and wisdom; the gay social sense, By decency chastis'd; goodness and wit, In seldom-meeting harmony combin'd; Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man: O Dodington! attend my rural song, Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line, And teach me to deserve thy just applause. With what an awful world-revolving power Were first the unwieldy planets launch'd along The' illimitable void! thus to remain, Amid the flux of many thousand 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 seasons ever stealing round, Minutely faithful: such the' All-perfect Hand! That pois'd, impels, and rules the steady whole. When now no more the' alternate Twins are fir'd, And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze, Short is the doubtful empire of the night; And soon, observant of approaching day, The meek'd-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews, At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east : The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top The native voice of undissembled joy ; For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise? The fleeting moments of too short a life; Total extinction of the' enlighten'd soul! Wilder'd, and tossing through distemper'd dreams? But yonder comes the powerful King of Day, Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud, The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow f And sheds the shining day, that burnish'd plays On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams, High gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer, Light! Efflux divine! Nature's resplendent robe! 'Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force, As with a chain indissoluble bound, Thy system rolls entire: from the far bourne [orbs Without whose quickening glance their cumbrous |