plicity of his plots, and the models he worked after, not fuiting the reigning taste, nor the impatience of an English theatre. They may hereafter come to be in vogue; but we hazard no comment or conjecture upon them, or upon any part of Mr. Thomson's works; neither need they any defence or apology, after the reception they have had at home, and in the foreign languages into which they have been tranflated. We fhall only fay, that, to judge from the imitations of his manner, which have been following him close from the very first publication of Winter, he feems to have fixed no inconfiderable æra of the English poetry. ODE ON THE DEATH OF MR. THOMSON. BY MR. COLLINS. The Scene of the following ftanzas is supposed to lie on the Thames, near Richmond. I 1. N yonder grave a Druid lies, Where flowly winds the stealing wave; The year's best fweets fhall duteous rife To deck its Poet's fylvan grave! II. In yon' deep bed of whifp'ring reeds His airy harp* shall now be laid, *The harp of Aolus, of which fee a defcription in the Cafle of Indolence. That he, whose heart in forrow bleeds, May love thro' life the foothing fhade. Then maids and youths fhall linger here, To hear the woodland pilgrim's knell. IV. Remembrance oft' fhall haunt the shore, To bid his gentle spirit rest! V. And oft' as Eafe and Health retire To breezy ławn or foreft deep, The friend fhall view yon' whitening spire *, VI. But Thou, who own'ft that earthy bed, VII. Yet lives there one whose heedlefs eye Shall fcorn thy pale fhrine glimm'ring near? * Richmond church. VIII. But thou, lorn Stream, whofe fullen tide No fedge-crown'd fifters now attend, Now waft me from the green hill's fide, Whofe cold turf hides the buried friend! IX. And fee the fairy vallies fade, Dun Night has veil'd the folemn view! Yet once again, dear parted Shade, Meek Nature's child, again adieu ! X. The genial meads affign'd to bless Thy life, fhall mourn thy early doom, Their hinds and fhepherd girls shall drefs, With fimple hands, thy rural tomb. XI. Long, long, thy ftone and pointed clay SPRING. The Argument. THE fubje&t propofed. Infcribed to the Countess of Hertford. The feafon is defcribed as it affets the various parts of Nature, afcending from the lower to the higher; with digreffions arifing from the fabjet. Its influence on inanimate matter, en vegetables, on brute animals, and laft on man; concluding with a diffuafive from the wild and irregular paffion of love, oppofed t that of a pure and happy kind. COME, gentle Spring! ethereal Mildness, come, O Hertford fitted or to fhine in courts And fee where furly Winter paffes off 10 Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts: The mountains lift their green heads to the sky. As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd, And Winter oft' at eve refumes the breeze, Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving fleets-20 Deform the day delightless; fo that scarce And fing their wild notes to the liftening wafte. 25 Lifts the light clouds fublime, and spreads them thin, 35 Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough Lies in the furrow loofened from the froft: There unrefusing, to the harness'd yoke 40 They lend their fhoulder, and begin their toil, |