Has done his part. Ye foftering Breezes! blow; Ye foftening Dews! ye tender Show'rs! defcend; 50 And temper all, thou world-reviving Sun! Into the perfect year. Nor ye who live
In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, Think thefe loft themes unworthy of your ear: Such themes as these the rural Maro fung To wide-imperial Rome, in the full height Of elegance and tafte, by Greece refin'd. In ancient times, the facred plough employ'd The kings and awful fathers of mankind; And fome, with whom compar'd your infect-tribes60 Are but the beings of a fummer's day, Have held the fcale of empire, rul'd the ftorm Of mighty war, then with unwearied hand, Difdaining little delicacies, feiz'd
The plough, and greatly independent liv'd.
Ye generous Britons! venerate the plough, And o'er your hills and long withdrawing vales Let Autumn spread his treasures to the fun, Luxuriant and unbounded. As the fea
Far thro' his azure turbulent domain
Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports, So with fuperior boon may your rich foil, Exuberant, Nature's better bleflings pour O'er every land, the naked nations clothe, And be th' exhauftlefs granary of a world!
Nor only thro' the lenient air this change, Delicious, breathes; the penetrative fun, His force deep-darting to the dark retreat Of vegetation, fets the steaming power At large, to wander o'er the verdant earth In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay Green ! Thou fmiling Nature's univerfal robe!
United light and fhade where the fight dwells With growing ftrength, and ever new delight. 85 From the moift meadow to the withered hill, Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs, And fwells, and deepens, to the cherish'd eye : The hawthorn whitens, and the juicy groves Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees, Till the whole leafy-forest stands display'd In full luxuriance to the fighing gales, Where the deer ruftle thro' the twining brake, And the birds fing conceal'd. At once array'd In all the colours of the flushing year, By Nature's swift and fecret-working hand The garden glows, and fills the liberal air With lavish fragrance, while the promis'd fruit Lies yet a little embryo, unperceiv'd,
Within its crimson folds. Now from the Town, 100 Buried in fmoke, and sleep, and noisome damps, Oft' let me wander o'er the dewy fields, Where freshness breathes,and dashthetremblingdrops From the bent bush, as thro' the verdant maze
Of fweet-brier hedges I purfue my walk, Or taste the smell of dairy, or afcend Some eminence, Augufta, in thy plains, And fee the country, far diffus'd around,
One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower Of mingled bloffoms, where the raptur'd eye 110 Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath The fair profufion, yellow Autumn spies.
If, brush'd from Ruffian wilds, a cutting gale Rife not, and fcatter from his humid wings The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe 115 Untimely froft, before whose baleful blast The full-blown Spring thro' all her foliage fhrinks, Joylefs and dead, a wide-dejected waste : For oft', engender'd by the hazy North, Myriads on myriads, infect armies, warp Keen in the poison'd breeze, and wasteful eat, Thro' buds and bark, into the blackened core Their eager way: a feeble race! yet oft' The facred fons of Vengeance, on whose courfe Corrofive Famine waits, and kills the year. To check this plague the skilful farmer chaff, And blazing ftraw, before his orchard burns, Till, all involv'd in smoke, the latent foe From every cranny fuffocated falls,
Or fcatters o'er the blooms the pungent duft Of pepper, fatal to the frofty tribe; Or, when th' envenom'd leaf begins to curl, Volume I.
With sprinkled water drowns them in their neft; Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill, The little trooping birds unwifely scares.
Be patient, Swains! these cruel-feeming winds Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep reprefs'd Those deepening clouds on clouds, furcharg'd with That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne, [rain, In endless train, would quench the fummer-blaze, 140 And, cheerlefs, drown the crude unripened year.
The North-eaft fpends his rage; he now fhut 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 dufky wreath they seem to rise, Scarce ftaining ether, but by swift degrees In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour fails Along the loaded sky, and, mingling deep, Sits on th' horizon round a fettled gloom: Not fuch as wintry ftorms 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, feem, thro' delufive lapfe, Forgetful of their courfe. 'Tis filence all,
And pleafing expectation. Herds and flocks Drop the dry fprig, and, mute-imploring, eye The falling verdure. Hufh'd in fhort fufpenfe 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 fweetness. Man fuperior walks Amid the glad creation, mufing praise, And looking lively gratitude. At last, The clouds consign their treasures to the fields, And, foftly shaking on the dimpled pool Prelufive drops, let all their moisture flow In large effufion o'er the freshened world. The stealing shower is fcarce to patter heard By fuch as wander thro' the forest walks, Beneath th' 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 185 Indulge their genial stores, and well-fhower'd earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life,
Till in the western sky the downward fun
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