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THE SEASONS.

SUMMER.

The Argument.

THE fubject propofed. Invocation, Addrefs to Mr. Dodington.

An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of the Seafons. As the face of Nature in this feafon is almoft uniform, the progrefs of the Poem is a defcription of a Summer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Summer-infects defcribed. Hay-making. Sheep-fhearing. Noon-day. A woodland retreat. Group of herds and flocks. A folemn grove: how it affects a contemplative mind. A cataract, and rude fcene. View of Summer in the Torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A Tale. The ftorm over, ferene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Tranfition to the profpect of a rich, well-cultivated country, which introduces a panegyric on GreatBritain. Sun-fet. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praife of philofophy.

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ROM brightening fields of ether fair disclos'd, Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes, In pride of youth, and felt thro' 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 blushful face, and earth, and fkies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

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Hence let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, Where scarce a funbeam wanders thro' the gloom, 10 And on the dark-green grafs, beside the brink

Of haunted stream, 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-feat,
By mortal feldom found; may Fancy dare,
From thy fix'd ferious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on furrounding heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy 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 wisdom, the gay focial fense,
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 Dodington! attend my rural fong,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy just applause.

With what an awful world-revolving power
Were first the unwieldy planets launch'd along
Th' 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 Seafons ever stealing round,

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Minutely faithful; fuch th' all-perfect Hand
That pois'd, impels, and rules the fteady 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 eaft,
Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow,
And from before the luftre of her face
White break the clouds away. With quickened ftep
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. 55
Blue, thro' the dufk, the smoking currents shine,
And from the bladed field the fearful hare

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Limps awkward; while along the foreft-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufic awakes

The native voice of undiffembled joy,

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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 crowded fold, in order, drives 65
His flock, to tafte the verdure of the morn.
Falfely luxurious, will not man awake,
And, fpringing from the bed of sloth, enjoy

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The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,

To meditation due and facred song?

For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife?

To lie in dead oblivion, losing half

The fleeting moments of too fhort a life,
Total extinction of th' enlightened foul!
Or else to feverish vanity alive,

Wilder'd, and toffing thro' diftemper'd dreams?
Who would in such a gloomy ftate remain
Longer than Nature craves, when every Mufe
And every blooming Pleasure wait without,
To blefs the wildly-devious morning-walk?

But yonder comes the powerful King of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The leffening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illumin'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo, now apparent all,
Aflant the dew-bright earth and coloured air
He looks in boundless majesty abroad,

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And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks,andhills, and towers, and wandering ftreams,
High-gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer, Light! ga
Of all material beings firft and best!

Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe!
Without whofe vefting beauty all were wrapt
In uneffential gloom; and thou, O Sun!

Soul of surrounding worlds! in whom best seen 95
Shines out thy Maker, may I fing of thee?

'Tis by thy fecret, ftrong, attractive force,
As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy fyftem rolls entire; from the far bourne
Of utmoft Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years, to Mercury, whose disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
Informer of the planetary train!

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Withoutwhofe quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead,
And not, as now, the green abodes of life,
How many forms of being wait on thee!
Inhaling fpirit, from th' unfetter'd mind,
By thee fublim'd, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy setting beam?
The vegetable world is alfo thine,
Parent of Seafons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as thro' thy vast domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing state it moves fublime.
Mean time th' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up

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A common hymn, while round thy beaming car, 110
High-feen, the Seafons lead, in fprightly dance,
Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours;
The Zephyrs floating loofe, the timely Rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light footed Dews,

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