Ts nought but gloom around: the darken'd fun Lofes his light. The rofy-bofom'd Spring To weeping fancy pines; and yon bright arch, Contracted, bends into a dufky vault. All nature fades extinct; and the alone Heard, felt, and feen, poffeffes every thought, Fills every fenfe, and pants in every vein. Books are but formal dulnefs, tedious friends; And fad amid the focial band he fits, Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue Th' unfinish'd period falls: while, borne away On fwelling thought, his wafted fpirit flies To the vain bofom of his diftant fair; And leaves the femblance of a lover, fix'd In melancholy fite, with head declin'd, And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts, Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs To glimmering fhades, and fympathetic glooms; Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling ftream, Romantic, hangs; there through the penfive dusk Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation loft, Indulging all to love: or on the bank Thrown, amid drooping lilies, fwells the breeze With fighs unceafing, and the brook with tears. Thus in foft anguifh he confumes the day, Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy caft, Falighten'd by degrees, and in her train Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks, Beneath the trembling languifh of her beam, With foften'd foul, and wooes the bird of eve To mingle woes with his: or while the world And all the fons of care lie hufh'd in fleep, Affociates with the midnight fhadows drear; And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours His idly-tortur'd heart into the page, Meant for the moving meffenger of love; Where rapture burns on rapture, every line With rifing frenzy fir'd. But if on bed Delirious fung, fleep from his pillow flics, All night he toffes, nor the balmy power

In any

"Tis then delightful mifery no more,
But agony uninix'd, inceffant gall,
Corroding every thought, and blafting all
Love's paradife. Ye fairy profpects, then,
Ye beds of rofes, and ye bowers of joy,
Farewell! Ye gleanings of departed peace,
Shine out your laft! The yellow-tinging plague
Internal vifion taints, and in a night

Of livid gloom imagination wraps.

Ah, then instead of love-enliven'd cheeks,
Of funny features, and of ardent eyes
With flowing rapture bright, dark looks fucceed,
Suffus'd and glaring with uncender fire;
A clouded afpect, and a burning cheek,
Where the whole poifon'd foul, malignant, fits,
And frightens love away. Ten thoufand fears"
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondnefs, eat him up
With fervent anguish, and confuming rage,
In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,
Deceitful pride, and refolution frail,
Giving falfe peace a moment.
Fancy pours,
Afresh, her beauties on his bufy thought,
Her firft endearments twining round the foul,
With all the witchcraft of enfnaring love.
Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew,
Flames through the nerves, and boilsalong the veins;
While anxious doubt diftracts the tortur'd heart:
For ev'n the fad affurance of his fears
Were cafe to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds,
Through flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life
Of fever'd rapture, or of cruel care;
His brightest flames extinguifh'd all, and all
His lively moments running down to wafte.
But happy they! the happieft of their kind?
Whom gentler ftarts unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend
"Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itfeif,
Attuning all their paffions into love;

pofture finds; till the gray morn Lifts her pale luftre on the paler wretch, Eimate by love: and then perhaps Fahamfied nature finks a while to reft, Still interrupted by distracted dreams, That o'er the fick imagination rife, And in black colours paint the mimic scene. Oft with th' enchantrefs of his foul he talks; Sometimes in crowds diftrefs'd; or if retir'd To fecret winding flower-enwoven bowers, Far from the dull impertinence of man, Juft as he, credulous, his endless cares Begins to lofe in blind oblivious love, Snatch'd from her yielding hand, he knows not how, Through forefts huge, and long untravel'd heaths With defolation brown, he wanders waste, I might and tempeft wrapt; or fhrinks aghaft, Back, from the bending precipice; or wades The turbid ftream below, and ftrives to reach The farther fhore; where fuccourlefs, and fad, She with extended arms his aid implores; But ftrives in vain: borne by th' outrageous flood To diftance down, he rides the ridgy wave, Or whelm'd beneath the boiling eddy finks. Thefe are the charming agonies of love, Whofe mifery delights. But through the heart Should jealoufy its venom once diffuse,

Where friendship full-exerts her foftest power,
Perfect esteem enliven'd by defire
Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will
With boundless confidence: for nought but love
Can answer love, and render blifs fecure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To blifs himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,
Well-merited, confume his nights and days:
Let barbarous nations, whofe inhuman love

Is wild defire, fierce as the funs they feel;
Let eaftern tyrants, from the light of heaven
Seclude their bofom-flaves, meanly poffefs'd
Of a mere, lifelefs, violated form:

While those whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal tranfport, free as nature live,
Difdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all!
Who in each other clafp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wifh;
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent heaven.

Meantime a fmiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhows fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful talk to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to fhoot,
To pour the fresh inftruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening fpirit, and to fix
The generous purpofe in the glowing breast.
Oh, fpeak the joy! ye, whom the fudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but fights of blifs,
All various nature preffing on the heart:

An elegant fufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving heaven.
These are the matchlefs joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seafons thus,
As ceafelefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads:
Till evening comes at laft, ferene and mild;
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in focial fleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly
To fcenes where love and blifs immortal reign.

FROM brightening fields of ether fair difclos'd,
Child of the fun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through nature's depth:
He comes attended by the fultry beurs,
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring
Averts her blufhful face; and earth, and skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, 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-feat,
By mortal feldom found: may fancy dare,
From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on furrounding heaven, to steal 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 hunian 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;
Unblemih'd honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, liberty, and man:
Doddington! attend my rural fong,

Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deserve thy juft applaufe.

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 thousand years,
That oft has fwept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away.
Firm, unremitting, matchlefs, in their course;
To the kind-temper'd change of night and day,
And of the feafons ever ftealing 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 dew At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east: Till far o'er ether fpreads the widening glow; And, from before the luftre of her face, White break the clouds away. With quicken'dftep, Brown night retires: Young day pours in apace, And opens all the lawny profpect wide. The dripping rock, the mountain's mifty top Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn. Blue, through the dusk, the fmoking currents shines And from the bladed field the fearful hare Limps, awkward; while along the forest-glade The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze

Some eafy paffage, raptur'd, to tranflate,
My fole delight; as through the falling glooms
Penfive I ftray, or with the rifing dawn
On fancy's eagle-wing excursive foar.

Now, flaming up the heavens, the potent fun
Melts into limpid air the high-rais'd clouds,
And morning fogs, that hover'd round the hills
In party-colour'd bands; till wide unveil'd
The face of nature shines, from where earth feems,
Far ftretch'd around, to meet the bending fphere.
Half in a blufh of clustering rofes loft,
Dew-drooping coolness to the fhade retires;
There, on the verdant turf, or flowery bed,
By gelid founts and carelefs rills to mufe;
While tyrant heat, difpreading through the sky,
With rapid fway, his burning influence darts
On man, and beast, and herb, and tepid stream.
Who can unpitying fee the flowery race,
Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom resign,
Before the parching beam? So fade the fair,
When fevers revel through their azure veins.
But one, the lofty follower of the fun,
Sad when he fits, thats up her yellow leaves,
Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamour'd bofom to his ray.

2

Home, from his morning talk, the fwain retreats;
His flock before him ftepping to the fold:
While the full-udder'd mother lows around
The cheerful cottage, then expecting food,
The food of innocence and health! The daw,
The rook and magpic, to the grey-grown oaks,
That the calm village in their verdant arms,
Sheltering, embrace, direct their lazy flight;
Where on the mingling boughs they fit embower'd,
All the hot noon, till cooler hours arifc.
Faint, underneath, the household fowls convene;
And, in a corner of the buzzing shade,
The houfe-dog, with the vacant greyhound, lies,
Out-ftretch'd, and fleepy. In his flumbers, one
Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults
O'er hill and dale; till, waken'd by the wafp,
They starting fnap. Nor fhall the mufe difdain
To let the little noify fummer-race

Live in her lay, and flutter through her fong:
Not mean, though fimple; to the fun ally'd,
From him they draw their animating fire.

Wak'd by his warmer ray, the reptile young
Come wing'd abroad; by the light air upborn,
Lighter, and full of foul. From every chink,
And fecret corner, where they flept away
The wintery forms; or rifing from their tombs,
To higher life; by myriads, forth at once,
Swarming they pour; of all the vary'd hues
Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose.
'Ten thousand forms! ten thousand different tribes!
People the blaze. To funny waters fome
By fatal inftinct fly; where on the pool
They, fportive, wheel; or, failing down the ftream,
Are fnatch'd immediate by the quick-ey'd trout,
Or darting falmon. Through the green-wood glade
Some love to ftray; there lodg'd, amus'd and fed,
In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make
The meads their choice, and vifit every Rower,
And every latent herb: for the fweet talk,
To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap,
In what foft beds, their young yet undisclos'd,
Employs their tender care. Some to the house,
The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight;

Sip round the pail, or tafte the curdling cheefe:
Oft, inadvertent, from the milky stream
They meet their fate; or, weltering in the bowl,
With powerlefs wings around them wrapt, expire.

But chief to heedlefs flies the window proyes
A conftant death; where, gloomily retir'd,
The villain fpider lives, cunning, and fierce,
Mixture abhorr'd! Amid a mangled heap
Of carcafes, in eager watch he fits,
O'erlooking all his waving fnares around.
Near the dire cell the dreadlefs wanderer oft
Paffes, as oft the ruffian fhows his front;
The prey at laft enfnar'd, he dreadful darts,
With rapid glide, along the leaning line;
And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs, [wing
Strikes backward, grimly pleas'd: the fluttering
And fhriller found declare extreme distress,
And afk the helping hofpitable hand.

Refounds the living furface of the ground: Nor undelightful is the ceafelefs hum, To him who mufes through the woods at noon: Or drowfy thepherd, as he lies reclin'd, With half-fhut eyes, beneath the floating fhade Of willows gray, clofe-crowding o'er the book. Gradual, from these what numerous kinds deEvading ev'n the microfcopic eye! [icend, Full Nature fwarms with life; one wondrous mate Of animals, or atoms organiz'd, Waiting the vital Breath, when Parent-Heaven Shall bid his fpirit blow. The hoary fen, In putrid fteams, emits the living cloud Of pestilence. Through fubterranean cells, Where fearching fun-beams fearce can find a way Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf Wants not its foft inhabitants. Secure, Within its winding citadel, the ftone Holds multitudes. But chief the foreft-bought, That dance unaumber'd to the playful breeze, The downy orchard, and the melting pulp Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed Of evanefcent infects. Where the pool Stands mantled o'er with green, invifible, Amid the floating verdure millions stray. Each liquid too, whether it pierces, foothes, Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste, With various forms abounds. Nor is the ftream Of pureft crystal, nor the lucid air, Though one transparent vacancy it seems, Void of their unfeen people. Thefe, conceal'd By the kind art of forming Heaven, escape The groffer eye of man: for, if the worlds In worlds enclos'd fhould on his fenfes burft, From cates ambrofial, and the nectar'd bowl, He would abhorrent turn; and in dead night, When filence fleeps o'er all, be ftunn'd with noife

Let no prefuming impious railer tax Creative Wisdom, as if aught was form'd In vain, or not for admirable ends. Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce His works unwife, of which the smallest part Exceeds the narrow vifion of her mind? As if upon a full-proportion'd dome, On fwelling columns heav'd, the pride of art! A critic-fly, whofe feeble ray fcarce fpreads An inch around, with blind prefumption bold, Should dare to tax the ftructure of the whole. And lives the man whofe univerfal eye Has fwept at once th' unbounded scheme of things;

Mark'd their dependence fo, and firm accord,
As with unfaultering accent to conclude
That this availeth nought? Has any seen
The mighty chain of beings, leffening down
From Infinite Perfection to the brink
Of dreary nothing, defolate abyfs!

From which aftonifh'd thought, recoiling, turns?
Till then alone let zealous praise afcend,
And hymns of holy wonder, to that Power
Whofe wifdom fhines as lovely on our minds,
As on our fmiling eyes his fervant fun.

Thick in yon ftream of light, a thousand ways,
Upward, and downward, thwarting, and convolv'd,
The quivering nations fport; till, tempeft-wing'd,
Fierce Winter fweeps them from the face of day.
Ev'n io luxurious men, unheeding, pass
An idle fummer life in fortune's fhine,
A fealon's glitter! Thus they flutter on
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice;
Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes
Behind, and ftrikes them from the book of life.
Now fwarms the village o'er the jovial mead :
The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil,
Healthful and strong; full as the fummer rofe
Blown by prevailing funs, the ruddy maid,
Half naked, fwelling on the fight, and all
Her kindled graces, burning on her cheek.
Ev'n ftooping age is here: and infant hands
Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load
C'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppreffion roll.
Wide flies the tedded grain; all in a row
Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field,
They fpread their breathing harvest to the fun,
That throws refreshfal round a rural smell:
Or, as they rake the green-afpearing ground,
And drive the dusky wave along the mead,
The ruffet hay-cock rifes thick behind,
In order gay. While, heard from dale to dale,
Waking the breeze, refounds the blended voice
Of happy labour, love, and focial glee.

Or rufhing thence, in one diffufive band, They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog Compell'd, to where the mazy-running brook For a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high, And that fair Ipreading in a pebbled fhore. Tag'd to the giddy brink, much is the toil The amour much, of men, and boys, and dogs, Ere the foft fearful people to the flood Commit their woolly fides. And oft the fwain, On fome impatient feizing, hurls them in: Embolden'd then, nor hefitating more, Fat, faft, they plunge amid the flashing wave, And panting labour to the fartheft fhore. Kepeated this, till the deep well-wash'd fleece Ha drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt The trout is banish'd by the fordid stream; Heavy, and dripping, to the breezy brow Slow move the harmlefs race; where, as they spread Their fwelling treasures to the funny ray, inly difturb'd, and wond'ring what this wild Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints The country fill; and, tofs'd from rock to rock, Ineffant bleatings run around the hills. At laft, of fnowy white, the gather'd flocks Are in the wattled pen innumerous prefs'd, Head above head: and, rang'd in lufty rows, The fhepherds fit, and whet the founding fhears. The housewife waits to roll her fleecy ftores, VOL. IX.

With all her gay-dreft maids attending round.
One, chief in gracious dignity enthron'd,
Shines o'er the reft, the paftoral queen, and rays
Her fmiles, fweet-beaming, on her fhepherd-king;
While the glad circle round them yield their fouls
To feftive mirth, and wit that knows no gall.
Meantime, their joyous task goes on apace:
Some mingling ftir the melted tar, and fome,
Deep on the new-fhorn vagrant's heaving-fide,
To itamp his master's cypher ready stand;
Others th' unwilling wether drag along;
And, glorying in his might, the sturdy boy
Holds by the twifted horns th' indignant ram.
Behold where bound, and of its robe bereft,
By needy man, that all-depending lord,
How meek, how patient, the mild creature lies!
What foftness in its melancholy face,
What dumb complaining innocence appears!
Fear not, ye gentle tribes, 'tis not the knife
Of horrid flaughter that is o'er you wav'd;
No, 'tis the tender fwain's well-guided fhears,
Who having now, to pay his annual care,
Borrow'd your fleece, to you a cumbrous load,
Will fend you bounding to your hills again.

A fimple fcene! yet hence Britannia fees
Her folid grandeur rife: hence the commands
Th' exalted ftores of every brighter clime,
The treafures of the fun without his rage:
Hence, fervent all, with culture, toil, and arts,
Wide glows her land: her dreadful thunder hence
Rides o'er the waves fublime, and now, ev'n now,
Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coaft;
Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world.
'Tis raging noon; and, vertical, the fun
Darts on the head direct his forceful rays.
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye
Can fweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all
From pole to pole is undiftinguish'd blaze.
In vain the fight, dejected to the ground,
Stoops for relief; thence hot-afcending steams,
And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root
Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields
And flippery lawn an arid hue disclose,
Blaft fancy's bloom, and wither ev'n the foul.
Echo no more returns the cheerful found
Of sharpening scythe: the mower finking heaps
O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfum'd;
And fcarce a chirping grafs-hopper is heard
Through the dumb mead. Diftressful nature pants.
The very ftreams look languid from afar;
Or, through the unfhelter'd glade, impatient feem
To hurl into the covert of the grove.

All-conquering heat, oh, intermit thy wrath! And on my throbbing temples potent thus Beam not fo fierce! Inceffant fill you flow, And ftill another fervent flood fucceeds, Pour'd on the head profufe. In vain I figh, And reftlefs turn, and look around for night; Night is far off, and hotter hours approach. Thrice happy he! who, on the funlefs fide Of a romantic mountain, for-crown'd, Beneath the whole collected fhade reclines: Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine-wrought, And fresh bedew'd with ever-fpouting streams, Sits coolly calm; while all the world without, Unfatisfied and fick, toffes in noon : Emblem inftructive of the virtuous man, Who keeps his temper'd mind ferene and pure,

N