SUMMER.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE fubject propofed. Invocation. Address to Mr. Doddington. An Introductory refeation on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffien of the feafons. As the face of Nature in this feafen is almost uniform, the progress of the poem is a defcription of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Sum mer infects described. Hiy-making. Sheepshearing. Noon-day. A woodland retreat. Groupe 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 form over, a ferene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Trarfition to the protect of a rich well-cultivated country, which introduces a panegyric on Great Britain. Sun-fet. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of philofophy.

ROM bright'ning fields of æther fair difclos'd,

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: 45
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 æther spreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quicken'd
Step,
Brown Night retires: Young Day pours in

a pace,

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And opens all the lawny profpect wide.
The dripping rock, the mountain's milty top.
Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue through the dufk, the fmoaking currents

fhine;

And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps aukward; while along the foreft glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy;

Hence let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, Where fcarce a fun-beam wanders through the gloom,

And on the dark-green grafs, befide the brink 11
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 mortals 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 youthful 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-mecting harmony combin'd; Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man : O, Doddington! attend my rural fong, Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line, And teach me to deferve thy juft applause.

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Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad fhepherd leaves
His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crouded 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 floth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the flent hour,
To meditation due and facred fong?
For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife?
To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half

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The fleeting moments of too fhort a life ;
Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul!
Or else to feverish vanity alive,
Wilder'd, and toffing through diftemper'd dreams?
Who would in fuch a gloomy itate remain
Longer than Nature craves: when every Mufe
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To blefs the wildly devious morning walk?

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But yonder comes the powerful King of Day, Rejoicing in the eaft. The leffening cloud, The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach Betoken glad. Lo, now, apparent all, Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air, He looks in boundle's majefty abroad,

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And freds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays On reeks, and hills, and towers, and wandering ftreams,

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The chearful cottage, then expecting food,
The food of innocence and health! The daw,
The rook, and magpie, to the grey-grown oaks,
That the calm village in their verdant arms
Shelt'ring embrace, direct their lazy flight;
Where on the mingling boughs they fit embow-
er'd,

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All the hot noon, till cooler hours arise.
Faint, underneath, the houshold fowls convene;
And, in a corner of the buzzing shade,
The house-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. 235
They starting inap. Nor fhall the Mufe difdain
To let the little noify fummer-race
Live in her lay, and flutter thro' her fong
Not mean, though fimple; to the fun ally'd,
From him they draw their animating fire.

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Wak'd by his warm ray, the reptile young Come wing'd abroad; by the light air upborne, Lighter, and full of foul. From every chink And fecret corner, where they flept away The wintry 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 difclose. Ten thoufand forms! ten thousand different tribes!

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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, anus'd, and fed,
In the fresh leaf, Luxurious, others make 256
The meads their choice, and vifit every flower,
And every latent herb: for the fweet talk,
To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap,
In what foft beds, their young, yet undifclos'd,
Employs their tender care. Some to the houfe, 261
The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight;
Sip round the pail, or tafte the curdling cheese :
Olt, inadvertent, from the milky ftream
They meet their fate; or, weltering in the bowl,
With pow'rlefs wings around them wrapt, expire.
But chief to beediefs fies the window proves
A conftant death; where, gloomily retir'd,
The villain fpider lives, cunning and ferce,
Mixture abhorr'd!. Amid a mangled heap
Of carcafes, in eager watch he fits,
C'erlooking all his waving fares around.
Near the dire cell the dreadlefs wanderer oft
Paffes, as oft the ruffian fhows his front;
The prey at last enfnar'd, he dreadful darts,
With rapid glide, along the leaning line;
And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs,
Strikes backward, grimly pleas'd: the fluttering
wing

And thriller found declare extreme diftrefs,
And afk the helping hofpitable hand.

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way,

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Earth animated beaves. The flowery leaf
Wants not its foft inhabitants. Secure
Within its winding citadel the fione
Holds multitudes. But chief the foreft boughs,
That dance unnumber'd to the playful breeze,
The downy orchard, and the melting pulp
Of mellow fruit, the namelefs nations feed
Of evanefcent infects. Where the pool
Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible,
Amid the floating verdure millions ftray.
Each liquid too, whether it pierces, fooths,
Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the tafte,
With various forms abounds, Nor is the stream
Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air,
Though one tranfparent vacancy it feems
Void of their unfeen people. Thefe, conceal'd
By the kind art of forming Heaven, efcape
The groffer eye of Man: for, if the worlds
In worlds, inclos'd fhould on his fenfes burit,
From cates ambrofal, and the nectar'd bowl, 315
He would abhorrent turn; and in dead night,
When Llence feeps o'er all, be ftunn'd with
noife.

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Let no prefuming impious railer tax Creative Wifdom, as if aught was form'd In vain, or not for admirable ends. Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce His works unwife, of which the fmallest part Exceeds the narrow vifion of her mind? As if upon a full-proportion'd dome, Or fwelling columns heav'd, the pride of art! 325 A critic-fy, 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, 349 Has fwept at once th' unbounded scheme of things

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To him who mufes through the woods at noon:

Thick in yon ftream of light, a thoufand

ways,

Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv❜d,

The quivering nations fport; till, tempeftwing'd,

face of 345

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Fierce Winter fweeps them from the
day,
E'en fo luxurious men, unheeding, pafs
An idle fummer life in fortune's fhine,
A featon's glitter! Thus they flutter on
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice;
Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes 350
Behind, and ftrikes them from the book of life.
Now fwarms the village o'er the jovial mead;
The ruftic youth, brown with meridian toil,
Healthful and frong; full as the fammer rofe,
Blown by prevailing luns, the ruddy maid,
Half-naked, fwelling on the fight, and all
Her kindled graces burning o'er her cheek.
E'en ftooping age is here; and infant-hands
Trail the long rake, or with the fragrant load
O'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppreflion roll,
Wide flies the tedded grain; all in a row
Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field,
They fpread their breathing harveft to the fun,
That throws refreshful round a rural fmell:
Or, as they rake the green-appearing ground,
And drive the dulky 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.

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Or rufhing thence, in one diffusive band,
They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog
Compell'd, to where the mazy-running brook
Forms a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high,
And that fair-fpreading in a pebbled fhore. 375
Urg'd to the giddy brink, much is the toil,
The clamour 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: $So
Embolden'd then, nor heftating more,
Falt, faft, they plunge amid the flafhing wave,
And panting labour to the fartheft fhore.
Repeated this, till deep the well-wash'd fleece
Has drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt
The trout is banifh'd by the fordid stream;
Heavy, and dripping, to the breezy brow
Slow move the harmlefs race; where, as they
fpread

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Their fwelling treasures to the funn ray,
Inly difturb'd, and wondering what this wild?
Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints
The country fill; and tofs'd from rock to rock,
Inceffant bleatings run around the hills.
At lalt, of fnowy white, the gather'd flocks
Are in the wattled pen innumerous prefs'd,
Head above head: and, rang'd in lusty rows,
The fhepherds fit, and whet the founding fhears.
The boufewife waits to roll her fleecy ftores,
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
VOL. VIII.

400

Her fmiles, fweet-beaming, on her shepherdking;

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: 405
Some mingling ftir the melted tar, and fome,
Deep on the new-fhorn vagrant's heaving fide,
To ftamp their mafter's cypher ready ftand;
Others th' unwilling wether drag along;
And, glorying in his might, the furdy boy 410
Holds by the twisted horns th' indignaut ram.
Behold where bound, and of its robes bereft,
By needy man, that all-depending lord,
How meek, how patient, the mild creature lies!
What foftnefs 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 bourding to your hills again.

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A fimple fcene! yet hence Britannia fees Her folid grandeur rife: hence the commands Th' exalted stores 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, e'en

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 435 Can fweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all From pole to pole is undiftinguifh'd blaze, In vain the fight, dejected, to the ground Stoops for relief; thence hot-afcending fteams 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 e'en the foul. Echo no more returns the chearful found Of fharpening fcythe; the mower finking, heaps O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfum'd: And icarce a chirping grafs-hopper is heard Through the dumb mead. Diftrefsful nature

pants.

The very ftreams look languid from afar ;
Or thro' the unfhelter'd glade, impatient feem
To hurl into the covert of the grove.

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All-conquering Heat, oh, intermit thy wrath! And on my throbbing temples potent thus Beam not fo fierce! Inceffant fill you flow, And fill another fervent flood fucceeds, Pour'd on the head profufe. In vain I figh, 455 And reftlefs turn, and look around for night: Night is far off, and hotter hours approach. Thrice happy he! who on the funless fide Of a romantic mountain, forest-crown'd, Beneath the whole collected fhade reclines: Cr in the gelid caverns, woodline-wrought, .3 K

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And fresh bedew'd with ever-fpouting ftreams,
Sits coolly calm; while all the world without,
Unfatisf'd and fick, toffes in noon :
Emblem inftrudive of the virtuous man,
Who keeps his temper'd mind ferene and pure,
And every paffion aptly harmoniz'd,
Amid a jarring world with vice inflam'd.
Welcome, ye fhades! ye bowery thickets,
hail!

Ye lofty pines! ye venerable oaks !

Ye afhes wild, refounding o'er the steep!
Delicious is your frelter to the foul,
As to the hunted hart the fallying spring,

Or Itream full-flowing, that his fwelling fides

Laves as he floats along the herbag’A brink.

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475 Cool through the nerves your pleafing comfort glides;

The heart beats glad; the fresh expanded eye And ear refound their watch; the finews knit; And life hocts fwift through all the lighten'd

limbs.

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Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills.
Oft' in this feafon too the horse, provok'd,
While his big finews full of fpirits fwell,
Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood,
Springs the high fence; and, o'er the field ef-
fus'd,

Darts on the gloomy flood, with ftedfast eye, 510
And heart eftrang'd to fear: his nervous cheft,
Luxuriant and erect, the feat of ftrength!
Bears down th' oppofing ftream: quenchlefs his
thirft;

He takes the river at redoubled draughts;
And with wide noftrils, fnorting, kims the
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wave.

Still let me pierce into the midnight depth

Thefe are the haunts of Meditation, thefe The fcenes where ancient bards th' infpiring breath

Ecftatic felt; and, from this world retir'd,
Convers'd with angels and immortal forms, 525
On gracious errands bent; to fave the fall
Of virtue ftruggling on the brink of vice;
In waking whispers, and repeated dreams,
To hint pure thought, and warn the favour'd
foul,

For future trials fated to prepare;

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To prompt the poet, who devoted gives
His Mufe to better themes; to foothe the pangs
Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breast
(Backward to mingle in detefted war,
But foremost when engag'd) to turn the death;
And numberlefs fuch offices of love,
Daily and nightly, zealous to perform.

Shook fudden from the bofom of the fky,
A thousand shapes or glide athwart the dusk,
Or italk majestic on, Deep-rous'd I feel
A facred terror, a fevere delight,
Creep through my mortal frame; and thus, me-

thinks,

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A voice, than human more, th' abftracted ear Of fancy ftrikes. "Be not of us afraid, "Poor kindred man! thy fellow-creatures, we "From the fame Parent-Power our beings drew; "The fame our Lord, and laws, and great purfuit.

"Once fome of us, like thee, through ftormy life,

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"Toil'd, tempeft-beaten, ere we could attain "This holy calm, this harmony of mind, "Where purity and peace immingle charms. "Then fear not us; but with responsive song, "Amid thefe dim receffes, undifturb'd "By noify folly and difcordant vice, "Of Nature fing with us, and Nature's God. "Here frequent, at the vifionary hour, "When mufing midnight reigns or filent noon, "Angelic harps are in full concert heard, "And voices chaunting from the wood-crown'd hill,

"The deepening dale, or inmoft fylvan glade; "A privilege beftow'd by us alone "On Cortemplation, or the hallowed ear "Of Poet, fwelling to feraphic strain,"

565

And art thou, Stanley, of that facred band? Alas, for us too foon! though rais'd above The reach of human pain, above the flight Of human joy; yet, with a mingled ray Of fadly-pleas'd remembrance, must thou feel A mother's love, a mother's tender woe; Who feeks thee ftill in many a former fcene; 570 Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely beaming eyes, Thy pleafing converfe, by gay lively fenfe

Ayeung lady, well known to the author, whe died at the age of eighteen, in the year 1733.