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 fteaming Power
At large, to wander o'er the vernant 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.
FROM the moift meadow to the wither'd hill,.
fed by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs,
And swells 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 foreft ftands difplay'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 95
In all the colours of the flufhing year,
By Nature's fwift and fecret-working hand,.
The garden glows, and fills the lib'ral air
With lavifh fragrance; while the promis'd fruit
Lies yet a little embryo, unperceiv'd
Within its crimfon folds.
Bury'd in smoke and fleep, and noisome damps,
Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields,
Where freshness breathes, and dafh the trembling drops
From the bent bufh, as thro' the verdant maze 105
Of fweet-brier hedges I purfue my walk;
Or taste the smell of dairy; or afcend
Some eminence, AUGUSTA, in thy plains,
And see the country, far diffus'd around,
One boundless bluth, one white-empurpled fhow'r
Of mingled bloffoms; where the raptur'd eye
Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath
The fair profufion, yellow Autumn spies :
IF, brush'd from Ruffian wilds, a cutting gale
Rise not, and scatter from his hunnid wings
The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe
Untimely freft; before whofe baleful blaft
The full-blown fpring 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' bud and bark, into the blacken'd core,
Their cager way. A feeble race! yet oft
The facred fons of vengeance; in 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 fmoke, the latent foe..
From
every cranny fuffocated falls!
Or featters o'er the blooms the pungent duft
Of pepper, fatal to the frofty tribe:
Or, when th' invenom'd leaf begins to curl,
With fprinkled water drowns them in their nest;
Nor, while they pick them up with bufy bill,
The little trooping birds unwifely feares.
Be patient, fwains; these cruel feeming winds Blow not.in vain. Far hence they keep reprefs'd Thofe deep'ning clouds on clouds, furcharg'd with rain, That o'er the vaft Atlantic hither borne,
In endless train, would quench the fummer blaze,
And, cheerlefs, drown the crude unripen'd year.
THE North-eaft spends his rage; he now fhut Within his iron cave, th' effufive South Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heav'n Breathes the big clouds with vernal show'rs diftent. At first a dufky wreath they feem to rife,, Scarce ftaining ether; but by fwift degrees,. In Reaps on heaps, the doubling vapour fails Along the loaded fky, and mingling deep, Sits on th' horizon round a fettled gloom : Not fuch as wint'ry storm on mortals fhed,
Oppreffing life; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,
The wifh of Nature. Gradual finks the breeze.
Into a perfect calm; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver thro' the clofing woods,
Or ruffling 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-emploring eye
The falling verdure. Hufh'd in fhort fufpenfe,
The plumy people streak their wings with cil,
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off;
And wait th' approaching fign to strike, at once,
Into the gen❜ral choir. Ev'n mountains, vales,
And forefts, feem impatient to demand
The promis'd-fweetnefs. Man fuperior walks
Amid the glad creation, mufing praise,
And looking lively gratitude. At last,
The clouds confign their treasures to the fields;
And, foftly fhaking on the dimpled pool ..
Prelufive drops, let all their moisture flow,
In large effufion, o'er the freshen'd world.
The stealing show'r is scarce to patter heard,
By fuch as wander thro' the foreft-walks,
Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the fhade, while Heav'n defcends 180
In univerfal bounty, fhedding herbs,
And fruits, and flow'rs, 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 Indulge their genial stores, and well-fhower'd earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life:
Till, in the western sky, the downward fun
Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush
Of broken clouds, gay-fhifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance inftantaneous strikes
Th' illumin'd mountain, thro' the foreft ftreams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist,
Far finoking o'er th' interminable plain,
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems..
Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around;
Full fwell the woods; their every mufic wakes,
Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks
Increas'd, the distant bleetings of the hills,
And hollow lows refponfive from the vales,
Whence blending all the fweeten'd zephyr springs.
Mean time refracted from yon eastern cloud;
Beftriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds,
In fair proportion running from the red,
To where the vi'let fades into the sky..
Here, awful NEWTON, the diffolving clouds
Form, fronting on the fun, thy fhow'ry prifm;
And to the fage-inftructed eye unfold
The various twine of light, by thee difclos'd
From the white mingling maze. Not fo the boy;
He wond'ring views the bright enchantment bend,
Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but amaz’d
Beholds th' amusive arch before him fly,
Then vanifh quite away.. Still night fucceeds,
|