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SUMME R.

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The

The ARGUMENT.

The fubject propofed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr DODINGTON. An introductory reflection on the notion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of the feafons. As the face of Nature in this feafon 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. Summer infects described. Hay-making. Sheep-fhearing. 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 lightening. A tale. The storm over, a serene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Tranfition to the prospect 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.

SUMMER.

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ROM brightening fields of aether 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 skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me haste into the mid-wood shade,
Where scarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom; 10
And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink
Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, ly at large,
And fing the glories of the circling year.

Come, Inspiration! from thy hermit-seat,
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 sense,
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,
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Stoop

Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy juft applause.
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 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 feafons ever stealing 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,

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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 east:
'Till far o'er aether spreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quick'ned step,
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.
Blue, thro' the dufk, the fmoaking current's fhine;
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, aukward: while along the forest-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy ;
And thick around the woodland hymns arise.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad fhepherd leaves

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