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 feafons. As the face of Nature in this season is almost uniform, the progress of the poem is a description of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Summer infects defcribed. Hay-making. Sheepfhearing. 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. afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. of a rich well-cultivated country; which GREAT BRITAIN. Sun-fet. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of philosophy.

The ftorm over, a ferene Tranfition to the profpect introduces a panegyric on

SUM ME R.

ROM brightening fields of ether fair difclos'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 blufhful face; and earth, and fkies, All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, Where scarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom; And on the dark-green grafs, befide 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 soul.

And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend, In whom the human 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;
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 applaufe.
With what an awful world-revolving power
Were firft 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, matchlefs, in their courfe;
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 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 mifty top

Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn. Blue, thro' the dusk, the fmoaking currents fhine; And from the bladed field the fearful hare

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;

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
His flock, to taste 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 filent hour,
To meditation due and facred fong?

For is there aught in sleep can charm the wife?
To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half

The fleeting moments of too short a life;
Total extinction of th' enlightened foul!

Or elfe to feverish vanity alive,

Wildered, and toffing thro' diftemper'd dreams?

Who would in such a gloomy state remain

craves; when

Longer than Nature
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
Illum'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;

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