SPRIN

L.107.

SPRING.

THE ARGUMENT.

The fubject propofed. Infcribed to the Countess of HARTFORD. The Seafon is defcribed as it affects the various parts of Nature, afcending from the lower to the higher; with digreffions arising fröm the fubject. Its influence on inanimate Matter, on Vègetables, on brute Animals, and laft on Man; concluding with a diffuafive from the wild and irregular paffion of Love, opposed to that of a pure and happy kind.

SPRING.

COME, gentle SPRING, ethereal Mildnefs, come,

And from the bofom of yon dropping cloud,
While mufic wakes around, veil'd in a fhower
Of shadowing rofes, on our plains defcend.
O HARTFORD, fitted or to shine in courts
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain
With innocence and meditation join'd
In foft affemblage, liften to my fong,
Which thy own Season paints; when Nature all
Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.

And fee where furly WINTER paffes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blafts:
His blafts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shatter'd foreft, and the ravag'd vale;
While fofter gales fucceed, at whofe kind touch,
Diffolving fnows in livid torrents loft,

The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.

D