SUMM E R.

G

TON.

THE ARGUMENT.

The fubject proposed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr. DODINGAn 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 progrefs of the poem is a defcription of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Summer infects defcribed. 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 scene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The ftorm over, a ferene 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 praife of philofophy.

SUMMER.

FROM 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 blushful face; and earth, and skies,
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 ftream, that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large,
And fing the glories of the circling year.
Come, Inspiration! 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 ecftafy of foul.

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 wisdom; the gay social 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,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy just applause.

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 thoufand years, That oft has swept the toiling race of Men, And all their labour'd monuments away, Firm, unremitting, matchlefs, in their course; To the kind-temper'd change of night and day, And of the feafons ever ftealing round,