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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 digressions arifing from the fubject. Its influence on inanimate Matter, on Vegetables, on brute Animals, and laft on Man ; concluding with a diffuafive from the wild and irregular paffion of Love, oppofed to that of a pure and happy kind.

SPRING

COME, gentle SPRING, ethereal Mildness, come, And from the bofom of yon dropping cloud, While mufic wakes around, veil'd in a shower 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 Seafon 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 blasts :
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shatter'd foreft, and the ravag'd vale;
While fofter gales fucceed, at whose kind touch,
Diffolving fnows in livid torrents loft,
The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.

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As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd,
And WINTER oft at eve refumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets
Deform the day delightlefs: fo that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulpht
To shake the founding marsh; or from the shore
The plovers when to fcatter o'er the heath,
And fing their wild notes to the liftening waste.

Ar laft from Aries rolls the bounteous fun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
Th' expanfive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold;
But, full of life and vivifying foul,

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Lifts the light clouds fublime, and fpreads them thin, 30 Fleecy and white, o'er all-furrounding heaven.

- FORTH fly the tepid airs; and unconfin'd,
Unbinding earth, the moving foftnefs ftrays.
Joyous, th' impatient husbandman perceives
Relenting Nature, and his lufty fteers

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Drives from their ftalls, to where the well-us'd plough Lies in the furrow, loofened from the froft,

There, unrefufing to the harness'd yoke

They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,
Chear'd by the fimple fong and foaring lark.
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share
The mafter leans, removes th' obftructing clay,
Winds the whole work, and fidelong lays the glebe.

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WHITE thro'the neighbouring fields the fower ftalks, With measur'd step; and liberal throws the grain

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Into the faithful bosom of the ground:

The harrow follows harsh, and shuts the fcene.

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