Keen in the poisoned breeze, and wasteful eat
Through buds and bark into the blackened core
Their eager way. A feeble race, yet oft

The sacred sons of vengeance, on whose course
Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year.
To check this plague, the skilful farmer chaff
And blazing straw before his orchard burns ;
Till, all involved in smoke, the latent foe
From every cranny suffocated falls;

Or scatters o'er the blooms the pungent dust
Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe;

Or, when the envenomed leaf begins to curl,
With sprinkled water drowns them in their nest:
Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill,
The little trooping birds unwisely scares.

130

Be patient, swains; these cruel-seeming winds Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep repressed Those deepening clouds on clouds, surcharged with rain,

That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne

140

In endless train would quench the Summer blaze, And cheerless drown the crude unripened year.

124-7 yet oft . . . this plague] scarce seen Save to the prying eye; yet famine waits On their corrosive course and starves the year. Sometimes o'er cities as they steer their flight, Where rising vapour melts their wings away, Gazed by the astonished crowd the horrid shower Descends; and hence 172838. Note, however, that editions 1730-38 give 'by' for 'to the prying eye', and 'kills' for 'starves'.

131, 132 Or onions, steaming hot, beneath his trees Exposes 1728-38. 133, 134 Not in the first editions (1728-38). 135 while they pick them up with] from their friendly task the 172838. 136 The] Of 1728-38; unwisely] instinctive 1728-38.

136 Here in the first and subsequent editions followed a passage of 33 11., transferred (in 1744) with alterations to Summer, 11. 287– 317,-which see.

137-42 Not in the first editions (1728-38)

The North-east spends his rage, and, now shut up Within his iron caves, the effusive South

150

Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent.
At first a dusky wreath they seem to rise,
Scarce staining ether; but by fast degrees,
In heaps on heaps the doubling vapour sails
Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep
Sits on the horizon round a settled gloom;
Not such as wintry storms on mortals shed,
Oppressing life; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,
The wish of Nature. Gradual sinks the breeze
Into a perfect calm; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods,
Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves
Of aspen tall. The uncurling floods, diffused
In glassy breadth, seem through delusive lapse 160
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all,
And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks
Drop the dry sprig, and mute-imploring eye
The falling verdure. Hushed in short suspense,
The plumy people streak their wings with oil
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off,
And wait the approaching sign to strike at once
Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales,
And forests seem, impatient, to demand

The promised sweetness. Man superior walks 170
Amid the glad creation, musing praise
And looking lively gratitude. At last

The clouds consign their treasures to the fields,
And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool

Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow
In large effusion o'er the freshened world.
The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard
By such as wander through the forest-walks,
Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the shade while Heaven descends
In universal bounty, shedding herbs

181

And fruits and flowers on Nature's ample lap?
Swift fancy fired anticipates their growth;
And, while the milky nutriment distils,
Beholds the kindling country colour round.
Thus all day long the full-distended clouds
Indulge their genial stores, and well-showered earth
Is deep enriched with vegetable life;

Till, in the western sky, the downward sun
Looks out effulgent from amid the flush
Of broken clouds, gay-shifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes

190

The illumined mountain, through the forest streams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist,
Far smoking o'er the interminable plain,
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems.
Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around.
Full swell the woods; their every music wakes,
Mixed in wild concert, with the warbling brooks
Increased, the distant bleatings of the hills,
The hollow lows responsive from the vales,
Whence, blending all, the sweetened zephyr springs.
Meantime, refracted from yon eastern cloud,
Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds,

200

177 'Tis scarce to patter heard, the stealing shower 1728-38. 180 can] would 1728. 183 Imagination fired prevents 1728184 milky] verdant 1728-38. 190 effulgent] il

38.

lustrious 1728-38.
198 swells 1730-38.
1728-38. 200 distant] unnumbered 1728-38.

199 consort

In fair proportion running from the red
To where the violet fades into the sky.
Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds
Form, fronting on the sun, thy showery prism;
And to the sage-instructed eye unfold

The various twine of light, by thee disclosed
From the white mingling maze.

210

Not so the swain;

He wondering views the bright enchantment bend
Delightful o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but amazed
Beholds the amusive arch before him fly,
Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds,
A softened shade, and saturated earth
Awaits the morning beam, to give to light,
Raised through ten thousand different plastic tubes,
The balmy treasures of the former day.

Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes:
Whether he steals along the lonely dale

221

In silent search; or through the forest, rank
With what the dull incurious weeds account,
Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain-rock,
Fired by the nodding verdure of its brow.
With such a liberal hand has Nature flung
Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds,

208 awful] mighty 1728-38.

they scatter round 1744.

230

209 fronting on the sun] as 209, 210 Are, as they scatter

219

round, thy numerous prism, Untwisting to the philosophic eye 1728-38. 211 disclosed] pursued 1728. 212 From the white] Through all the 1728; Through the white 1730-38. to light] again 1728-38. 220 Transmuted soon by Nature's chymistry 1728-38. 221 blooming blessings 1728-38. 227 'incurious' is printed in some editions in Thomson's lifetime with a capital initial. It does not, probably, refer to weeds.

Innumerous mixed them with the nursing mould, The moistening current, and prolific rain.

But who their virtues can declare? who pierce With vision pure into these secret stores Of health and life and joy? the food of man While yet he lived in innocence, and told A length of golden years, unfleshed in blood, A stranger to the savage arts of life, Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease— The lord and not the tyrant of the world.

240

The first fresh dawn then waked the gladdened race

Of uncorrupted man, nor blushed to see
The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam;
For their light slumbers gently fumed away,
And up they rose as vigorous as the sun,
Or to the culture of the willing glebe,
Or to the cheerful tendance of the flock.
Meantime the song went round; and dance and sport,
Wisdom and friendly talk successive stole
Their hours away; while in the rosy vale
Love breathed his infant sighs, from anguish free,
And full replete with bliss-save the, sweet pain
That, inly thrilling, but exalts it more.
Nor yet injurious act nor surly deed

250

Was known among these happy sons of heaven;
For reason and benevolence were law.
Harmonious Nature too looked smiling on.
Clear shone the skies, cooled with eternal gales,
And balmy spirit all. The youthful sun
Shot his best rays, and still the gracious clouds
Dropped fatness down; as o'er the swelling mead

236 life and health 1728-38. 1728-38.

260

242 Then the glad morning

243 man] men 1728-38.

244 its] her 1728-38.

253, 254 Fragrant with bliss and only wept for joy 1728; Replete with &c. 1730-38.