THE SEASONS.

SPRIN G.

1728.

"Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos, "Nunc frondent fylvæ, nunc formofiffimus annus."

THE

ARGUMENT.

VIRG.

The fubject propofed. Infcribed to the Countess of Hertford. The Seafon is defcribed as it affects the various parts of Nature, ascending from the lower to the higher; with digreffions arifing from the subject. 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, opposed to that of a pure and happy kind.

COME, gentle Spring, ethereal Mildness, come,

And from the bofom of yon dropping cloud,
While mufic wakes around, veil'd in a shower
Of fhadowing rofes, on our plains defcend.

O Hertford, fitted or to fhine 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

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Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.

And fee where furly Winter paffes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blafts:
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The fhatter'd foreft, and the ravag'd vale;
While fofter gales fucceed, at whose kind touch,
Diffolving fnows in livid torrents lost,
The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.
As yet the trembling year is unconfirm❜d,
And Winter oft at eve refumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving fleets
Deform the day delightless: fo that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulpht
To shake the founding marsh; or from the fhore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath,
And fing their wild notes to the listening waste.
At 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,

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

Forth fly the tepid airs; and unconfin'd, Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays. Joyous, th' impatient husbandman perceives Relenting Nature, and his lufty fteers

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Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough, Lies in the furrow, loofen'd from the froft.

There, unrefufing, to the harness'd yoke

They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,

Chear'd