Shoots through the conscious heart; where honour ftill,
And great defign, against the oppreffive load
Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave.

But abfent, what fantastic woes arous'd,

Rage in each thought, by reftlefs mufing fed,
Chill the warm cheek, and blaft the bloom of life!
Neglected fortune flies; and fliding fwift,

Prone into ruin, fall his fcorn'd affairs.

'Tis nought but gloom around: the darken'd fun
Lofes his light. The rofy-bofom'd Spring
To weeping Fancy pines; and yon bright arch,
Contracted, bends into a dufky vault.
All Nature fades extinct; and she alone
Heard, felt, and feen, poffeffes every thought,
Fills every fenfe, and pants in every vein.
Books are but formal dulnefs, tedious friends;
And fad amid the focial band he fits,
Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue
Th' unfinish'd period falls: while, borne away
On fwelling thought, his wafted spirit flies
To the vain bofom of his diftant fair;
And leaves the femblance of a lover, fix'd
In melancholy fite, with head declin'd,
And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts,
Shook from his tender trance, and reftlefs runs
To glimmering fhades, and sympathetic glooms;
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling ftream,
Romantic, hangs; there through the pensive dusk
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation loft,

Indulging all to love: or on the bank

D 3

1009

100

1010

1015

1020

Throw

Thrown, amid drooping lilies, fwells the breeze
With fighs unceafing, and the brook with tears.
Thus in foft anguish he confumes the day,
Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon
Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy east,
Enlighten'd by degrees, and in her train
Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks,
Beneath the trembling languish of her beam,
With foften'd foul, and wooes the bird of eve
To mingle woes with his : or while the world
And all the fons of Care lie hufh'd in sleep,
Affociates with the midnight fhadows drear;
And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours
His idly-tortur'd heart into the page,
Meant for the moving meffenger of love;
Where rapture burns on rapture, every line
With rising frenzy fir'd. But if on bed

Delirious flung, fleep from his pillow flies.
All night he toffes, nor the balmy power
In any posture finds; till the grey morn
Lifts her pale luftre on the paler wretch,
Exanimate by love: and then perhaps
Exhaufted Nature finks a while to reft,
Still interrupted by distracted dreams,
That o'er the fick imagination rife,

And in black colours paint the mimic scene.
Oft with th' enchantrefs of his foul he talks ;
Sometimes in crowds diftrefs'd; or if retir'd
To fecret winding flower-enwoven bowers,

r from the dull impertinence of Man,

Just as he, credulous, his endlefs cares
Begins to lofe in blind oblivious love,

1065

Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how,
Through forests huge, and long untravel'd heaths
With defolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempeft wrapt; or fhrinks aghast,
Back, from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid ftream below, and strives to reach
The farther fhore; where fuccourlefs, and fad,
She with extended arms his aid implores;
But strives in vain : borne by th' outrageous flood.
To diftance down, he rides the ridgy wave,
Or whelm❜d beneath the boiling eddy finks.
Thefe are the charming agonies of love,
Whofe mifery delights. But through the heart

1079

Should jealoufy its venom once diffuse,

'Tis then delightful mifery no more,
But agony unmix'd, inceffant gall,
Corroding every thought, and blafting all
Love's paradife. Ye fairy profpects, then,
Ye beds of rofes, and ye bowers of joy,
Farewel! Ye gleamings of departed peace,

1075

Shine out your last! The yellow-tinging plague 1080 Internal vifion taints, and in a night

Of livid gloom imagination wraps.

Ah, then instead of love-enliven❜d cheeks,

Of funny features, and of ardent eyes

With flowing rapture bright, dark looks fucceed, 1085 Suffus'd and glaring with untender fire;

A clouded afpect, and a burning cheek,

For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,

Το pour
the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.

1150

Oh, speak the joy! ye, whom the fudden tear

Surprizes often, while you look around,

1155

And nothing ftrikes your eye but fights of blifs,
All various Nature preffing on the heart:

An elegant fufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,

Progreffive virtue, and approving Heaven.

1160

These are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceafelefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads:
Till evening comes at last, ferene and mild;
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly

To scenes where love and blifs immortal reign.

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1170

SUMMER.

SUMMER.

1727.

THE

ARGUMENT.

The fubject propofed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr." Doddington. An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of the feasons. As the face of Nature in this feafon 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 fcene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The storm over, a serene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Tranfition to the profpect 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 praise of philofophy.

FR

ROM brightening fields of æther fair difclos'd,
Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through Nature's depth :

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