cimen of that natural calendar which fome ingenious writers have attempted to establish on the concurrence of changes in the feasons with certain ap pearances in the animal and vegetable creation. The unfettled ftate between the termination of winter and the begin ning of spring, when each by turns exercises dominion over the dubious year, is represented by the picturefque circumftances, that

fcarce

The Bittern knows his time, with bill ingulph'd
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 listening waste."

BUT the foft vernal season is fully confirmed, when that delightful theme opens on the poet, which he emphatically

calls

calls the Paffion of the groves. In how fuperior a ftrain to the herd of copyifts and imitators, has this defigner from nature exhibited a fubject of all others the most common in rural defcription, the mufic of birds!

Up-fprings the lark,

Shrill-voic'd and loud, the meffenger of morn;
Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted fings
Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts
Calls up the tuneful nations. Every copfe
Deep-tangled, tree irregular, and bush
Bending with dewy moisture, o'er the heads
Of the coy quirifters that lodge within,
Are prodigal of harmony. The thrush
And wood-lark, o'er the kind-contending throng
Superior heard, run through the fweeteft length
Of notes; when liftening Philomela deigns
To let them joy, and purposes, in thought
Elate, to make her night excel their day.
The black-bird whistles from the thorny brake;

The

The mellow bullfinch* answers from the grove':
Nor are the linnets, o'er the flowering furze
Pour'd out profufely, filent. Join'd to these
Innumerous fongfters, in the freshening shade
Of new-fprung leaves, their modulations mix
Mellifluous. The jay, the rook, the daw,
And each harsh pipe, difcordant heard alone,
Aid the full concert: while the stock-dove breathes
A melancholy murmur thro' the whole.

THE introduction of fome of the harfher tones as an agreeable addition to the fylvan concert, is a new idea, and as well mufically as poetically proper. But poetry has a privilege beyond mufic in this refpect, and might produce harmony from a combination of notes all jarring and difcordant, if they were in unifon with fome natural scene

* HERE is a flight error in the defcription, the wild mote of this bird being harsh and difagreeable, and the melloronefs only acquired by teaching.

which

which from its novelty or grandeur afforded a fit fubject for description. Eve

ry reader of tafte will be convinced of the truth of this affertion by the following paffage, which wants only the form of verfe to be truly poetical. "The notes of all the fea-birds (fays "Mr. Pennant in his British Zoology) " are extremely harsh or inharmonious. "We have often refted under the rocks "attentive to the various founds over "our heads, which, mixed with the "folemn roar of the waves fwelling into " and retiring from the vast caverns be"neath, have produced a fine effect. "The fharp voice of the fea-gulls, the

frequent chatter of the guillemots, the "loud note of the auks, the scream of "the herons, together with the hoarfe, deep, periodical croak of the corvo

❝rants,

"rants, which ferves as a base to the "reft, have often furnished us with a "concert, which joined with the wild "fcenery that furrounded us, afforded, "in a high degree, that fpecies of plea"fure, which arifes from the novelty, "sand, we may fay, gloomy grandeur of the entertainment. "

After the

To return to our poet. amorous concert has produced its effect in difpofing the fair auditors to form connubial leagues" with the performers, how natural and pleafing the defcription of their first domestic cares in chufing a fituation for their nefts, and building them!

Some to the holly-hedge

Neftling repair, and to the thicket fome;

Some to the rude protection of the thorn