網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Whose mild vibrations foothe the parted foul,
New to the dawning of celestial day.

1735

Hence through her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd by thee, She fprings aloft, with elevated pride,

Above the tangling mafs of low defires,

That bind the fluttering crowd; and, angel-wing'd,
The heights of science and of virtue gains,

1740

Where all is calm and clear; with Nature round,
Or in the ftarry regions, or th' abyfs,

To Reason's and to Fancy's eye display'd:

The Fir up-tracing, from the dreary void,
The chain of caufes and effects to Him,

1745

The world-producing Effence, who alone
Poffeffes being; while the Laft receives

The whole magnificence of heaven and earth,
And every beauty, delicate or bold,

Obvious or more remote, with livelier fenfe,

1750

Diffufive painted on the rapid mind.

Tutor'd by thee, hence Poetry exalts

Her voice to ages; and informs the page

With mufic, image, fentiment, and thought,

Never to die! the treasure of mankind!

1755

Their highest honour, and their truest joy!

Without thee what were unenlighten'd man?

A favage roaming through the woods and wilds,
In quest of prey; and with th' unfashion'd furr
Rough-clad; devoid of every finer art,
And elegance of life. Nor happiness
Domeftic, mix'd of tenderness and care,
Nor moral excellence, nor focial blifs,
H 4

1760

Nor

Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill
To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool
Mechanic; nor the heaven-conducted prow
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line, or dares the wintery pole;
Mother fevere of infinite delights!
Nothing, fave rapine, indolence, and guile,
And woes on woes, a ftill-revolving train!
Whofe horrid circle had made human life
Than non-existence worfe: but, taught by thee,
Ours are the plans of policy and peace;

1765

1770

[blocks in formation]

Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along.

1780

[blocks in formation]

Of the Sole Being right, who spoke the Word,

And Nature mov'd complete. With inward view,
Thence on th' ideal kingdom swift she turns
Her eye; and inftant, at her powerful glance,
Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear;
Compound, divide, and into order shift,
Each to his rank, from plain perception up
To the fair forms of Fancy's fleeting train:

1790

Το

To reafon then, deducing truth from truth;
And notion quite abstract; where first begins
The world of spirits, action all, and life
Unfetter'd, and unmixt. But here the cloud,
So wills Eternal Providence, fits deep.
Enough for us to know that this dark state,
In wayward paffions loft, and vain pursuits,
This Infancy of Being, cannot prove
The final iffue of the works of God,

By boundless Love and perfect Wisdom form'd,
And ever rifing with the rifing mind.

1795

1800

AUTUM N.

AUTUM N. 1730.

THE ARGUMENT.

The fubject propofed. Addreffed to Mr. Onflow. A profpect of the fields ready for harveft. Reflections in praise of industry raised by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harveft-ftorm. Shooting and hunting, their barbarity. A ludicrous account of fox-hunting. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part of Autumn : whence a digreffion, enquiring into the rife of fountains and rivers. Birds of feafon confidered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western ifles of Scotland. Hence a view of the country. A profpect of the difcoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dufky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which fucceeds a calm, pure, fun-fhiny day, fuch as ufually shuts up the feafon. The harvest being gathered-in, the country diffolved in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philofophical country life.

C

ROWN'D with the fickle and the wheaten fheaf,

While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once more,

Well

Well pleas'd, I tune.
Whate'er the Wintery frost
Nitrous prepar'd; the various-blossom'd Spring
Put in white promise forth; and Summer funs
Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view,
Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme.
Onflow! the Mufe, ambitious of thy name,
To grace, infpire, and dignify her fong,

Would from the Public Voice thy gentle ear
A while engage. Thy noble care she knows,
The patriot virtues that diftend thy thought,
Spread on thy front, and in thy bofom glow;
While liftening fenates hang upon thy tongue,
Devolving through the maze of eloquence
A roll of periods fweeter than her fong.
But she too pants for public virtue; fhe,
Though weak of power, yet ftrong in ardent will,
Whene'er her country rushes on her heart,
Affumes a bolder note, and fondly tries

To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame.

When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, And Libra weighs in equal scales the year;

5

10

15

20

From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence fhook 25 Of parting fummer, a ferener blue,

With golden light enliven'd, wide invefts

The happy world. Attemper'd funs arise,

Sweet-beam'd, and fhedding oft through lucid clouds
A pleafing calm; while broad, and brown, below 30
Extensive harvefts hang the heavy head.

Rich, filent, deep, they ftand; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain :

A calm

« 上一頁繼續 »