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SUMMER.

1727.

THE ARGUMENT.

The fubje&t propofed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr. Doldington. An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of the feafons. As the face of Nature in this feafon is almost uniform, the progrefs of the poem is a defcripVtion of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forencon. 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 ferene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Transition 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 praife of philofophy.

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

He

He comes attended by the fultry hours,
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring
Averts her blufhful face; and earth, and skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me hafte into the mid-wood shade,
Where fcarce a fun-beam wanders through the gloom;
And on the dark-green grafs, beside the brink
Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large,
And fing the glories of the circling year.
Come, Inspiration! from thy hermit-feat,
By mortal feldom found: may Fancy dare,
From thy fix'd ferious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on furrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the Poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of soul.

And thou, my youthful Mufe's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite:
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wifdom; the gay focial fenfe,
By decency chaftis'd; goodness and wit,
In feldom-meeting harmony combin❜d;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man :
O Doddington! attend my rural song,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,.
And teach me to deferve thy juft applause.

With what an awful world-revolving power
Were first th' unwieldy planets launch'd along

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Th

Th' illimitable void! Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years,
That oft has swept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchlefs, in their course;
To the kind-temper'd change of night and day,
And of the seasons ever ftealing round,
Minutely faithful: Such th' all-perfect Hand!
That pois'd, impels, and rules the steady whole.
When now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd,
And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, obfervant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews,
At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east:
Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,

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White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step,

Brown Night retires: Young Day pours in apace,

And opens all the lawny prospect wide.

The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top

Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.

Blue, through the dusk, the smoaking currents fhine;

And from the bladed field the fearful hare

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Limps, aukward; while along the foreft-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze

At early paffenger. Mufic awakes

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The native voice of undiffembled joy;

And thick around the woodland hymns arise.

Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad shepherd leaves

His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crowded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to tafte the verdure of the morn.

Falfely luxurious, will not Man awake;
And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,
To meditation due and facred fong?

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For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife?

To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half

The fleeting moments of too short a life;

Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul!

Or else to feverish vanity alive,

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Wilder'd, and toffing through distemper'd dreams!
Who would in fuch a gloomy ftate remain

Longer than Nature craves; when every Muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To blefs the wildly devious morning-walk?

But yonder comes the powerful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the eaft. The leffening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo; now, apparent all,
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad;

And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays

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On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams,
High-gleaming from afar. Prime chearer Light!
Of all material beings first, and beft!
Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe!
Without whofe vefting beauty all were wrapt

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In uneffential gloom; and thou, O Sun!

Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker! may I fing of thee?
'Tis by thy fecret, ftrong, attractive force,
As with a chain indiffoluble bound,

Thy fyftem rolls entire; from the far bourne
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years; to Mercury, whofe disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
Informer of the planetary train !

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Without whofe quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead,
And not, as now, the green abodes of life!
How many forms of being wait on thee!
Inhaling fpirit; from th' unfetter'd mind,
By thee fublim'd, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy fetting beam.
The vegetable world is also thine,
✔Parent of Seasons! who the pomp precede

That waits thy throne, as through thy vaft domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing state, it moves fublime.
Mean-time th' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up

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A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car, 120
High-feen, the Seafons lead, in fprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rosy-finger'd Hours,
The Zephyrs floating loofe, the timely Rains,

Of

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