SUM ME R. 1727.

THE

ARGUMENT.

The fubject propofed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr. Do Idington. 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 almoft 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 scene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The storm over, a ferene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Tranfition to the prospect 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 philosophy.

F

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

He comes attended by the fultry bours,
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 fhade,
Where scarce a fun-beam wanders through the gloom;
And on the dark-green grafs, befide 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, Infpiration! 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 foul.

And thou, my youthful Mufe's carly friend,
In whom the human graces all unite:
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wisdom; the gay social sense,
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 fong,
Stoop to my theme, infpil it every line,
And teach me to deserve thy just applaufe.

With what an awful world-revolving power
Were firft 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 stealing 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 eaft:
Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,

White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step,
Brown Night retires: Young Day, pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny prospect wide.

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The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top

Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.

Blue, through the dusk, the smoaking currents shine; And from the bladed field the fearful hare

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

At early passenger. Mufic awakes

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The native voice of undissembled joy ;

And thick around the woodland hymns arife,

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 fhort a life;

Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul !

Or else to feverish vanity alive,

Wilder'd, and toffing through diftemper'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 east. 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;

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And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams,
High-gleaming from afar. Prime chearer Light!
Of all material beings first, and best!
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, whose disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
Informer of the planetary train!

Without whofe quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mafs, 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 alfo thine,

Parent of Seafons! who the pomp precede

That waits thy throne, as through thy vast domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing ftate, 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 Seasons lead, in fprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours,
The Zephyrs floating loofe, the timely Rains,

Of