Or rather into warmer climes convey'd,

With other kindred birds of season, there

They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months

Invite them welcome back: for, thronging, now 845 Innumerous wings are in commotion all.

WHERE the Rhine loses his majestic force In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep, By diligence amazing, and the strong Unconquerable hand of Liberty,

850

The stork-assembly meets; for many a day,
Consulting deep, and various, ere they take
Their arduous voyage thro' the liquid sky.
And now their rout design'd, their leaders chose,
Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings; 855

And many a circle, many a short essay,

Wheel'd round and round, in congregation full

The figured flight ascends; and, riding high

The aërial billows, mixes with the clouds.

OR where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls, 860

Boils round the naked melancholy isles

Of farthest Thulè, and the Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides;
Who can recount what transmigrations there
Are annual made? what nations come and go?
And how the living clouds on clouds arise?
Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,
And rude resounding shore, are one wild cry.

865

That, while the stealing moisture they transmit, 815
Retard its motion, and forbid its waste.

Beneath th' incessant weeping of these drains,
I see the rocky siphons stretch'd immense;
The mighty reservoirs, of hardened chalk,
Or stiff compacted clay, capacious form❜d.
O'erflowing thence, the congregated stores,
The crystal treasures of the liquid world,
Thro' the stirr'd sands a bubbling passage burst;
And welling out, around the middle steep,

820

Or from the bottoms of the bosom'd hills,

825

In

pure effusion flow. United, thus,

Th' exhaling sun, the vapour-burden'd air,
The gelid mountains, that to rain condens'd
These vapours in continual current draw,
And send them, o'er the fair-divided earth,
In bounteous rivers to the deep again;

A social commerce hold, and firm support

830

The full-adjusted harmony of things.

WHEN Autumn scatters his departing gleams, Warn'd of approaching Winter, gather'd, play 835 The swallow-people; and toss'd wide around,

O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift,
The feather'd eddy floats: rejoicing once,

Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire;

In clusters clung, beneath the mould'ring bank, 840 And where, unpierc'd by frost, the cavern sweats.

Or rather into warmer climes convey'd,

With other kindred birds of season, there

They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months

Invite them welcome back: for, thronging, now 845 Innumerous wings are in commotion all.

WHERE the Rhine loses his majestic force In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep, By diligence amazing, and the strong Unconquerable hand of Liberty,

850

The stork-assembly meets; for many a day,
Consulting deep, and various, ere they take
Their arduous voyage thro' the liquid sky.
And now their rout design'd, their leaders chose,
Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings; 855
And many a circle, many a short essay,

Wheel'd round and round, in congregation full

The figured flight ascends; and, riding high

The aërial billows, mixes with the clouds.

OR where the Northern ocean, in vast whirls, 860 Boils round the naked melancholy isles

Of farthest Thulè, and the Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides;
Who can recount what transmigrations there
Are annual made? what nations come and go?
And how the living clouds on clouds arise?
Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,
And rude resounding shore, are one wild cry.

865

HERE the plain harmless native, his small flock, And herd diminutive of many hues,

Tends on the little island's verdant swell,

The shepherd's sea-girt reign; or, to the rocks
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food;

Or sweeps the fishy shore; or treasures up
The plumage, rising full, to form the bed
Of luxury. And here a while the Muse,
High-hovering o'er the broad cerulean scene,
Sees CALEDONIA, in romantic view :
Her airy mountains, from the waving main,
Invested with a keen diffusive sky,

Breathing the soul acute; her forests huge,
Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand
Planted of old; her azure lakes between,

Pour'd out extensive, and of watery wealth

870

875

880

Full; winding deep, and green, her fertile vales; 885 With many a cool translucent brimming flood.

Wash'd lovely, from the Tweed (pure parent stream,

Whose past❜ral banks first heard my Doric reed,

With, silvan Jed, thy tributary brook)

To where the north-inflated tempest foams
O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak:
Nurse of a people, in misfortune's school
Train'd up to hardy deeds; soon visited
By Learning, when before the Gothic rage.
She took her western flight. A manly race,

895

Of unsubmitting spirit, wise and brave;
Who still thro' bleeding ages struggled hard,
(As well unhappy WALLACE can attest,
Great patriot hero! ill-requited chief!)

To hold a generous undiminish'd state;

Too much in vain! Hence of unequal bounds

900

Impatient, and by tempting glory borne
O'er every land; for every land their life
Has flow'd profuse, their piercing genius plann'd,
And swell'd the pomp of peace their faithful toil. 905
As from their own clear north, in radiant streams,
Bright over Europe bursts the Boreal Morn.

OH is there not some patriot, in whose power
That best, that godlike Luxury is plac'd,

Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn,
Thro' late posterity? some, large of soul,

910

To cheer dejected industry? to give

A double harvest to the pining swain?

And teach the lab'ring hand the sweets of toil?

How, by the finest art, the native robe

915

To weave; how, white as hyperborean snow,

To form the lucid lawn; with vent❜rous oar

How to dash wide the billow; nor look on,
Shamefully passive, while Batavian fleets

Defraud us of the glittering finny swarms,

920

That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores?

How all-enlivening trade to rouse, and wing