Beauties of Vegetation. In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay Green ! From the moist meadow to the withered hill, Where the deer rustle thro' the twining brake, By Nature's swift and secret-working hand, * With lavish fragrance; while the promised fruit 85 90 95 Within its crimson folds. Now from the town - 100 Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields, From the bent bush, as thro' the verdant maze Of sweet-briar hedges, I pursue my walk, 105 Or taste the smell of daisy; or ascend Some eminence, AUGUSTA, in thy plains, And see the country, far diffused around, One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower 110 If, brushed from Russian wilds, a cutting gale Ravages of Insects. Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings 115 The full-blown Spring thro' all her foliage shrinks, 120 Keen in the poisoned breeze; and wasteful eat, The sacred sons of vengeance; on whose course 125 Till, all involved in smoke, the latent foe From every cranny suffocated falls : Or scatters o'er the blooms the pungent dust 130 Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe: Or, when th' envenomed leaf begins to curl, With sprinkled water drowns them in their nest; Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill, The little trooping birds unwisely scares. 135 Be patient, swains; these cruel-seeming winds Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep repressed In endless train, would quench the summer-blaze, Within his iron cave, th' effusive south 140 Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent. 145 Clouds,preparatory to Rain. At first a dusky wreath they seem to rise, 150 The wish of Nature. Gradual sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm; that not a breath 155 Is heard to quiver thro' the closing woods, And looking lively gratitude. At last, The clouds consign their treasures to the fields ; 160 165 170 175 Refreshing Showers and Rainbow. Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves. But who can hold the shade, while Heaven descends In universal bounty, shedding herbs, 180 And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap? Swift fancy fired anticipates their growth; And, while the milky nutriment distils, Thus all day long the full-distended clouds 185 Indulge their genial stores, and well-showered earth Till in the western sky, the downward sun Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush Of broken clouds, gay-shifting to his beam. 190 The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes Th' illumined mountain, thro' the forest streams, Far smoking o'er th' interminable plain, In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems. 195 Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around, Full swell the woods; their every music wakes, Mixed in wild concert with the warbling brooks In fair proportion running from the red, To where the violet fades into the sky. 200 205 Variety of the Vegetable Tribes. The various twine of light, by thee disclosed 210 215 Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds, A softened shade, and saturated earth Awaits the morning-beam, to give to light, Raised thro' ten thousand different plastic tubes, 220 Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild, In silent search; or thro' the forest, rank 225 With what the dull incurious weeds account, Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain-rock, Fired by the nodding verdure of its brow. With such a liberal hand has nature flung Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds, 230 Innumerous mixed them with the nursing mould, But who their virtues can declare ? who pierce, 235 Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease; 240 The first fresh dawn then waked the gladdened race |