Sheep Shearing. To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall. How meek, how patient the mild creature lies! A simple scene! yet hence Britannia sees 405 410 415 420 435 4:30 Darts on the head direct his forceful rays. Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all 435 Fervent Heat. From pole to pole is undistinguished blaze, 440 Of sharpening scythe; the mower sinking heaps O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfumed; 445 Through the dumb mead. Distressful Nature pants. The very streams look languid from afar ; Or, through the unsheltered glade, impatient, seem 450 All-conquering Heat, oh intermit thy wrath! Emblem instructive of the virtuous Man, 455 460 465 Who keeps his tempered mind serene, and pure, And every passion aptly harmonized, Amid a jarring world with vice inflamed. Cooling Shades and Streams. Welcome ye shades! ye bowery thickets, hail ! Ye lofty pines! ye venerable oaks ! Ye ashes wild, resounding o'er the steep! 470 Or streams full-flowing, that his swelling sides 475 Cool, through the nerves, your pleasing comfort glides; The heart beats glad; the fresh expanded eye And ear resume their watch; the sinews knit ; And life shoots swift through all the lightened limbs. 480 The vocal grove, now fretting o'er a rock, Thrown round his head, on downy moss sustained; 495 Here laid his scrip, with wholesome viands filled; There, listening every noise, his watchful dog. Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight Of angry gad-flies fasten on the herd; 500 Haunts of Meditation. They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain, While from their labouring breasts, a hollow moan Oft in this season too the horse, provoked, Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood, Springs the high fence; and, o'er the field effused, 505 510 And heart estranged to fear : his nervous chest, Bears down the opposing stream; quenchless his thirst; He takes the river at redoubled draughts; And with wide nostrils, snorting, skims the wave. 515 Of yonder grove, of wildest largest growth: Nods o'er the mount beneath. Solemn, and slow, the shadows blacker fall, 520 These are the haunts of Meditation, these The scenes were ancient bards the inspiring breath, Ecstatic, felt; and, from this world retired, Conversed with angels, and immortal forms, 525 On gracious errands bent: to save the fall Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice; In waking whispers, and repeated dreams, To hint pure thought, and warn the favoured soul 530 To prompt the poet, who devoted gives His muse to better themes; to soothe the pangs Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breast, Spectres of Imagination. (Backward to mingle in detested war, But foremost when engaged) to turn the death; 535 Daily, and nightly, zealous to perform. Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky, A thousand shapes, or glide athwart the dusk, A sacred terror, a severe delight, 540 Creep through my mortal frame; and thus, methinks, A voice, than human more, the abstracted ear "Poor kindred Man! thy fellow-creatures, we 545 550 "Where purity and peace immingle charms. "Then fear not us; but with responsive song, "Amid these dim recesses, undisturbed "By noisy folly and discordant vice, "Of Nature sing with us, and Nature's GoD. 555 "Here frequent, at the visionary hour, And art thou, *STANLEY, of that sacred band? 560 * A young lady, well known to the Author, who died at the age of eighteen, in the year 1738. |