Sheep Shearing.

To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall.
Meantime, their joyous task goes on apace :
Some mingling stir the melted tar, and some,
Deep on the new shorn vagrant's heaving side,
To stamp his master's cypher ready stand;
Others the unwilling wether drag along;
And glorying in his might, the sturdy boy
Holds by the twisted horns th' indignant ram,
Behold where bound, and of its robe bereft,
By needy Man, that all-depending lord,

How meek, how patient the mild creature lies!
What softness in its melancholy face,
What dumb complaining innocence appears!
Fear not, ye gentle tribes, 'tis not the knife
Of horrid slaughter that is o'er you waved;
No, 'tis the tender swain's well-guided shears,
Who having now, to pay his annual care,
Borrowed your fleece, to you a cuml-ous load,
Will send you bounding to your hills again!

A simple scene! yet hence Britannia sees
Her solid grandeur rise; hence she commands.
Th' exalted stores of every brighter clime,
The treasures of the Sun, without his rage ;
Hence, fervent all, with culture, toil, and arts,
Wide glows her land: her dreadful thunder hence
Rides o'er the waves sublime, and now, even now,
Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast;
Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world.
'Tis raging Noon; and, vertical, the Sun

405

410

415

420

435

4:30

Darts on the head direct his forceful rays.
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye

Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all

435

Fervent Heat.

From pole to pole is undistinguished blaze,
In vain the sight, dejected to the ground,
Stoops for relief; thence hot ascending steams
And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root
Of vegetation parched, the cleaving fields
And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose,
Blast Fancy's blooms, and wither even the Soul.
Echo no more returns the cheerful sound

440

Of sharpening scythe; the mower sinking heaps

O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfumed;
And scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard

445

Through the dumb mead. Distressful Nature pants. The very streams look languid from afar ;

Or, through the unsheltered glade, impatient, seem
To hurl into the covert of the grove.

450

All-conquering Heat, oh intermit thy wrath!
And on my throbbing temples potent thus
Beam not so fierce! Incessant still you flow,
And still another fervent flood succeeds,
Poured on the head profuse. In vain I sigh,
And restless turn, and look around for Night;
Night is far off; and hotter hours approach.
Thrice happy he! who on the sunless side
Of a romantic mountain, forest crowned,
Beneath the whole collected shade reclines :
Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine-wrought,
And fresh bedewed with ever-spouting streams,
Sits coolly calm; while all the world without,
Unsatisfied, and sick, tosses in noon.

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!
Delicious is your shelter to the soul,
As to the hunted hart the sallying spring,

470

Or streams full-flowing, that his swelling sides
Laves, as he floats along the herbaged brink.

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.
Around the adjoining brook, that purls along

480

The vocal grove, now fretting o'er a rock,
Now scarcely moving through a reedy pool,
Now starting to a sudden stream, and now

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;
That startling scatters from the shallow brook,
In search of lavish stream, Tossing the foam,

500

Haunts of Meditation.

They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain,
Through all the bright severity of noon;

While from their labouring breasts, a hollow moan
Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills.

Oft in this season too the horse, provoked,
While his big sinews full of spirits swell,

Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood,

Springs the high fence; and, o'er the field effused,
Darts on the gloomy flood, with stedfast eye,

505

510

And heart estranged to fear : his nervous chest,
Luxuriant, and erect, the seat of strength!

Bears down the opposing stream; quenchless his thirst; He takes the river at redoubled draughts;

And with wide nostrils, snorting, skims the wave.
Still let me pierce into the midnight depth

515

Of yonder grove, of wildest largest growth:
That, forming high in air a woodland quire,
At every step,

Nods o'er the mount beneath.

Solemn, and slow, the shadows blacker fall,
And all is awful listening gloom around.

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
For future trials fated to prepare ;

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;
And numberless such offices of love,

535

Daily, and nightly, zealous to perform.

Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky,

A thousand shapes, or glide athwart the dusk,
Or stalk majestic on. Deep-roused, I feel

A sacred terror, a severe delight,

540

Creep through my mortal frame; and thus, methinks,

A voice, than human more, the abstracted ear
Of fancy strikes. "Be not of us afraid,

"Poor kindred Man! thy fellow-creatures, we
"From the same PARENT POWER our beings drew,
"The same our Lord, and laws, and great pursuit.
"Once some of us, like thee, through stormy life,
"Toiled, tempest-beaten, ere we could attain
"This holy calm, this harmony of mind,

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,
"When musing midnight reigns, or silent noon,
"Angelic harps are in full concert heard,
"And voices chanting from the wood-crowned hill,
"The deepening dale, or inmost sylvan glade :
"A privilege bestowed by us, alone,
"On contemplation, or the hallowed ear
"Of Poet, swelling to seraphic strain."

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.