SPRING.

OME, gentle SPRING, ethereal Mildness, come,

COM

And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud,
While mufic wakes around, veil'd in a fhower
Of shadowing roses, on our plains defcend.

O HARTFORD, fitted or to fhine in courts
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain
With innocence and meditation join'd
In foft affemblage, liften to my fong,
Which thy own season paints; when Nature all
Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.

And fee where furly WINTER paffes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blafts:
His blafts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shatter'd foreft, and the ravag'd vale;

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While fofter gales fucceed, at whofe kind touch, 15 Diffolving fnows in livid torrents loft,

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The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.
As yet the trembling year is unconfirm❜d,
And WINTER oft at eve resumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving fleets
Deform the day delight lefs; fo that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulpht
To shake the founding marth; or from the fhore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath,
And fing their wild notes to the liftening wafte. 25
At laft from Aries rolls the bounteous Sun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
Th' expanfive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold;
But, full of life and vivifying foul,

Lifts the light clouds fublime, and spreads them thin, 30
Fleecy and white, o'er all-furrounding heaven.
Forth fly the tepid airs; and unconfin❜d,
Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays.
Joyous, th' impatient husbandman perceives
Relenting Nature, and his lufty steers

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Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough.
Lyes in the furrow, loosened from the froft.
There, unrefufing, to the harness'd yoke
They lend their fhoulder, and begin their toil,
Chear'd by the fimple fong and foaring lark.
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the fhining share
The mafter leans, removes th' obftructing clay,.
Winds the whole work, and fidelong lays the glebe.
White thro' the neighb'ring fields the fower stalks,
With meafur'd step; and liberal throws the grain. 45
Into the faithful bofom of the ground:

The harrow follows harfh, and shuts the scene.

Be gracious, HEAVEN! for now laborious man Has done his part. Ye fostering breezes, blow!

Ye foftening dews, ye tender fhowers, defcend!

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And temper all, thou world-reviving Sun,
Into the perfect year! Nor ye who live.

In luxury and cafe, in pomp and pride,
Think these loft themes unworthy of your ear:
Such themes as these the rural MARO fung
To wide-imperial ROME, in the full height.
Of elegance and tafte, by GREECE refin'd.
In ancient times, the facred plough employ'd
The kings, and awful fathers of mankind:

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And fome, with whom compar'd your infect-tribes 60

Are but the beings of a fummer's day,

Have held the scale of empire, rul'd the storin-
Of mighty war; thep, with unwearied hand,

Difdaining

Difdaining little delicacies, feiz'd

The plough, and greatly independent liv'd.

Ye generous BRITONS, venerate the plough;
And o'er your hills, and long withdrawing vales,
Let Autumn spread her treasures to the fun,
Luxuriant and unbounded: as the fea,
Far through his azure turbulent domain,
Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores
Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports;
So with fuperior boon may your rich foil,
Exuberant, Nature's better bleffings pour
O'er every land, the naked nations clothe,
And be th' exhaustless granary of a world!
Nor only thro' the lenient air this change,
Delicious, breathes; the penetrative fun,
His force deep-darting to the dark retreat
Of vegetation, fets the fteaming Power
At large, to wander o'er the verdant earth,
In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay Green!
Thou smiling Nature's univerfal robe!!

United light and fhade; where the fight dwells
With growing ftrength, and ever-new delight!
From the moist meadow to the withered hill,

Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs,
And fwells, and deepens, to the cherish'd eye!
The hawthorn whitens; and the juicy groves
Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees,
Till the whole leafy foreft ftands difplay'd,
In full luxuriance, to the fighing gales;

Where the deer ruftle through the twining brake,
And the birds fing conceal'd. At once, array'd
In all the colours of the flushing year,
By Nature's swift and fecret-working hand,
The garden glows, and fills the liberal air
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With lavish fragrance; while the promis'd fruit
Lyes yet a little embryo, unperceiv'd,

Within its crimfon folds. Now from the town

Buried in smoke, and fleep, and noisome damps,
Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields,

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Where freshness breathes, and dafh the trembling drops
From the bent bush, as thro' the verdant maze

Of sweet-brier hedges I purfue my walk;

Or taste the smell of dairy; or afcend

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Some eminence, AUGUSTA, in thy plains,
And see the country, far diffus'd around,

One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower
Of mingled bloffoms; where the raptur❜d eye
Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath
The fair profufion, yellow Autumn spies:

If, brufh'd from Ruffian wilds, a cutting gale
Rife not, and scatter from his humid wings
The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe 115
Untimely froft; before whose baleful blast
The full-blown Spring thro' all her foliage fhrinks,
Joylefs and dead, a wide dejected waste.
For oft, engender'd by the hazy North,
Myriads on myriads, insect armies warp

Keen in the poison'd breeze; and wasteful eat,
Thro' buds and bark, into the blackened core,
Their eager way.
A feeble race! yet oft
The facred fons of vengeance; on whose course
Corrofive famine waits, and kills the year.
To check this plague the skilful farmer, chaff,
And blazing ftraw, before his orchard burns;
Till, all involved in fmoke, the latent foe
From every cranny fuffocated falls:

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Or fcatters o'er the blooms the pungent duft
Of pepper, fatal to the frofty tribe:

Or, when th' invenom'd leaf begins to curl,
With sprinkled water drowns them in their neft;
Nor, while they peck them up with bufy bill,
The little trooping birds unwisely scares.

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Be patient, fwains; these cruel-feeming winds Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep repress'd Thofe deepening clouds on clouds, furcharg'd with rain, That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne,

In endless train, would quench the fummer-blaze, 140
And, chearless, drown the crude unripened year.
The North-east spends his rage; he now shut up
Within his iron cave, th' effufive South

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Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers diftent.
-At first a dusky wreath they feem to rise,
Scarce staining aether; but by fwift degrees,
In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour fails
Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep,

Sits on th' horizon round a fettled gloom :
Not fuch as wintry ftorms on mortals fhed,
Oppreffing life; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,

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The wifh of Nature. Gradual finks the breeze

Into a perfect calm; that not a breath

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Is heard to quiver through the clofing woods,
Or ruftling turn the many-twinkling leaves
Of afpin tall. Th' uncurling floods, diffus'd
In glaffy breadth, seem, thro' delusive lapse,
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis filence all,
And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks
Drop the dry sprig, and, mute imploring, eye
The falling verdure. Hufh'd in short fufpenfe,
The plumy people streak their wings with oil,
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off;

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165 And