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SUMMER.

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The

The ARGUMENT.

The fubject proposed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr DODINGTON. An introductory reflection on the m0tion of the heavenly bodies; whence the succession of the feafons. As the face of Nature in this feafon is almost uniform, the progress of the poem is a description of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing. Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Summer infects defcribed. Hay-making. Sheep-fhearing. Noon-day. A woodland retreat. Groupe of herds and flocks. A folemn grove: how it affects a contemplative mind. A cataract, and rude scene. View of Summer in the torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightening. A tale. The storm over, a ferene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Tranfition to the prospect of a rich well-cultivated country; which introduces a panegyric on GREAT BRITAIN. Sun-fet. Evening. Night. Summer-meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praife of philofophy.

SUMMER.

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ROM brightening fields of aether fair disclos'd, Child of the Sun, refulgent SUMMER comes, In pride of youth, and felt thro' Nature's depth : He comes attended by the fultry hours,

And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;

While, from his ardent look, the turning SPRING
Averts her blushful face; and earth, and fkies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me haste into the mid-wood shade,
Where scarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom; 10
And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink
Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, ly at large,
And fing the glories of the circling year.
Come, Infpiration! from thy hermit-feat,
By mortal feldom found: may Fancy dare,
From thy fix'd ferious eye, and raptur'd glance.
Shot on furrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of soul.

And thou, my youthful Mufe's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite: ..
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wisdom; the gay focial sense,
By decency chaftis'd; goodness and wit,
In feldom-meeting harmony combin'd;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For BRITAIN'S glory; Liberty, and Man:
O DODINGTON! attend my rural fong,"
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Stoop

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Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line,

And teach me to deserve thy just applause.

With what an aweful world-revolving power

Were first th' unwieldy planets launch'd along
Th' illimitable void! Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years,

That oft has swept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchlefs in their course;
To the kind-temper'd change of night and day,
And of the seafons ever stealing round,

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Minutely faithful: Such TH' ALL-PERFECT HANDL
That pois'd, impels, and rules the steady WHOLE.
When now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd,

And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, obfervant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews,
At first faint gleaming in the dappled east:
'Till far o'er aether fpreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,

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White break the clouds away. With quick'ned step, Brown Night retires: young Day pours

in apace, And opens all the lawny profpect wide.

The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top

Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.^ 55
Blue, thro' the dusk, the fmoaking current's shine;
And from the bladed field the fearful hare

Limps, aukward: while along the forest-glade

The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze

At early paffenger. Mufic awakes

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The native voice of undiffembled joy ;

And thick around the woodland hymns arife.

Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad fhepherd leaves