SUMMER

The subject proposed. Invocation. Address to Mr. Dodington An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the succession of the seasons. As the face of Nature in this season is almost uniform, the progress of the poem is a description of a summer's day. The dawn. Sun-rising. Hymn to the sun. Forenoon. Summer insects described. Haymaking. Sheepshearing. Noonday. A woodland retreat. Group of herds and flocks. A solemn grove: how it affects a contemplative mind. A cataract, and rude scene. View of Summer in the torrid zono Storm of thunder and lightning. A tale. The storm over, a serene afternoon. Bathing. Hour of walking. Transition to the prospect of a rich well cultivated country; which introduces a panegyric on Great Britain. Sun-set. Evening. Night. Summer meteors. A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of philosophy.

FROM brightening fields of ether fair disclosed,
Child of the Sun, refulgent SUMMER comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through Nature's depth
He comes attended by the sultry Hours,
And ever fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring
Averts her blushful face; and earth, and skies,
All smiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

5

Hence, let me haste into the midwood shade,

Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom;

And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink

11

Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak

Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large,

And sing the glories of the circling year.

Come, Inspiration! from thy hermit-seat,

15

By mortal seldom found: may Fancy dare,
From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptured glance
Shot on surrounding heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the Poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of soul.

20

And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite :
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart:
Genius, and wisdom; the gay social sense,
By decency chastised; goodness and wit,
In seldom-meeting harmony combined;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man;
(Dodington! attend my rural song,
Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line,
And teach me to deserve thy just applause.

25

30

With what an awful world-revolving power

Were first the unwieldly planets launch'd along
The' illimitable void! thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years,

35

That oft has swept the toiling race of men

And all their labour'd monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchless, in their course;

To the kind-temper'd change of night and day,
And of the seasons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful: such the' All-perfect Hand!
That poised, impels, and rules the steady whole.

40

When now no more the' alternate Twins are fired, And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze, Short is the doubtful empire of the night;

45

And soon, observant of approaching day,

The meek-eyed Morn appears, mother of dews,

At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east:
Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow;

And, from before the lustre of her face,

50

White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step, Brown Night retires: young Day pours in apace, And opens all the lawny prospect wide.

The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top

Swell on the sight, and brighten with the dawn.

55

Blue, through the dusk, the smoking currents shine, And from the bladed field the fearful hare

Limps, awkward; while along the forest glade

The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early passenger. Music awakes

The native voice of undissembled joy;

And thick around the woodland hymns arise.

Roused by the cock, the soon-clad shepherd leaves
His mossy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crowded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.
Falsely luxurious! will not Man awake;
And, springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,
To meditation due and sacred song?

For is there ought in sleep can charm the wise?

To lie in dead oblivion, losing half

The fleeting moments of too short a life;

Total extinction of the' enlighten'd soul!

Or else, to feverish vanity alive,

75

Wilder'd, and tossing through distemper'd dreams?
Who would in such a gloomy state remain
Longer than Nature craves; when every Muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To bless the wildly devious morring walk?

80

But yonder comes the powerful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the cast. The lessening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
Illumed with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo! now, apparent all,
Aslant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad;

And sheds the shining day, that burnish'd plays

85

On rocks and hills and towers and wandering streams, High gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer, Light! 90 Of all material beings first and best!

Efflux divine! Nature's resplendent robe!

Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapp'd

In unessential gloom! and thou, O Sun!

Soul of surrounding worlds' in whom best seen 95 Shines out thy Maker! may I sing of thee'

'Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force,
As with a chain indissoluble bound,
Thy system rolls entire: from the far bourn
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years, to Mercury, whose disk
Can scarce be caught by philosophic eye,
Lost in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
Informer of the planetary train!

100

106

110

Without whose quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead,
And not, as now, the green abodes of life!
How many forms of being wait on thee!
Inhaling spirit; from the' unfetter'd mind,
By thee sublimed, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy setting beam.
The vegetable world is also thine,
Parent of Seasons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as through thy vast domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,

In world-rejoicing state, it moves sublime.
Meantime the' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or send grateful up

115

A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car, 120
High seen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rosy-finger'd Hours,

The Zephyrs floating loose, the timely Rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light footed Dews,

And soften d into joy the surly Storms.

125

These, in successive turn, with lavish hand,
Shower every beauty every fragrance shower,

Herbs, flowers, and fruits, and, kindling at thy touch,
From land to land is flush'd the vernal year.

Nor to the surface of enliven'd earth,
Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods,
Her liberal tresses, is thy force confined:
But, to the bowel'd cavern darting deep,

The mineral kinds confess thy mighty power

130

Effulgent, hence the veiny marble shines;

135

Hence Labour draws his tools; hence burnish'd War Gleams on the day! the nobler works of Peace

Hence bless mankind, and generous Commerce binds The round of nations in a golden chain.

The' unfruitful rock itself, impregn'd by thee, 140 In dark retirement forms the lucid stone.

The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays,
Collected right, compact; that, polish'd bright,
And all its native lustre let abroad,
Dares, as it sparkles on the fair one's breast,
With vain ambition emulate her eyes.
At thee the ruby lights its deepening glow,
And with a waving radiance inward flames.
From thee the sapphire, solid ether, takes
Its hue cerulean; and, of evening tinct,
The purple-streaming amethyst is thine.
With thy own smile the yellow topaz burns.
Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring,
When first she gives it to the southern gale,

145

150

154

Than the green emerald shows. But, all combined,

Thick through the whitening opal play thy beams;
Or, flying several from its surface, form
A trembling variance of revolving hues,

As the site varies in the gazer's hand.

The very dead creation, from thy touch,
Assumes a mimic life. By thee refined,
In brighter mazes the relucent stream
Plays o'er the mead. The precipice abrupt,
Projecting horror on the blacken'd flood,
Softens at thy return. The desert joys,
Wildly, through all his melancholy bounds.
Rude ruins glitter; and the briny deep,
Seen from some pointed promontory's top,
Far to the blue horizon's utmost verge,
Restless, reflects a floating gleam. But this,
And all the much transported Muse can sing,

160

165

170