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Round the young ash, its twining branches meet,
Or crown the hawthorn with their odours sweet.
Say ye that know, ye who have felt and seen
Spring's morning smiles, and heart-enlivening green;
Say did ye give the pleasing transport way?
Did your eye brighten, when young lambs at play,
Leap'd cross your path with animated pride,
Or gaz'd, in merry clusters, at your side?
Away they scour, impetuous, ardent, strong,
The green turf trembling as they bound along.
Adown the slope, then up the hillock climb,
Where every mole-hill is a bed of thyme.
There panting stop; yet scarcely can refrain;
A bird, a leaf, will set them off again.
Or, if a gale with strength unusual blow,
Scattering the wild-brier roses into snow;
Their little limbs increasing efforts try,
Like the torn flowers, the fair assemblage fly.
Ah, fallen rose, sad emblem of their doom,
Frail as thyself, they perish while they bloom.

VARIETY OF PROSPECT PLEASING.

CRAZY KATE..

Cowper.

THE earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change,
And pleas'd with novelty, might be indulg'd.
Prospects, however lovely, may be seen
Till half their beauties fade. The weary sight,
Too well acquainted with their smiles, slides off

Fastidious, seeking less familiar scenes.
Then, snug enclosures in the shelter'd vale,
Where frequent hedges intercept the eye,
Delight us; happy to renounce awhile,
Not senseless of its charms, what still we love,
That such short absence may endear it more.
Then, forests or the savage rock may please
That hides the sea-mew in his hollow clefts,
Above the reach of man. His hoary head,
Conspicuous many a league, the mariner

Bound homeward, and, in hope, already there,
Greets with three cheers exulting. At his waist,
A girdle of half wither'd shrubs he shows,
And at his feet, the baffled billows die.

The common over-grown with fern, and rough
With prickly gorse, that, shapeless and deform'd,
And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom,
Yields no unpleasing ramble; there the turf
Smells fresh, and, rich in odoriferous herbs,
And fungous fruits of earth, regales the sense
With luxury of unexpected sweets.

There, often wanders one, whom better days saw
Better clad, in cloak of satin trim'd

With lace, and hat with splendid ribbon bound. A serving maid was she, and fell in love

With one who left her, went to sea, and died.
Her fancy follow'd him through foaming waves,
To distant shores; and she would sit and weep
At what a sailor suffers; fancy, too,

Delusive most where warmest wishes are,
Would oft anticipate his glad return,

And dream of transports she was not to know.
She heard the doleful tidings of his death,

And never smil'd again; and now she roams
The dreary waste; there spends the live-long day,
And there, unless when charity forbids,
The live-long night. A tatter'd apron hides,
Worn as a cloak, and hardly hides a gown
More tatter'd still; and both, but ill conceal
A bosom heav'd with never-ceasing sighs.
She begs an idle pin of all she meets,

And hoards them in her sleeve; but needful food,
Though press'd with hunger oft, or comely clothes,
Tho' pinch'd with cold, asks never.

Kate is craz'd.

ODE TO SPRING.

Mrs. Barbauld.

SWEET daughter of a rough and stormy sire, Hoar winter's blooming child; delightful spring! Whose unshorn locks, with leaves

And swelling buds are crown'd.

From the green islands of immortal youth, (Crowned with fresh blooms and ever springing shade,)

Turn, hither turn, thy step,

O Thou, whose powerful voice,

More sweet than softest touch of Doric reed,

Or Lydian flute, can soothe the madding winds, And through the stormy deep

Breathe thy own tender calm.

The wish of nature. Gradual sinks the breeze
Into a perfect calm; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods,
Or rustling, turn the many twinkling leaves
Of aspin tall. The uncurling floods, diffus'd
In glassy breadth, seem, through delusive lapse,
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all
And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks
Drop the dry spring, and mute imploring, eye
The falling verdure. Hush'd in short suspense
The plumy people streak their wings with oil
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off:
And wait the approaching sign to strike at once
Into the general choir. E'en mountains, vales,
And forests, seem, impatient, to demand
The promised sweetness. Man superior walks
Amid the glad creation, musing praise,
And looking lively gratitude. At last,
The clouds consign their treasures to the field,
And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow
In large effusion o'er the freshening world.
The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard,
By such as wander through the forest walks,
Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves.
Thus all day long, the full distended clouds
Indulge their genial stores, and well showered earth
Is deep enriched with vegetable life;

Till in the western sky, the downward sun
Looks out effulgent, from amid the flush
Of broken clouds gay-shifting to his beam.

The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes

The illumin'd mountain, through the forest streams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist
Far smoking o'er the interminable plain,
In twinkling myriads, lights the dewy gems.
Moist, bright and green, the landscape laughs
around,

Full swell the woods, their every music wakes,
Mixt in wild concert, with the warbling brooks
Increas'd, the distant bleating of the hills,
And hollow lows responsive from the vales,
Whence, blending all, the sweeten'd zephyr springs.

THE RAINBOW.

MEANTIME refracted from yon eastern cloud,
Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense, and every hue unfolds,
In fair proportion, running from the red
To where the violet fades into the sky.
Here, awful, Newton, the dissolving clouds
Form, fronting to the sun, thy showery prism,
And to the sage-instructed eye, unfold

The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd,
From the white-mingling maze. Not so the boy;
He wondering, views the bright enchantment bend
Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but amaz'd,
Beholds the amusive arch before him fly;
Then vanish quite away.

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