And falling faft from gradual flope to flope,
With wild infracted courfe, and leffen'd roar,
It gains a fafer bed, and fteals, at laft,
Along the mazes of the quiet vale.

·

Befide the dewy border let me fit,
All in the freshness of the humid air;
There on that hollow'd rock, grotefque and
wild,

An ample chair mofs-lin'd, and over head
By flowering umbrage fhaded; where the bee
Strays diligent, and with th' extracted balm
Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh.

Heavens! what a goodly prospect spreads
around,

Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and
Spires,

.And glittering towns, and gilded streams,
till all

The ftretching landskip into fmoke decays!
Happy Britannia! where the Queen of arts,
Infpiring vigor, liberty abroad

Walks, unconfin'd, even to thy fartheft cotts,
And scatters plenty with unfparing hand.

Rich is thy foil, and merciful thy clime;
Thy itreams unfailing in the summer's drought;
Unmatch'd thy guardian-oaks; thy valleys float
With golden waves: and on thy mountains

flocks

Bleat numberlefs; while, roving round their
fides,

Below the blackening herds in lufty droves.
Beneath, thy meadows glow, and rife unquell'd
Against the mower's fcythe. On every hand,

Thy

Thy villas fhine. Thy country teems with

wealth;

And property affures it to the fwain,
Pleas'd and unwearied, in his guarded toil.
Full are thy cities with the fons of art;
And trade and joy, in every bufy street,
Mingling are heard: even drudgery himself,
As at the car he fweets, or dufty hews
The palace-ftone, looks gay. Thy crouded
ports,

Where rifing mafts an endless prospect yield,
With labour burn, and echo to the fhouts
Of hurry'd failor, as he hearty waves
His laft adieu, and loofening every fheet,
Refigns the spreading veffel to the wind.

Low walks the fun, and broadens by degrees, Just o'er the verge of day. The fhifting clouds Affembled gay, a richly-gorgeous train, In all their pomp attend his fetting throne. Air, earth and ocean fmile immenfe. And now, As if his weary chariot fought the bowers Of Amphitrite, and her tending nymphs; (So Grecian fable fung) he dips his orb; Now half-immers'd; and now a golden curve Gives one bright glance, then total disappears.

His folded flock fecure, the fhepherd home Hies, merry-hearted; and by turns relieves The ruddy milk-maid of her brimming pail; The beauty whom perhaps his witlefs heart, Unknowing what the joy-mixt anguish means, Sincerely loves, by that beft language fhewn Of cordial glances, and obliging deeds. Onward they pafs, o'er many a panting height, And valley funk, and unfrequented; where

At fall of eve the fairy people throng,
In various game, and revelry to pafs
The fummer-night, as village-ftories tell.
But far about they wander from the grave
Of him, whom his ungentle fortune urg'd
Against his own fad breaft to lift the hand
Of impious violence. The lonely tower
Is alfo fhun'd; whofe mournful chambers hold,
So night-ftruck fancy dreams, the yelling ghoft.

AUTUMN.

AUTUM N.

CROWN

RowN'D with the fickle, and the wheaten fheaf,

While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once more, Well-pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the wintry

froft

Nitrous prepar'd; the various bloffom'd fpring. Put in white promife forth; and fummer-funs Concocted ftrong, rush boundless now to view, Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme..

When the bright Virgin gives the beau-~ teous days,

And Libra weighs in equal fcales the year; From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence fhook

Of parting Summer, a ferener blue
With golden light enliven'd wide invefts
The happy world. Attemper'd funs arife,
Sweet-beam'd, and hedding oft thro' lucid

clouds

A pleafing calm; while broad, and brown。. below

Extenfive harvefts hang the heavy head...
Rich, filent, deep, they ftand; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain;
A calm of plenty till the ruffled air
Falls from its poife, and gives the breeze to

blow.

Rent is the fleecy mantle of the fky
The clouds fly different, and the fudden fun
By fits effulgent gilds th' illumen'd field,

Ff3

And

And black by fits the fhadows fweep along.
A gayly checker'd heart-expanding view,
Far as the circling eye can fhoot around,
Unbounded toffing in a flood of corn.

Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky,
And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the spreading day;
Before the ripen'd field the reapers ftand,
In fair array each by the lafs he loves,
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate
By nameless gentle offices her toil.

At once they stoop and fwell the lufty fheaves;
While thro' their chearful band the rural talk,
The rural fcandal and the rural jest
Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time,
And steal unfelt the fultry hours away.
Behind the mafter walks, builds up the fhocks;
And, confcious, glancing oft on every side
His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.
The gleaners fpread around, and here and

there,

Spike after spike, their fparing harvest pick. Be not too narrow, hufbandmen! but fling. From the full fheaf, with charitable ftealth, The liberal handful. Think, oh grateful

think!

How good the God of harvest is to you; Who pours abundance o'er your flowing

fields;

While thefe unhappy partners of your kind Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of hea

ven

And ask their humble dole. The various

turns

Of fortune ponder; that your fons may want

What