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Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and consenting Spring
Sheds her own rosy garland on their heads:
Till evening comes at last, serene and mild;
When after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they sink in social sleep:
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly

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To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.

SUMMER.'

"WIE Feld und Au
So blinkend im Thau!
Wie Perlen-schwer
Die Pflanzen umher!
Wie durch's Gebüsch
Die Winde so frisch!

Wie laut im hellen Sonnenstrahl
Die süssen Vöglein allzumal."

"How glisten the field
And the meadow with dew!
How pearly the flowers
With its downweighing, too!
How fresh in the hedgerow
The wind whistles through!
How shrill is the lay
Of the bird in the ray

Of the sun."-GOETHE.

ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed.-Invocation.-Address to Mr. Dodington.-An introductory reflection on the motion of the heavenly bodies; whence the suc cession 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. Hay-making.-Sheep-shearing.-Noon-day.-A woodland retreat.-Groupe of herds and flocks.-A solemn grove: how it affects a contemplative mind.-A cataract, and rude scene.-View of Summer in the torrid zone.-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.-Sunset.-Evening.-Night.-Summer meteors. -A comet. The whole concluding with the praise of philosophy.

FROM brightening fields of ether fair disclos'd,
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.

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Hence, let me haste into the mid-wood shade, Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom; 10 And on the dark green grass, beside the brink

(1) The text of this poem is much less doubtful than that of Spring, the author having bestowed much more care in the revision.

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Of haunted stream, that by the roots of cak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large,
And sing the glories of the circling year.

Come, Inspiration, from thy hermit-seat,
By mortal seldom found! may Fancy dare,
From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on surrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the Poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of soul.

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 chastis'd; goodness and wit,
In seldom-meeting harmony combin'd;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man:
O Dodington! attend my rural song,
Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line,
And teach me to deserve thy just applause.

With what an awful world-revolving power

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

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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,

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Minutely faithful: such the All-perfect Hand!

That pois'd, impels, and rules the steady whole.

When now no more the' alternate Twins are fir'd,

And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And soon, observant of approaching day,

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The meek-ey'd 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,

White break the clouds away. With quickened step,
Brown Night retires; young Day pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny prospect wide.

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