Summer Madness

The Argument 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. Hay-making. Sheep-shearing. 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 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-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. Hence let me haste into the mid-wood shade, Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom, And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink 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, By mortal seldom found: may fancy dare, From thy fixed 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. And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend, In whom the human graces all unite — Pure light of mind and tenderness of heart, Jenius and wisdom, the gay social sense By decency chastised, goodness and wit In seldom-meeting harmony combined, Unblemished 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 launched along The illimitable void!-thus to remain, Amid the flux of many thousand years That oft has swept the toiling race of men, And all their laboured monuments away, Firm, unremitting, matchless in their course; To the kind-tempered 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! When now no more the alternate Twins are fired, And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze, Short is the doubtful empire of the night; 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, White break the clouds away. With quickened 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. 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 aught 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 enlightened soul! Or else, to feverish vanity alive, Wildered, and tossing through distempered 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 morning walk? But yonder comes the powerful king of day Rejoicing in the east. 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 coloured air, He looks in boundless majesty abroad, And sheds the shining day, that burnished plays On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams High-gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer, Light! Of all material beings first and best! Efflux divine! Nature's resplendent robe, Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt In unessential gloom; and thou, O Sun! Soul of surrounding worlds! in whom best seen 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 bourne 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! 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 unfettered 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 A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car, High-seen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance Harmonious knit, the rosy-fingered hours, The zephyrs floating loose, the timely rains, Of bloom ethereal the light-footed dews, And, softened into joy, the surly storms. These, in successive turn, with lavish hand Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower, Herbs, flowers, and fruits; till, kindling at thy touch, From land to land is flushed the vernal year. Nor to the surface of enlivened earth, Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods, Her liberal tresses, is thy force confined; But, to the bowelled cavern darting deep, The mineral kinds confess thy mighty power. Effulgent hence the veiny marble shines; Hence labour draws his tools; hence burnished 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, impregned by thee, In dark retirement forms the lucid stone. The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays, Collected light compact; that, polished 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 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 blackened 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, Are to thy beauty, dignity, and use Unequal far, great delegated Source Of light and life and grace and joy below! How shall I then attempt to sing of Him Who, Light Himself, in uncreated light Invested deep, dwells awfully retired From mortal eye or angel's purer ken; Whose single smile has, from the first of time, Filled overflowing all those lamps of heaven That beam for ever through the boundless sky: But, should He hide his face, the astonished sun And all the extinguished stars would, loosening, reel Wide from their spheres, and chaos come again. And yet, was every faltering tongue of man, Almighty Father! silent in thy praise, Thy works themselves would raise a general voice; Even in the depth of solitary woods, By human foot untrod, proclaim thy power; And to the quire celestial Thee resound, The eternal cause, support, and end of all! To me be Nature's volume broad displayed; And to peruse its all-instructing page, Or, haply catching inspiration thence, Some easy passage, raptured, to translate, My sole delight; as through the falling glooms Pensive I stray, or with the rising dawn On fancy's eagle-wing excursive soar. Now, flaming up the heavens, the potent sun Melts into limpid air the high-raised clouds And morning fogs that hovered round the hills In parti-coloured bands; till wide unveiled The face of nature shines from where earth seems, Far-stretched around, to meet the bending sphere. Half in a blush of clustering roses lost, Dew-dropping Coolness to the shade retires; There, on the verdant turf or flowery bed, By gelid founts and careless rills to muse; While tyrant Heat, dispreading through the sky With rapid sway, his burning influence darts On man and beast and herb and tepid stream. Who can unpitying see the flowery race, Shed by the morn, their new-flushed bloom resign Before the parching beam? So fade the fair, When fevers revel through their azure veins. But one, the lofty follower of the sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves, Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns, Points her enamoured bosom to his ray. Home from his morning task the swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold; While the full-uddered mother lows around The cheerful cottage then expecting food, The food of innocence and health! The daw, The rook, and magpie, to the grey-grown oaks (That the calm village in their verdant arms, Sheltering, embrace) direct their lazy flight; Where on the mingling boughs they sit embowered All the hot noon, till cooler hours arise. Faint underneath the household fowls convene; And, in a corner of the buzzing shade, The house-dog with the vacant greyhound lies Out-stretched and sleepy. In his slumbers one Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults O'er hill and dale; till, wakened by the wasp, They starting snap. Nor shall the muse disdain To let the little noisy summer-race Live in her lay and flutter through her song: Not mean though simple-to the sun allied, From him they draw their animating fire. Waked by his warmer ray, the reptile young Come winged abroad, by the light air upborne, Lighter, and full of soul. From every chink And secret corner, where they slept away The wintry storms, or rising from their tombs To higher life, by myriads forth at once Swarming they pour, of all the varied hues Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose. Ten thousand forms, ten thousand different tribes People the blaze. To sunny waters some By fatal instinct fly; where on the pool They sportive wheel, or, sailing down the stream, Are snatched immediate by the quick-eyed trout Or darting salmon. Through the green-wood glade Some love to stray; there lodged, amused, and fed In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make The meads their choice, and visit every flower And every latent herb: for the sweet task To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap In what soft beds their young, yet undisclosed, Employs their tender care. Some to the house, The fold, and dairy hungry bend their flight; Sip round the pail, or taste the curdling cheese: Oft, inadvertent, from the milky stream They meet their fate; or, weltering in the bowl, With powerless wings around them wrapt, expire. But chief to heedless flies the window proves A constant death; where, gloomily retired, The villain spider lives, cunning and fierce, Mixture abhorred! Amid a mangled heap Of carcases in eager watch he sits, O'erlooking all his waving snares around. Near the dire cell the dreadless wanderer oft Passes; as oft the ruffian shows his front. The prey at last ensnared, he dreadful darts With rapid glide along the leaning line; And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs, Strikes backward grimly pleased: the fluttering wing And shriller sound declare extreme distress, And ask the helping hospitable hand. Resounds the living surface of the ground: Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum To him who muses through the woods at noon, Or drowsy shepherd as he lies reclined, With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade Of willows grey, close-crowding o'er the brook. Gradual from these what numerous kinds descend, Evading even the microscopic eye! Full Nature swarms with life; one wondrous mass Of animals, or atoms organized Waiting the vital breath when Parent-Heaven Shall bid his spirit blow. The hoary fen In putrid streams emits the living cloud Of pestilence. Through subterranean cells, Where searching sunbeams scarce can find a way, Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf Wants not its soft inhabitants. Secure Within its winding citadel the stone Holds multitudes. But chief the forest boughs, That dance unnumbered to the playful breeze, The downy orchard, and the melting pulp Of mellow fruit the nameless nations feed Of evanescent insects. Where the pool Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible Amid the floating verdure millions stray. Each liquid too, whether it pierces, soothes, Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste, With various forms abounds. Nor is the stream Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air, Though one transparent vacancy it seems, Void of their unseen people. These, concealed By the kind art of forming Heaven, escape The grosser eye of man: for, if the worlds In worlds inclosed should on his senses burst, From cates ambrosial and the nectared bowl He would abhorrent turn; and in dead night, When Silence sleeps o'er all, be stunned with noise. Let no presuming impiouis railer tax Creative Wisdom, as if aught was formed In vain, or not for admirabl eneds. Shall little haughty Ignorance pronounce His works unwise, of which the smallest part Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind? As if upon a full-proportioned dome, On swelling columns heaved, the pride of art A critic fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads An inch around, with blind presumption bold Should dare to tax the structure of the whole. And lives the man whose universal eye Has swept at once the unbounded scheme of things, Marked their dependence so and firm accord, As with unfaltering accent to conclude That this availeth nought? Has any seen The mighty chain of beings, lessening down From infinite perfection to the brink Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss! From which astonished thought recoiling turns? Till then, alone let zealous praise ascend And hymns of holy wonder to that Power Whose wisdom shines as lovely on our minds As on our smiling eyes his servant-sun. Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways, Upward and downward, thwarting an convolved, The quivering nations sport; till, tempest-winged, Fierce Winter sweeps them from the face of day. Even so luxurious men, unheeding, pass An idle summer life in fortune's shine, A season's glitter! Thus they flutter on From toy to toy, from vanity to vice; Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes Behind and strikes them from the book of life. Now swarms the village o'er the jovial mead — The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil, Healthful and strong; full as the summer rose Blown by prevailing suns, the ruddy maid, Half naked, swelling on the sight, and all Her kindled graces burning o'er her cheek. Even stooping age is here; and infant hands Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load O'ercharged, amid the kind oppression roll. Wide flies the tedded grain; all in a row Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field, They spread their breathing harvest to the sun, That throws refreshful round a rural smell; Or, as they rake the green-appearing ground, And drive the dusky wave along the mead, The russet hay-cock rises thick behind In order gay: while heard from dale to dale, Waking the breeze, resounds the blended voice Of happy labour, love, and social glee. Or, rushing thence, in one diffusive band They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog Compelled, to where the mazy-running brook Forms a deep pool, this bank abrupt and high, And that fair-spreading in a pebbled shore. Urged to the giddy brink, much is the toil, The clamour much of men and boys and dogs Ere the soft, fearful people to the flood Commit their woolly sides. And oft the swain, On some impatient seizing, hurls them in: Emboldened then, nor hesitating more, Fast, fast they plunge amid the flashing wave, And, panting, labour to the farther shore. Repeated this, till deep the well-washed fleece Has drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt The trout is banished by the sordid stream. Heavy and dripping, to the breezy brow Slow move the harmless race; where, as they spread Their swelling treasures to the sunny ray, Inly disturbed, and wondering what this wild Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints The country fill; and, tossed from rock to rock, Incessant bleatings run around the hills. At last, of snowy white the gathered flocks Are in the wattled pen innumerous pressed, Head above head; and, ranged in lusty rows, The shepherds sit, and whet the sounding shears. The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores, With all her gay-drest maids attending round. One, chief, in gracious dignity enthroned, Shines o'er the rest, the pastoral queen, and rays Her smiles sweet-beaming on her shepherd-king; While the glad circle round them yield their souls To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall. Meantime, their joyous task goes on apace: Some mingling stir the melted tar, and some, Deep on the new-shorn vagrant's heaving side To stamp his master's cipher ready stand; Others the unwilling wether drag along; And, glorying in his might, the sturdy boy Holds by the twisted horns the indignant ram. Behold where bound, and of its robe bereft By needy man, that all-depending lord, How meek, how patient, the mild creature lies! What softness in its melancholy face, What dumb complaining innocence appears! Fear not, ye gentle tribes! 'tis not the knife Of horrid slaughter that is o'er you waved; No, 'tis the tender swain's well-guided shears, Who having now, to pay his annual care, Borrowed your fleece, to you a cumbrous load, Will send you bounding to your hills again. A simple scene! yet hence Britannia sees Her solid grandeur rise: hence she commands The exalted stores of every brighter clime, The treasures of the sun without his rage: Hence, fervent all with culture; toil, and arts, Wide glows her land: her dreadful thunder hence Rides o'er the waves sublime, and now, even now, Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast; Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world. 'Tis raging noon; and, vertical, the sun Darts on the head direct his forceful rays. O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all From pole to pole is undistinguished blaze. In vain the sight dejected to the ground Stoops for relief; thence hot ascending steams And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root Of vegetation parched, the cleaving fields And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose, Blast fancy's blooms, and wither even the soul. Echo no more returns the cheerful sound Of sharpening scythe: the mower, sinking, heaps O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfumed; And scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard Through the dumb mead. Distressful nature pants. The very streams look languid from afar, Or, through the unsheltered glade, impatient seem To hurl into the covert of the grove. All-conquering heat, oh, intermit thy wrath! And on my throbbing temples potent thus Beam not so fierce! Incessant still you flow, And still another fervent flood succeeds, Poured on the head profuse. In vain I sigh, And restless turn, and look around for night: Night is far off; and hotter hours approach. Thrice happy he, who on the sunless side Of a romantic mountain, forest-crowned, Beneath the whole collected shade reclines; Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine-wrought And fresh bedewed with ever-spouting streams, Sits coolly calm; while all the world without, Unsatisfied and sick, tosses in noon. Emblem instructive of the virtuous man, Who keeps his tempered mind serene and pure, And every passion aptly harmonized Amid a jarring world with vice inflamed. Welcome, ye shades! ye bowery thickets, hail! Ye lofty pines! ye venerable oaks! Ye ashes wild, resounding o'er the steep! Delicious is your shelter to the soul As to the hunted hart the sallying spring Or stream full-flowing, that his swelling sides Laves as he floats along the herbaged brink. Cool through the nerves your pleasing comfort glides; The heart beats glad; the fresh-expanded eye And ear resume their watch; the sinews knit; And life shoots swift through all the lightened limbs. Around the adjoining brook, that purls along The vocal grove, now fretting o'er a rock, Now scarcely moving through a reedy pool, Now starting to a sudden stream, and now Gently diffused into a limpid plain, A various group the herds and flocks compose, Rural confusion! On the grassy bank Some ruminating lie, while others stand Half in the flood and, often bending, sip The circling surface. In the middle droops The strong laborious ox, of honest front, Which incomposed he shakes; and from his sides The troublous insects lashes with his tail, Returning still. Amid his subjects safe Slumbers the monarch-swain, his careless arm Thrown round his head on downy moss sustained; Here laid his scrip with wholesome viands filled, There, listening every noise, his watchful dog. Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight Of angry gad-flies fasten on the herd, That startling scatters from the shallow brook In search of lavish stream. Tossing the foam, They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain Through all the bright severity of noon; While from their labouring breasts a hollow moan Proceeding runs low-bellowing round the hills. Oft in this season too, the horse, provoked, While his big sinews full of spirits swell, Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood Springs the high fence, and, o'er the field effused, Darts on the gloomy flood with steadfast eye And heart estranged to fear: his nervous chest, Luxuriant and erect, the seat of strength, Bears down the opposing stream; quenchless his thirst, He takes the river at redoubled draughts, And with wide nostrils, snorting, skims the wave. Still let me pierce into the midnight depth Of yonder grove, of wildest largest growth, That, forming high in air a woodland quire, Nods o'er the mount beneath. At every step, Solemn and slow the shadows blacker fall, And all is awful listening gloom around. These are the haunts of meditation, these The scenes where ancient bards the inspiring breath Ecstatic felt, and, from this world retired, Conversed with angels and immortal forms, On gracious errands bent-to save the fall Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice; In waking whispers and repeated dreams To hint pure thought, and warn the favoured soul, For future trials fated, to prepare; To prompt the poet, who devoted gives His muse to better themes; to soothe the pangs Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breast (Backward to mingle in detested war, But foremost when engaged) to turn the death; And numberless such offices of love, Daily and nightly, zealous to perform. Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky, A thousand shapes or glide athwart the dusk Or stalk majestic on. Deep-roused, I feel A sacred terror, a severe delight, Creep through my mortal frame; and thus, methinks, A voice, than human more, the abstracted ear Of fancy strikes-'Be not of us afraid, Poor kindred man! thy fellow-creatures, we From the same Parent-Power our beings drew, The same our Lord and laws and great pursuit. Once some of us, like thee, through stormy life Toiled tempest-beaten ere we could attain This holy calm, this harmony of mind, Where purity and peace immingle charms. Then fear not us; but with responsive song, Amid these dim recesses, undisturbed By noisy folly and discordant vice, Of Nature sing with us, and Nature's God. Here frequent, at the visionary hour, When musing midnight reigns or silent noon, Angelic harps are in full concert heard, And voices chaunting from the wood-crown'd hill, The deepening dale, or inmost sylvan glade: A privilege bestow'd by us alone On contemplation, or the hallow'd ear Of poet swelling to seraphic strain.' And art thou, Stanley, of that sacred band? Alas! for us too soon! Though raised above The reach of human pain, above the flight Of human joy, yet with a mingled ray Of sadly pleased remembrance, must thou feel A mother's love, a mother's tender woe — Who seeks thee still in many a former scene, Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely beaming eyes, Thy pleasing converse, by gay lively sense Inspired, where moral wisdom mildly shone Without the toil of art, and virtue glowed In all her smiles without forbidding pride. But, O thou best of parents! wipe thy tears; Or rather to parental Nature pay The tears of grateful joy, who for a while Lent thee this younger self, this opening bloom Of thy enlightened mind and gentle worth. 580 Believe the muse-the wintry blast of death Kills not the buds of virtue; no, they spread Beneath the heavenly beam of brighter suns Through endless ages into higher powers. Thus up the mount, in airy vision rapt, I stray, regardless whither; till the sound Of a near fall of water every sense Wakes from the charm of thought: swift-shrinking back, I check my steps and view the broken scene. Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood Rolls fair and placid; where, collected all In one impetuous torrent, down the steep It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round. At first, an azure sheet, it rushes broad; Then, whitening by degrees as prone it falls, And from the loud-resounding rocks below Dashed in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft A hoary mist and forms a ceaseless shower. Nor can the tortured wave here find repose; But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks, Now flashes o'er the scattered fragments, now Aslant the hollow channel rapid darts; And, falling fast from gradual slope to slope, With wild infracted course and lessened roar It gains a safer bed, and steals at last Along the mazes of the quiet vale. Invited from the cliff, to whose dark brow He clings, the steep-ascending eagle soars With upward pinions through the flood of day, And, giving full his bosom to the blaze, Gains on the Sun; while all the tuneful race, Smit by afflictive noon, disordered droop Deep in the thicket, or, from bower to bower Responsive, force an interrupted strain. The stock-dove only through the forest coos, Mournfully hoarse; oft ceasing from his plaint, Short interval of weary woe! again The sad idea of his murdered mate, Struck from his side by savage fowler's guile, Across his fancy comes; and then resounds A louder song of sorrow through the grove. Beside the dewy border let me sit, All in the freshness of the humid air, There on that hollowed rock, grotesque and wild, An ample chair moss-lined, and over head By flowering umbrage shaded; where the bee Strays diligent, and with the extracted balm Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh. Now, while I taste the sweetness of the shade, While Nature lies around deep-lulled in noon, Now come, bold fancy, spread a daring flight And view the wonders of the torrid zone: Climes unrelenting! with whose rage compared, Yon blaze is feeble and yon skies are cool. See how at once the bright effulgent sun, Rising direct, swift chases from the sky The short-lived twilight, and with ardent blaze Looks gaily fierce o'er all the dazzling air! He mounts his throne; but kind before him sends, Issuing from out the portals of the morn, The general breeze to mitigate his fire And breathe refreshment on a fainting world. Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crowned And barbarous wealth, that see, each circling year, Returning suns and double seasons pass; Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines, That on the high equator ridgy rise, Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays; Majestic woods of every vigorous green, Stage above stage high waving o'er the hills, Or to the far horizon wide-diffused, A boundless deep immensity of shade. Here lofty trees, to ancient song unknown, The noble sons of potent heat and floods Prone-rushing from the clouds, rear high to heaven Their thorny stems, and broad around them throw Meridian gloom. Here, in eternal prime, Unnumbered fruits of keen delicious taste And vital spirit drink, amid the cliffs And burning sands that bank the shrubby vales, Redoubled day, yet in their rugged coats A friendly juice to cool its rage contain. Bear me, Pomona! to thy citron groves; To where the lemon and the piercing lime, With the deep orange glowing through the green, Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclined Beneath the spreading tamarind, that shakes, Fanned by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit. Deep in the night the massy locust sheds Quench my hot limbs; or lead me through the maze, Embowering endless, of the Indian fig; Or, thrown at gayer ease on some fair brow, Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cooled, Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave, And high palmettos lift their graceful shade. Oh, stretched amid these orchards of the sun, Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl, And from the palm to draw its freshening wine! More bounteous far than all the frantic juice Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorned; Nor, creeping through the woods, the gelid race Of berries. Oft in humble station dwells Unboastful worth, above fastidious pomp. Witness, thou best Anana, thou the pride Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er The poets imaged in the golden age: Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat, Spread thy ambrosial stores, and feast with Jove! From these the prospect varies. Plains immense Lie stretched below, interminable meads 69 And vast savannas, where the wandering eye, Unfixt, is in a verdant ocean lost. Another Flora there, of bolder hues And richer sweets beyond our garden's pride, Plays o'er the fields, and showers with sudden hand Exuberant spring-for oft these valleys shift Their green-embroidered robe to fiery brown, And swift to green again, as scorching suns Or streaming dews and torrent rains prevail. Along these lonely regions, where, retired From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells In awful solitude, and naught is seen But the wild herds that own no master's stall, Prodigious rivers roll their fattening seas; On whose luxuriant herbage, half-concealed, Like a fallen cedar, far diffused his train, Cased in green scales, the crocodile extends. The flood disparts: behold! in plaited mail Behemoth rears his head. Glanced from his side, The darted steel in idle shivers flies: He fearless walks the plain, or seeks the hills, Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds, In widening circle round, forget their food And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze. Peaceful beneath primeval trees that cast Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream, And where the Ganges rolls his sacred wave, Or mid the central depth of blackening woods, High-raised in solemn theatre around, Leans the huge elephant-wisest of brutes! Oh, truly wise! with gentle might endowed, Though powerful not destructive! Here he sees Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth, And empires rise and fall; regardless he Of what the never-resting race of men Project: thrice happy, could he 'scape their guile Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps, Or with his towery grandeur swell their state, The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert, And bid him rage amid the mortal fray, Astonished at the madness of mankind. Wide o'er the winding umbrage of the floods, Like vivid blossoms glowing from afar, Thick-swarm the brighter birds. For nature's hand, That with a sportive vanity has decked The plumy nations, there her gayest hues Profusely pours But, if she bids them shine Arrayed in all the beauteous beams of day, Yet, frugal still, she humbles them in song. Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent Proud Montezuma's realm, whose legions cast A boundless radiance waving on the sun, While Philomel is ours, while in our shades, Through the soft silence of the listening night, The sober-suited songstress trills her lay. But come, my muse, the desert-barrier burst, A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky; And, swifter than the toiling caravan, Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar; ardent climb The Nubian mountains, and the secret bounds Of jealous Abyssinia boldly pierce. Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mask Of social commerce com'st to rob their wealth; No holy fury thou, blaspheming Heaven, With consecrated steel to stab their peace, And through the land, yet red from civil wounds, To spread the purple tyranny of Rome. Thou, like the harmless bee, mayst freely range From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers, From jasmine grove to grove; may'st wander gay Through palmy shades and aromatic woods That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills, And up the more than Alpine mountains wave. There on the breezy summit, spreading fair For many a league, or on stupendous rocks, That from the sun-redoubling valley lift, Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops, Where palaces and fanes and villas rise, And gardens smile around and cultured fields, And fountains gush, and careless herds and flocks Securely stray-a world within itself, Disdaining all assault: there let me draw Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales Profusely breathing from the spicy groves And vales of fragrance, there at distance hear The roaring floods and cataracts that sweep From disembowelled earth the virgin gold, And o'er the varied landscape restless rove, Fervent with life of every fairer kind. A land of wonders! which the sun still eyes With ray direct, as of the lovely realm Enamoured, and delighting there to dwell. How changed the scene! In blazing height of noon, The sun, oppressed, is plunged in thickest gloom. Still horror reigns, a dreary twilight round, Of struggling night and day malignant mixed. For to the hot equator crowding fast, Where, highly rarefied, the yielding air Admits their stream, incessant vapours roll, Amazing clouds on clouds continual heaped; Or whirled tempestuous by the gusty wind, Or silent borne along, heavy and slow, With the big stores of steaming oceans charged. Meantime, amid these upper seas, condensed Around the cold aerial mountain's brow, And by conflicting winds together dashed, The Thunder holds his black tremendous throne; From cloud to cloud the rending Lightnings rage; Till, in the furious elemental war Dissolved, the whole precipitated mass Unbroken floods and solid torrents pours. The treasures these, hid from the bounded search Of ancient knowledge, whence with annual pomp, Rich king of floods! o'erflows the swelling Nile. From his two springs in Gojam's sunny realm Pure-welling out, he through the lucid lake Of fair Dambea rolls his infant stream. There, by the Naiads nursed, he sports away His playful youth amid the fragrant isles That with unfading verdure smile around. Ambitious thence the manly river breaks, And, gathering many a flood, and copious fed With all the mellowed treasures of the sky, Winds in progressive majesty along: Through splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze, Now wanders wild o'er solitary tracts Of life-deserted sand; till, glad to quit The joyless desert, down the Nubian rocks From thundering steep to steep he pours his urn, And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave. His brother Niger too, and all the floods In which the full-formed maids of Afric lave Their jetty limbs, and all that from the tract Of woody mountains stretched thro' gorgeous Ind Fall on Cormandel's coast or Malabar; From Menam's orient stream that nightly shines With insect-lamps, to where Aurora sheds On Indus' smiling banks the rosy shower — All, at this bounteous season, ope their urns And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land. Nor less thy world, Columbus, drinks refreshed The lavish moisture of the melting year. Wide o'er his isles the branching Oronoque Rolls a brown deluge, and the native drives To dwell aloft on life-sufficing trees — At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms. Swelled by a thousand streams, impetuous hurled From all the roaring Andes, huge descends The mighty Orellana. Scarce the muse Dares stretch her wing o'er this enormous mass Of rushing water; scarce she dares attempt The sea-like Plata, to whose dread expanse, Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course Our floods are rills. With unabated force In silent dignity they sweep along, And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds, And fruitful deserts-worlds of solitude Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain, Unseen and unenjoyed. Forsaking these, O'er peopled plains they fair-diffusive flow And many a nation feed, and circle safe In their soft bosom many a happy isle, The seat of blameless Pan, yet undisturbed By Christian crimes and Europe's cruel sons. Thus pouring on they proudly seek the deep, Whose vanquish'd tide, recoiling from the shock, Yields to this liquid weight of half the globe; And Ocean trembles for his green domain. But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth, This gay profusion of luxurious bliss, This pomp of Nature? what their balmy meads, Their powerful herbs, and Ceres void of pain? By vagrant birds dispersed and wafting winds, What their unplanted fruits? What the cool draughts, The ambrosial food, rich gums, and spicy health Their forests yield? their toiling insects what, Their silky pride and vegetable robes? Ah! what avail their fatal treasures, hid Deep in the bowels of the pitying earth, Golconda's gems, and sad Potosi's mines Where dwelt the gentlest children of the Sun? What all that Afric's golden rivers roll, Her odorous woods, and shining ivory stores? Ill-fated race! the softening arts of peace, Whate'er the humanizing muses teach, The godlike wisdom of the tempered breast, Progressive truth, the patient force of thought, Investigation calm whose silent powers Command the world, the light that leads to Heaven, Kind equal rule, the government of laws, And all-protecting freedom which alone Sustains the name and dignity of man — These are not theirs. The parent sun himself Seems o'er this world of slaves to tyrannize, And, with oppressive ray the roseate bloom Of beauty blasting, gives the gloomy hue And feature gross-or, worse, to ruthless deeds. Mad jealousy, blind rage, and fell revenge Their fervid spirit fires. Love dwells not there, The soft regards, the tenderness of life, The heart-shed tear, the ineffable delight Of sweet humanity: these court the beam Of milder climes-in selfish fierce desire And the wild fury of voluptuous sense There lost. The very brute creation there This rage partakes, and burns with horrid fire. Lo! the green serpent, from his dark abode, Which even imagination fears to tread, At noon forth-issuing, gathers up his train In orbs immense, then, darting out anew, Seeks the refreshing fount, by which diffused He throws his folds; and while, with threatening tongue And deathful jaws erect, the monster curls His flaming crest, all other thirst appalled Or shivering flies, or checked at distance stands, Nor dares approach. But still more direful he, The small close-lurking minister of fate, Whose high-concocted venom through the veins A rapid lightning darts, arresting swift The vital current. Formed to humble man, This child of vengeful Nature! There, sublimed To fearless lust of blood, the savage race Roam, licensed by the shading hour of guilt And foul misdeed, when the pure day has shut His sacred eye. The tiger, darting fierce Impetuous on the prey his glance has doomed; The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er With many a spot, the beauty of the waste; And, scorning all the taming arts of man, The keen hyena, fellest of the fell — These, rushing from the inhospitable woods Of Mauritania, or the tufted isles That verdant rise amid the Libyan wild, Innumerous glare around their shaggy king Majestic stalking o'er the printed sand; And with imperious and repeated roars Demand their fated food. The fearful flocks Crowd near the guardian swain; the nobler herds, Where round their lordly bull in rural ease They ruminating lie, with horror hear The coming rage. The awakened village starts; And to her fluttering breast the mother strains Her thoughtless infant. From the pirate's den, Or stern Morocco's tyrant fang escaped, The wretch half wishes for his bonds again; While, uproar all, the wilderness resounds From Atlas eastward to the frighted Nile. Unhappy he! who, from the first of joys, Society, cut off, is left alone Amid this world of death! Day after day, Sad on the jutting eminence he sits, And views the main that ever toils below; Still fondly forming in the farthest verge, Where the round ether mixes with the wave, Ships, dim-discovered, dropping from the clouds; At evening, to the setting sun he turns A mournful eye, and down his dying heart Sinks helpless; while the wonted roar is up, And hiss continual through the tedious night. Yet here, even here, into these black abodes Of monsters, unappalled, from stooping Rome And guilty Caesar, Liberty retired, Her Cato following through Numidian wilds — Disdainful of Campania's gentle plains And all the green delights Ausonia pours, When for them she must bend the servile knee, And, fawning, take the splendid robber's boon. Nor stop the terrors of these regions here. Commissioned demons oft, angels of wrath, Let loose the raging elements. Breathed hot From all the boundless furnace of the sky, And the wide glittering waste of burning sand, A suffocating wind the pilgrim smites With instant death. Patient of thirst and toil, Son of the desert! even the camel feels, Shot through his withered heart, the fiery blast. Or from the black-red ether, bursting broad, Sallies the sudden whirlwind. Straight the sands, Commoved around, in gathering eddies play; Nearer and nearer still they darkening come; Till, with the general all-involving storm Swept up, the whole continuous wilds arise; And by their noon-day fount dejected thrown, Or sunk at night in sad disastrous sleep, Beneath descending hills the caravan Is buried deep. In Cairo's crowded streets The impatient merchant, wondering, waits in vain, And Mecca saddens at the long delay. But chief at sea, whose every flexile wave Obeys the blast, the aerial tumult swells. In the dread ocean, undulating wide, Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe, The circling typhon, whirled from point to point, Exhausting all the rage of all the sky, And dire ecnephia reign. Amid the heavens, Falsely serene, deep in a cloudy speck Compressed, the mighty tempest brooding dwells. Of no regard, save to the skilful eye, Fiery and foul, the small prognostic hangs Aloft, or on the promontory's brow Musters its force. A faint deceitful calm, A fluttering gale, the demon sends before To tempt the spreading sail. Then down at once Precipitant descends a mingled mass Of roaring winds and flame and rushing floods. In wild amazement fixed the sailor stands. Art is too slow. By rapid fate oppressed, His broad-winged vessel drinks the whelming tide, Hid in the bosom of the black abyss. With such mad seas the daring Gama fought, For many a day and many a dreadful night Incessant labouring round the stormy Cape, By bold ambition led, and bolder thirst Of gold. For then from ancient gloom emerged The rising world of trade: the genius then Of navigation, that in hopeless sloth Had slumbered on the vast Atlantic deep For idle ages, starting, heard at last The Lusitanian Prince, who, heaven-inspired, To love of useful glory roused mankind, And in unbounded commerce mixed the world. Increasing still the terrors of these storms, His jaws horrific armed with threefold fate, Here dwells the direful shark. Lured by the scent Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death, Behold! he rushing cuts the briny flood, Swift as the gale can bear the ship along; And from the partners of that cruel trade Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons Demands his share of prey-demands themselves. The stormy fates descend: one death involves Tyrants and slaves; when straight, their mangled limbs Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal. When o'er this world, by equinoctial rains Flooded immense, looks out the joyless sun, And draws the copious steam from swampy fens, Where putrefaction into life ferments And breathes destructive myriads, or from woods, Impenetrable shades, recesses foul, In vapours rank and blue corruption wrapt, Whose gloomy horrors yet no desperate foot Has ever dared to pierce; then wasteful forth Walks the dire power of pestilent disease. A thousand hideous fiends her course attend, Sick nature blasting, and to heartless woe And feeble desolation, casting down The towering hopes and all the pride of man: Such as of late at Carthagena quenched The British fire. You, gallant Vernon, saw The miserable scene; you, pitying, saw To infant-weakness sunk the warrior's arm; Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form, The lip pale-quivering, and the beamless eye No more with ardour bright; you heard the groans Of agonizing ships from shore to shore, Heard, nightly plunged amid the sullen waves, The frequent corse, while, on each other fixed In sad presage, the blank assistants seemed Silent to ask whom fate would next demand. What need I mention those inclement skies Where frequent o'er the sickening city, plague, The fiercest child of Nemesis divine, Descends? From Ethiopia's poisoned woods, From stifled Cairo's filth, and fetid fields With locust armies putrefying heaped, This great destroyer sprung. Her awful rage The brutes escape: Man is her destined prey, Intemperate man! and o'er his guilty domes She draws a close incumbent cloud of death; Uninterrupted by the living winds, Forbid to blow a wholesome breeze; and stained With many a mixture by the Sun suffused Of angry aspect. Princely wisdom then Dejects his watchful eye; and from the hand Of feeble justice ineffectual drop The sword and balance; mute the voice of joy, And hushed the clamour of the busy world. Empty the streets, with uncouth verdure clad; Into the worst of deserts sudden turned The cheerful haunt of men-unless, escaped From the doomed house, where matchless horror reigns, Shut up by barbarous fear, the smitten wretch With frenzy wild breaks loose, and, loud to Heaven Screaming, the dreadful policy arraigns, Inhuman and unwise. The sullen door, Yet uninfected, on its cautious hinge Fearing to turn, abhors society: Dependents, friends, relations, Love himself, Savaged by woe, forget the tender tie, The sweet engagement of the feeling heart. But vain their selfish care: the circling sky, The wide enlivening air is full of fate; And, struck by turns, in solitary pangs They fall, unblest, untended, and unmourned. Thus o'er the prostrate city black despair Extends her raven wing; while, to complete The scene of desolation stretched around, The grim guards stand, denying all retreat, And give the flying wretch a better death. Much yet remains unsung: the rage intense Of brazen-vaulted skies, of iron fields, Where drought and famine starve the blasted year; Fired by the torch of noon to tenfold rage, The infuriate hill that shoots the pillared flame; And, roused within the subterranean world, The expanding earthquake, that resistless shakes Aspiring cities from their solid base, And buries mountains in the flaming gulf. But 'tis enough; return, my vagrant muse; A nearer scene of horror calls thee home. Behold, slow-settling o'er the lurid grove Unusual darkness broods, and growing, gains The full possession of the sky, surcharged With wrathful vapour, from the secret beds Where sleep the mineral generations drawn. Thence nitre, sulphur, and the fiery spume Of fat bitumen, steaming on the day, With various-tinctured trains of latent flame, Pollute the sky, and in yon baleful cloud, A reddening gloom, a magazine of fate, Ferment; till, by the touch ethereal roused, The dash of clouds, or irritating war Of fighting winds, while all is calm below, They furious spring. A boding silence reigns Dread through the dun expanse-save the dull sound That from the mountain, previous to the storm, Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood, And shakes the forest-leaf without a breath Prone to the lowest vale the aerial tribes Descend: the tempest-loving raven scarce Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze The cattle stand, and on the scowling heavens Cast a deploring eye-by man forsook, Who to the crowded cottage hies him fast, Or seeks the shelter of the downward cave. 'Tis listening fear and dumb amazement all: When to the startled-eye the sudden glance Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud, And, following slower, in explosion vast The thunder raises his tremendous voice. At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven, The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes, And rolls its awful burden on the wind, The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds, till overhead a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide, then shuts And opens wider, shuts and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosened aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling, peal on peal Crushed horrible, convulsing heaven and earth. Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail, Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquenched, The unconquerable lightning struggles through, Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, And fires the mountains with redoubled rage. Black from the stroke, above, the smouldering pine Stands a sad shattered trunk; and, stretched below, A lifeless group the blasted cattle lie: Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look They wore alive, and ruminating still In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull, And ox half-raised. Struck on the castled cliff, The venerable tower and spiry fane Resign their aged pride. The gloomy woods Start at the flash, and from their deep recess Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake. Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud The repercussive roar: with mighty crush, Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks Of Penmanmaur heaped hideous to the sky, Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowdon's peak, Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. Far seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, And Thule bellows through her utmost isles. Guilt hears appalled, with deeply troubled thought; And yet not always on the guilty head Descends the fated flash. Young Celadon And his Amelia were a matchless pair, With equal virtue formed and equal grace The same, distinguished by their sex alone: Hers the mild lustre of the blooming morn, And his the radiance of the risen day. They loved: but such their guileless passion was As in the dawn of time informed the heart Of innocence and undissembling truth. 'Twas friendship heightened by the mutual wish, The enchanting hope and sympathetic glow Beamed from the mutual eye. Devoting all To love, each was to each a dearer self, Supremely happy in the awakened power Of giving joy. Alone amid the shades, Still in harmonious intercourse they lived The rural day, and talked the flowing heart, Or sighed and looked unutterable things. So passed their life, a clear united stream, By care unruffled; till, in evil hour, The tempest caught them on the tender walk, Heedless how far and where its mazes strayed, While with each other blest, creative Love Still bade eternal Eden smile around. Heavy with instant fate, her bosom heaved Unwonted sighs, and, stealing oft a look Of the big gloom, on Celadon her eye Fell tearful, wetting her disordered cheek. In vain assuring love and confidence In Heaven repressed her fear; it grew, and shook Her frame near dissolution. He perceived The unequal conflict, and, as angels look On dying saints, his eyes compassion shed, With love illumined high. 'Fear not,' he said, 'Sweet innocence! thou stranger to offence And inward storm! he, who yon skies involves In frowns of darkness, ever smiles on thee With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft That wastes at midnight, or the undreaded hour Of noon, flies harmless: and that very voice, Which thunders terror through the guilty heart, With tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine. 'Tis safety to be near thee sure, and thus To clasp perfection!' From his void embrace, Mysterious Heaven! that moment to the ground, A blackened corse, was struck the beauteous maid. But who can paint the lover, as he stood Pierced by severe amazement, hating life, Speechless, and fixed in all the death of woe? So, faint resemblance! on the marble tomb The well-dissembled mourner stooping stands, For ever silent and for ever sad. As from the face of Heaven the shattered clouds Tumultuous rove, the interminable sky Sublimer swells, and o'er the world expands A purer azure. Nature from the storm Shines out afresh; and through the lightened air A higher lustre and a clearer calm Diffusive tremble; while, as if in sign Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy, Set off abundant by the yellow ray, Invests the fields, yet dropping from distress. 'Tis beauty all, and grateful song around, Joined to the low of kine, and numerous bleat Of flocks thick-nibbling through the clovered vale. And shall the hymn be marred by thankless man, Most-favoured, who with voice articulate Should lead the chorus of this lower world? Shall he, so soon forgetful of the hand That hushed the thunder, and serenes the sky, Extinguished feel that spark the tempest waked, That sense of powers exceeding far his own, Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears? Cheered by the milder beam, the sprightly youth Speeds to the well-known pool, whose crystal depth A sandy bottom shows. Awhile he stands Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid To meditate the blue profound below; Then plunges headlong down the circling flood. His ebon tresses and his rosy cheek Instant emerge; and through the obedient wave, At each short breathing by his lip repelled, With arms and legs according well, he makes, As humour leads, an easy-winding path; While from his polished sides a dewy light Effuses on the pleased spectators round. This is the purest exercise of health, The kind refresher of the summer heats; Nor, when cold winter keens the brightening flood, Would I weak-shivering linger on the brink. Thus life redoubles, and is oft preserved By the bold swimmer, in the swift illapse Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs Knit into force; and the same Roman arm That rose victorious o'er the conquered earth First learned, while tender, to subdue the wave. Even from the body's purity the mind Receives a secret sympathetic aid. Close in the covert of an hazel copse, Where, winded into pleasing solitudes, Runs out the rambling dale, young Damon sat Pensive, and pierced with love's delightful pangs. There to the stream that down the distant rocks Hoarse-murmuring fell, and plaintive breeze that played Among the bending willows, falsely he Of Musidora's cruelty complained. She felt his flame; but deep within her breast, In bashful coyness or in maiden pride, The soft return concealed; save when it stole In side-long glances from her downcast eye, Or from her swelling soul in stifled sighs. Touched by the scene, no stranger to his vows, He framed a melting lay to try her heart; And, if an infant passion struggled there, To call that passion forth. Thrice happy swain! A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate Of mighty monarchs, then decided thine! For, lo! conducted by the laughing Loves, This cool retreat his Musidora sought: Warm in her cheek the sultry season glowed; And, robed in loose array, she came to bathe Her fervent limbs in the refreshing stream. What shall he do? In sweet confusion lost, 'Twas then, beneath a secret waving shade Where, winded into lovely solitudes, Runs out the rambling dale, that Damon sat, Thoughtful and fixed in philosophic muse. And dubious flutterings, he a while remained. A pure ingenuous elegance of soul, A delicate refinement, known to few, Perplexed his breast and urged him to retire: But love forbade. Ye prudes in virtue, say, Say, ye severest, what would you have done? Meantime, this fairer nymph than ever blest Arcadian stream, with timid eye around The banks surveying, stripped her beauteous limbs To taste the lucid coolness of the flood. Ah! then, not Paris on the piny top Of Ida panted stronger, when aside The rival goddesses the veil divine Cast unconfined, and gave him all their charms, Than, Damon, thou; as from the snowy leg And slender foot the inverted silk she drew; As the soft touch dissolved the virgin zone; And, through the parting robe, the alternate breast, With youth wild-throbbing, on thy lawless gaze In full luxuriance rose. But, desperate youth, How durst thou risk the soul-distracting view As from her naked limbs of glowing white, Harmonious swelled by nature's finest hand, In folds loose-floating fell the fainter lawn, And fair exposed she stood, shrunk from herself, With fancy blushing, at the doubtful breeze Alarmed, and starting like the fearful fawn? Then to the flood she rushed: the parted flood Its lovely guest with closing waves received; And every beauty softening, every grace Flushing anew, a mellow lustre shed — As shines the lily through the crystal mild, Or as the rose amid the morning dew, Fresh from Aurora's hand, more sweetly glows. While thus she wantoned, now beneath the wave But ill-concealed, and now with streaming locks, That half-embraced her in a humid veil, Rising again, the latent Damon drew Such maddening draughts of beauty to the soul As for a while o'erwhelmed his raptured thought With luxury too daring. Checked, at last, By love's respectful modesty, he deemed The theft profane, if aught profane to love Can e'er be deemed, and, struggling from the shade, With headlong hurry fled: but first these lines, Traced by his ready pencil, on the bank With trembling hand he threw-'Bathe on, my fair, Yet unbeheld save by the sacred eye Of faithful love: I go to guard thy haunt; To keep from thy recess each vagrant foot And each licentious eye.' With wild surprise, As if to marble struck, devoid of sense, A stupid moment motionless she stood: So stands the statue that enchants the world; So, bending, tries to veil the matchless boast, The mingled beauties of exulting Greece. Recovering, swift she flew to find those robes Which blissful Eden knew not; and, arrayed In careless haste, the alarming paper snatched. But, when her Damon's well-known hand she saw, Her terrors vanished, and a softer train Or mixed emotions, hard to be described, Her sudden bosom seized: shame void of guilt, The charming blush of innocence, esteem And admiration of her lover's flame, By modesty exalted, even a sense Of self-approving beauty stole across Her busy thought. At length, a tender calm Hushed by degrees the tumult of her soul; And on the spreading beech, that o'er the stream Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan pen Of rural lovers this confession carved, Which soon her Damon kissed with weeping joy: 'Dear youth! sole judge of what these verses mean, By fortune too much favoured, but by love, Alas! not favoured less, be still as now Discreet: the time may come you need not fly.' The Sun has lost his rage: his downward orb Shoots nothing now but animating warmth And vital lustre; that with various ray, Lights up the clouds, those beauteous robes of heaven, Incessant rolled into romantic shapes, The dream of waking fancy! Broad below, Covered with ripening fruits, and swelling fast Into the perfect year, the pregnant earth And all her tribes rejoice. Now the soft hour Of walking comes for him who lonely loves To seek the distant hills, and there converse With nature, there to harmonize his heart, And in pathetic song to breathe around The harmony to others. Social friends, Attuned to happy unison of soul — To whose exulting eye a fairer world, Of which the vulgar never had a glimpse, Displays its charms; whose minds are richly fraught With philosophic stores, superior light; And in whose breast enthusiastic burns Virtue, the sons of interest deem romance — Now called abroad, enjoy the falling day: Now to the verdant portico of woods, To nature's vast Lyceum, forth they walk; By that kind school where no proud master reigns, The full free converse of the friendly heart, Improving and improved. Now from the world, Sacred to sweet retirement, lovers steal, And pour their souls in transport, which the sire Of love approving hears, and calls it good. Which way, Amanda, shall we bend our course? The choice perplexes. Wherefore should we choose? All is the same with thee. Say, shall we wind Along the streams? or walk the smiling mead? Or court the forest glades? or wander wild Among the waving harvests? or ascend, While radiant Summer opens all its pride, Thy hill, delightful Shene? Here let us sweep The boundless landscape; now the raptured eye, Exulting swift, to huge Augusta send, Now to the sister hills that skirt her plain, To lofty Harrow now, and now to where Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow. In lovely contrast to this glorious view, Calmly magnificent, then will we turn To where the silver Thames first rural grows. There let the feasted eye unwearied stray; Luxurious, there, rove through the pendent woods That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat; And, stooping thence to Ham's embowering walks, Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retired, With her the pleasing partner of his heart, The worthy Queensberry yet laments his Gay, And polished Cornbury woos the willing muse, Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames; Fair-winding up to where the muses haunt In Twit'nam's bowers, and for their Pope implore The healing god; to royal Hampton's pile, To Clermont's terraced height, and Esher's groves, Where in the sweetest solitude, embraced By the soft windings of the silent Mole, From courts and senates Pelham finds repose. Enchanting vale! beyond whate'er the muse Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung! O vale of bliss! O softly-swelling hills! On which the power of cultivation lies, And joys to see the wonders of his toil. 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 stretching landskip into smoke decays! Happy Britannia! where the Queen of Arts, Inspiring vigour, Liberty, abroad Walks unconfined even to thy farthest cots, And scatters plenty with unsparing hand. Rich is thy soil, and merciful thy clime; Thy streams unfailing in the Summer's drought; Unmatched thy guardian-oaks; thy valleys float With golden waves; and on thy mountains flocks Bleat numberless; while, roving round their sides, Bellow the blackening herds in lusty droves. Beneath, thy meadows glow, and rise unquelled Against the mower's scythe. On every hand Thy villas shine. Thy country teems with wealth; And Property assures it to the swain, Pleased and unwearied in his guarded toil. Full are thy cities with the sons of art; And trade and joy, in every busy street, Mingling are heard: even Drudgery himself, As at the car he sweats, or, dusty, hews The palace stone, looks gay. Thy crowded ports, Where rising masts an endless prospect yield, With labour burn, and echo to the shouts Of hurried sailor, as he hearty waves His last adieu, and, loosening every sheet, Resigns the spreading vessel to the wind. Bold, firm, and graceful, are thy generous youth, By hardship sinewed, and by danger fired, Scattering the nations where they go; and first Or in the listed plain or stormy seas. Thy sons of glory many! Alfred thine, In whom the splendour of heroic war, And more heroic peace, when governed well, Combine; whose hallowed name the Virtues saint, And his own muses love; the best of kings! With him thy Edwards and thy Henrys shine, Names dear to fame; the first who deep impressed On haughty Gaul the terror of thy arms, That awes her genius still. In statesmen thou, And patriots, fertile. Thine a steady More, Who, with a generous though mistaken zeal, Withstood a brutal tyrant's useful rage; Like Cato firm, like Aristides just, Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor — A dauntless soul erect, who smil'd on death. Frugal and wise, a Walsingham is thine; A Drake, who made thee mistress of the deep, And bore thy name in thunder round the world. Then flamed thy spirit high. But who can speak The numerous worthies of the maiden reign? In Raleigh mark their every glory mixed — Raleigh, the scourge of Spain! whose breast with all The sage, the patriot, and the hero burned. Nor sunk his vigour when a coward reign The warrior fettered, and at last resigned, To glut the vengeance of a vanquished foe. Then, active still and unrestrained, his mind Explored the vast extent of ages past, And with his prison-hours enriched the world; Yet found no times, in all the long research, So glorious, or so base, as those he proved, In which he conquered, and in which he bled. Nor can the muse the gallant Sidney pass, The plume of war! with early laurels crowned, The lover's myrtle and the poet's bay. A Hampden too is thine, illustrious land! Wise, strenuous, firm, of unsubmitting soul, Who stemmed the torrent of a downward age To slavery prone, and bade thee rise again, In all thy native pomp of freedom bold. Bright at his call thy age of men effulged; Of men on whom late time a kindling eye Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read. Bring every sweetest flower, and let me strew The grave where Russel lies, whose tempered blood, With calmest cheerfulness for thee resigned, Stained the sad annals of a giddy reign Aiming at lawless power, though meanly sunk In loose inglorious luxury. With him His friend, the British Cassius, fearless bled; Of high determined spirit, roughly brave, By ancient learning to the enlighten'd love Of ancient freedom warmed. Fair thy renown In awful sages and in noble bards; Soon as the light of dawning Science spread Her orient ray, and waked the Muses' song. Thine is a Bacon, hapless in his choice, Unfit to stand the civil storm of state, And, through the smooth barbarity of courts, With firm but pliant virtue forward still To urge his course: him for the studious shade Kind Nature formed, deep, comprehensive, clear, Exact, and elegant; in one rich soul, Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully joined. The great deliverer he, who, from the gloom Of cloistered monks and jargon-teaching schools, Led forth the true philosophy, there long Held in the magic chain of words and forms And definitions void: he led her forth, Daughter of Heaven! that, slow-ascending still, Investigating sure the chain of things, With radiant finger points to Heaven again. The generous Ashley thine, the friend of man, Who scanned his nature with a brother's eye, His weakness prompt to shade, to raise his aim, To touch the finer movements of the mind, And with the moral beauty charm the heart. Why need I name thy Boyle, whose pious search, Amid the dark recesses of his works, The great Creator sought? And why thy Locke, Who made the whole internal world his own? Let Newton, pure intelligence, whom God To mortals lent to trace his boundless works From laws sublimely simple, speak thy fame In all philosophy. For lofty sense, Creative fancy, and inspection keen Through the deep windings of the human heart, Is not wild Shakespeare thine and nature's boast? Is not each great, each amiable muse Of classic ages in thy Milton met? A genius universal as his theme, Astonishing as chaos, as the bloom Of blowing Eden fair, as heaven sublime! Nor shall my verse that elder bard forget, The gentle Spenser, fancy's pleasing son; Who, like a copious river, poured his song O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground; Nor thee, his ancient master, laughing sage, Chaucer, whose native manners-painting verse, Well moralized, shines through the Gothic cloud Of time and language o'er thy genius thrown. May my song soften as thy daughters I, Britannia, hail! for beauty is their own, The feeling heart, simplicity of life, And elegance, and taste; the faultless form, Shaped by the hand of harmony; the cheek, Where the live crimson, through the native white Soft-shooting, o'er the face diffuses bloom And every nameless grace; the parted lip, Like the red rosebud moist with morning dew, Breathing delight; and, under flowing jet, Or sunny ringlets, or of circling brown, The neck slight-shaded and the swelling breast; The look resistless, piercing to the soul, And by the soul informed, when, dressed in love, She sits high-smiling in the conscious eye. Island of bliss! amid the subject seas That thunder round thy rocky coasts, set up, At once the wonder, terror, and delight, Of distant nations, whose remotest shore Can soon be shaken by thy naval arm; Not to be shook thyself, but all assaults Baffling, like thy hoar cliffs the loud sea-wave. O Thou, by whose almighty nod the scale Of empire rises, or alternate falls, Send forth the saving Virtues round the land In bright patrol-white Peace, and social Love; The tender-looking Charity, intent On gentle deeds, and shedding tears through smiles; Undaunted Truth, and Dignity of mind; Courage, composed and keen; sound Temperance, Healthful in heart and look; clear Chastity, With blushes reddening as she moves along, Disordered at the deep regard she draws; Rough Industry; Activity untired, With copious life informed, and all awake: While in the radiant front superior shines That first paternal virtue, Public Zeal, Who throws o'er all an equal, wide survey, And, ever musing on the common weal, Still labours glorious with some great design. Low walks the sun, and broadens by degrees, Just o'er the verge of day. The shifting clouds Assembled gay, a richly-gorgeous train, In all their pomp attend his setting throne. Air, earth, and ocean smile immense. And now, As if his weary chariot sought the bowers Of Amphitrite and her tending nymphs, (So Grecian fable sung) he dips his orb; Now half-immersed; and now, a golden curve, Gives one bright glance, then total disappears. For ever running an enchanted round, Passes the day, deceitful, vain, and void; As fleets the vision o'er the formful brain, This moment hurrying wild the impassioned soul, The next in nothing lost. 'Tis so to him, The dreamer of this earth, an idle blank — A sight of horror to the cruel wretch, Who, all day long in sordid pleasure rolled, Himself an useless load, has squandered vile Upon his scoundrel train what might have cheered A drooping family of modest worth. But to the generous, still-improving mind That gives the hopeless heart to sing for joy, Diffusing kind beneficence around Boastless as now descends the silent dew — To him the long review of ordered life Is inward rapture only to be felt. Confessed from yonder slow-extinguished clouds, All ether softening, sober Evening takes Her wonted station in the middle air, A thousand shadows at her beck. First this She sends on earth; then that of deeper dye Steals soft behind; and then a deeper still, In circle following circle, gathers round To close the face of things. A fresher gale Begins to wave the wood and stir the stream, Sweeping with shadowy gust the fields of corn, While the quail clamours for his running mate. Wide o'er the thistly lawn, as swells the breeze, A whitening shower of vegetable down Amusive floats. The kind impartial care Of Nature naught disdains: thoughtful to feed Her lowest sons, and clothe the coming year, From field to field the feathered seeds she wings. His folded flock secure, the shepherd home Hies, merry-hearted; and by turns relieves The ruddy milk-maid of her brimming pail — The beauty whom perhaps his witless heart, Unknowing what the joy-mixed anguish means, Sincerely loves, by that best language shown Of cordial glances and obliging deeds. Onward they pass, o'er many a panting height And valley sunk and unfrequented; where At fall of eve the fairy people throng, In various game and revelry to pass The summer night, as village stories tell. But far about they wander from the grave Of him whom his ungentle fortune urged Against his own sad breast to lift the hand Of impious violence. The lonely tower Is also shunned; whose mournful chambers hold, So night-struck fancy dreams, the yelling ghost. Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge, The Glow-worm lights his gem; and, through the dark, A moving radiance twinkles. Evening yields The world to Night; not in her winter robe Of massy Stygian woof, but loose arrayed In mantle dun. A faint erroneous ray, Glanced from the imperfect surfaces of things, Flings half an image on the straining eye; While wavering woods, and villages, and streams, And rocks, and mountain-tops that long retained The ascending gleam are all one swimming scene, Uncertain if beheld. Sudden to heaven Thence weary vision turns; where, leading soft The silent hours of love, with purest ray Sweet Venus shines; and, from her genial rise, When daylight sickens, till it springs afresh, Unrivalled reigns, the fairest lamp of night. As thus the effulgence tremulous I drink, With cherished gaze, the lambent lightnings shoot Across the sky, or horizontal dart In wondrous shapes-by fearful murmuring crowds Portentous deemed. Amid the radiant orbs That more than deck, that animate the sky, The life-infusing suns of other worlds, Lo! from the dread immensity of space Returning with accelerated course, The rushing comet to the sun descends; And, as he sinks below the shading earth, With awful train projected o'er the heavens, The guilty nations tremble. But, above Those superstitious horrors that enslave The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith And blind amazement prone, the enlightened few, Whose godlike minds philosophy exalts, The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy Divinely great; they in their powers exult, That wondrous force of thought, which mounting spurns This dusky spot, and measures all the sky; While, from his far excursions through the wilds Of barren ether, faithful to his time, They see the blazing wonder rise anew, In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent To work the will of all-sustaining love — From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs Through which his long ellipsis winds, perhaps To lend new fuel to declining suns, To light up worlds, and feed the eternal fire. With thee, serene Philosophy, with thee, And thy bright garland, let me crown my song! Effusive source of evidence and truth! A lustre shedding o'er the ennobled mind, Stronger than summer-noon, and pure as that Whose mild vibrations soothe the parted soul, New to the dawning of celestial day. Hence through her nourished powers, enlarged by thee, She springs aloft, with elevated pride, Above the tangling mass of low desires, That bind the fluttering crowd; and, angel-winged, The heights of science and of virtue gains, Where all is calm and clear; with Nature round, Or in the starry regions or the abyss, To reason's and to fancy's eye displayed — The first up-tracing, from the dreary void, The chain of causes and effects to Him, The world-producing Essence, who alone Possesses being; while the last receives The whole magnificence of heaven and earth, And every beauty, delicate or bold, Obvious or more remote, with livelier sense, Diffusive painted on the rapid mind. Tutored by thee, hence Poetry exalts Her voice to ages; and informs the page With music, image, sentiment, and thought, Never to die; the treasure of mankind, Their highest honour, and their truest joy! Without thee what were unenlightened man? A savage, roaming through the woods and wilds In quest of prey; and with the unfashioned fur Rough-clad; devoid of every finer art And elegance of life. Nor happiness Domestic, mixed of tenderness and care, Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss, Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool Mechanic; nor the heaven-conducted prow Of Navigation bold, that fearless braves The burning line or dares the wintry pole, Mother severe of infinite delights! Nothing, save rapine, indolence, and guile, And woes on woes, a still-revolving train! Whose horrid circle had made human life Than non-existence worse: but, taught by thee, Ours are the plans of policy and peace; To live like brothers, and, conjunctive all, Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds Ply the tough oar, Philosophy directs The ruling helm; or, like the liberal breath Of potent heaven, invisible, the sail Swells out, and bears the inferior world along. Nor to this evanescent speck of earth Poorly confined: the radiant tracts on high Are her exalted range; intent to gaze Creation through; and, from that full complex Of never-ending wonders, to conceive Of the Sole Being right, who spoke the word, And Nature moved complete. With inward view, Thence on the ideal kingdom swift she turns Her eye; and instant, at her powerful glance, The obedient phantoms vanish or appear; Compound, divide, and into order shift, Each to his rank, from plain perception up To the fair forms of fancy's fleeting train; To reason then, deducing truth from truth, And notion quite abstract; where first begins The world of spirits, action all, and life Unfettered and unmixed. But here the cloud, So wills Eternal Providence, sits deep. Enough for us to know that this dark state, In wayward passions lost and vain pursuits, This infancy of being, cannot prove The final issue of the works of God, By boundless love and perfect wisdom formed, And ever rising with the rising mind.