As yet the trembling year is unconfirm’d,

And Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze,

20 Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets

Deform the day delightless; so that scarce

The bittern knows his time with bill ingulf’d

To shake the sounding marsh; or, from the shore

The plovers when to scatter o’er the heath,

And sing their wild notes to the listening waste.

At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun,

And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more

The expansive atmosphere is cramp’d with cold;

But, full of life and vivifying soul,

30 Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin,

Fleecy, and white, o’er all surrounding heaven.

Forth fly the tepid airs; and unconfin’d,

7

Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays.

Joyous, the impatient husbandman perceives

Relenting nature, and his lusty steers

Drives from their stalls to where the well-us’d plough

Lies in the furrow, loosen’d from the frost.

There, unrefusing, to the harness’d yoke

They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,

40 Cheer’d by the simple song and soaring lark.

Meanwhile, incumbent o’er the shining share

The master leans, removes the obstructing clay,

Winds the whole work, and sidelong lays the glebe.

White, through the neighbouring fields the sower stalks

With measur’d step; and, liberal, throws the grain

Into the faithful bosom of the ground:

The harrow follows harsh, and shuts the scene.

Be gracious, Heaven! for now laborious man

Has done his part. Ye fostering breezes, blow!

50 Ye softening dews, ye tender showers, descend!

And temper all, thou world-reviving sun,

Into the perfect year! Nor ye who live

In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride,

Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear:

8

Such themes as these the rural Maro sung

To wide-imperial Rome, in the full height

Of elegance and taste, by Greece refin’d.

In ancient times, the sacred plough employ’d

The kings and awful fathers of mankind;

60 And some, with whom compar’d your insect tribes

Are but the beings of a summer’s day,

Have held the scale of empire, rul’d the storm

Of mighty war, then with victorious hand,

Disdaining little delicacies, seiz’d

The plough, and greatly independent scorn’d

All the vile stores corruption can bestow.

Ye generous Britons, venerate the plough!

And o’er your hills and long withdrawing vales

Let Autumn spread his treasures to the sun,

70 Luxuriant and unbounded! As the sea,

Far through his azure turbulent domain,

Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores

Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports,

So with superior boon may your rich soil,

Exuberant, Nature’s better blessings pour

O’er every land, the naked nations clothe,

9

And be the exhaustless granary of a world!

Where the deer rustle through the twining brake,

And the birds sing conceal’d. At once, array’d

In all the colours of the flushing year

By Nature’s swift and secret-working hand,

The garden glows, and fills the liberal air

With lavish fragrance; while the promis’d fruit

100 Lies yet a little embryo, unperceiv’d,

Within its crimson folds. Now from the town,

Buried in smoke, and sleep, and noisome damps,

Oft let me wander o’er the dewy fields,

Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling drops

From the bent bush, as through the verdant maze

Of sweetbriar hedges I pursue my walk;

Or taste the smell of dairy; or ascend

Some eminence, Augusta, in thy plains,

11

And see the country, far-diffus’d around,

110 One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower

Of mingled blossoms: where the raptur’d eye

Hurries from joy to joy; and, hid beneath

The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies.

If, brush’d from Russian wilds, a cutting gale

Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings

The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe

Untimely frost—before whose baleful blast

The full-blown Spring through all her foliage shrinks,

Joyless and dead, a wide-dejected waste.

12

120 For oft, engender’d by the hazy north,

Myriads on myriads, insect armies waft

Keen in the poison’d breeze; and wasteful eat,

Through buds and bark, into the blacken’d core

Their eager way. A feeble race! yet oft

The sacred sons of vengeance! on whose course

Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year.

To check this plague, the skilful farmer chaff

And blazing straw before his orchard burns—

Till, all involv’d in smoke, the latent foe

130 From every cranny suffocated falls;

13

Or scatters o’er the blooms the pungent dust

Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe;

Or, when the envenom’d leaf begins to curl,

With sprinkled water drowns them in their nest:

Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill,

The little trooping birds unwisely scares.

Be patient, swains; these cruel-seeming winds

Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep, repress’d,

Those deepening clouds on clouds, surcharg’d with rain,

140 That o’er the vast Atlantic hither borne,

In endless train, would quench the summer blaze,

And, cheerless, drown the crude unripen’d year.

The north-east spends his rage, and now shut up

Within his iron caves—the effusive south

Warms the wide air, and o’er the void of heaven

Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent.

At first a dusky wreath they seem to rise,

Scarce staining ether; but by fast degrees,

In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour sails

150 Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep,

Sits on the horizon round a settled gloom:

Not such as wintry storms on mortals shed,

14

Oppressing life; but lovely, gentle, kind,

And full of every hope and every joy,

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 aspen tall. The uncurling floods, diffus’d

160 In glassy breadth, seem through delusive lapse

Forgetful of their course. ’Tis silence all,

And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks

Drop the dry sprig, 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. Even mountains, vales,

And forests seem, impatient, to demand

170 The promis’d sweetness. Man superior walks

Amid the glad creation, musing praise,

And looking lively gratitude. At last,

The clouds consign their treasures to the fields;

And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool

15

Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow,

In large effusion, o’er the freshen’d world.

The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard,

By such as wander through the forest walks,

Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves.

180 But who can hold the shade, while Heaven descends

16

In universal bounty, shedding herbs,

And fruits, and flowers, on Nature’s ample lap?

Swift fancy fir’d anticipates their growth;

And, while the milky nutriment distils,

Beholds the kindling country colour round.

Thus all day long the full-distended clouds

Indulge their genial stores, and well-shower’d earth

Is deep-enrich’d with vegetable life;

Till, in the western sky, the downward sun

190 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,

Mix’d in wild concert, with the warbling brooks

200 Increas’d, the distant bleatings of the hills,

The hollow lows responsive from the vales,

Whence blending all the sweeten’d zephyr springs.

17

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 on the sun, thy showery prism;

210 And to the sage-instructed eye unfold

The various twine of light, by thee disclos’d

From the white mingling maze. Not so the swain:

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. Still night succeeds,

A soften’d shade; and saturated earth

Awaits the morning beam, to give to light,

220 Rais’d through ten thousand different plastic tubes,

The balmy treasures of the former day.

Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild,

O’er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power

Of botanist to number up their tribes:

18

Whether he steals along the lonely dale,

In silent search; or through the forest, rank

With what the dull incurious weeds account,

Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain rock,

Fir’d by the nodding verdure of its brow.

230 With such a liberal hand has Nature flung

Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds,

Innumerous mix’d them with the nursing mould,

The moistening current, and prolific rain.

But who their virtues can declare? who pierce,

With vision pure, into these secret stores

Of health, and life, and joy? the food of man,

While yet he liv’d in innocence, and told

A length of golden years, unflesh’d in blood;

A stranger to the savage arts of life,

240 Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease—

The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world.

But now those white unblemish’d minutes, whence

The fabling poets took their golden age,

Are found no more amid these iron times,

These dregs of life! Now the distemper’d mind

Has lost that concord of harmonious powers,

Which forms the soul of happiness; and all

Is off the poise within: the passions all

21

Have burst their bounds; and reason half-extinct,

280 Or impotent, or else approving, sees

The foul disorder. Senseless and deform’d,

Convulsive anger storms at large; or, pale

And silent, settles into fell revenge.

Base envy withers at another’s joy,

And hates that excellence it cannot reach.

Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full,

Weak and unmanly, loosens every power.

Even love itself is bitterness of soul,

A pensive anguish pining at the heart;

290 Or, sunk to sordid interest, feels no more

That noble wish, that never-cloy’d desire,

Which, selfish joy disdaining, seeks alone

To bless the dearer object of its flame.

Hope sickens with extravagance; and grief,

Of life impatient, into madness swells,

Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours.

These, and a thousand mix’d emotions more,

From ever-changing views of good and ill,

Form’d infinitely various, vex the mind

300 With endless storm; whence, deeply rankling, grows

22

The partial thought, a listless unconcern,

Cold, and averting from our neighbour’s good;

Then dark disgust, and hatred, winding wiles,

Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.

At last, extinct each social feeling, fell

And joyless inhumanity pervades

And petrifies the heart. Nature disturb’d

Is deem’d, vindictive, to have chang’d her course.

Hence, in old dusky time, a deluge came:

310 When the deep-cleft disparting orb, that arch’d

The central waters round, impetuous rush’d,

With universal burst, into the gulf,

And o’er the high-pil’d hills of fractur’d earth

Wide-dash’d the waves, in undulation vast;

Till, from the centre to the streaming clouds,

A shoreless ocean tumbled round the globe.

The Seasons since have, with severer sway,

Oppress’d a broken world: the Winter keen

Shook forth his waste of snows; and Summer shot

320 His pestilential heats. Great Spring, before,

Green’d all the year; and fruits and blossoms blush’d,

In social sweetness, on the self-same bough.

23

Pure was the temperate air; an even calm

Perpetual reign’d, save what the zephyrs bland

Breath’d o’er the blue expanse: for then nor storms

Were taught to blow, nor hurricanes to rage;

Sound slept the waters; no sulphureous glooms

Swell’d in the sky, and sent the lightning forth;

While sickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs,

330 Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life.

But now, of turbid elements the sport,

From clear to cloudy toss’d, from hot to cold,

And dry to moist, with inward-eating change,

Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought,

Their period finish’d ere ’tis well begun.

And yet the wholesome herb neglected dies;

Though with the pure exhilarating soul

Of nutriment, and health, and vital powers,

Beyond the search of art, ’tis copious blest.

340 For, with hot ravin fir’d, ensanguin’d man

Is now become the lion of the plain,

And worse. The wolf, who from the nightly fold

Fierce-drags the bleating prey, ne’er drunk her milk,

Nor wore her warming fleece; nor has the steer,

24

At whose strong chest the deadly tiger hangs,

E’er plough’d for him. They too are temper’d high,

With hunger stung and wild necessity;

Nor lodges pity in their shaggy breast.

But man, whom Nature form’d of milder clay,

350 With every kind emotion in his heart,

And taught alone to weep—while from her lap

She pours ten thousand delicacies, herbs,

And fruits, as numerous as the drops of rain

Or beams that gave them birth—shall he, fair form!

Who wears sweet smiles, and looks erect on heaven,

E’er stoop to mingle with the prowling herd,

And dip his tongue in gore? The beast of prey,

Blood-stain’d deserves to bleed; but you, ye flocks,

What have you done? ye peaceful people, what,

360 To merit death? you, who have given us milk

In luscious streams, and lent us your own coat

Against the Winter’s cold? And the plain ox,

That harmless, honest, guileless animal,

In what has he offended? he, whose toil,

Patient and ever-ready, clothes the land

With all the pomp of harvest—shall he bleed,

25

And struggling groan beneath the cruel hands

Even of the clowns he feeds? and that, perhaps,

To swell the riot of the autumnal feast,

370 Won by his labour? This the feeling heart

Would tenderly suggest; but ’tis enough,

In this late age, adventurous, to have touch’d

Light on the numbers of the Samian sage.

High Heaven forbids the bold presumptuous strain,

Whose wisest will has fix’d us in a state

That must not yet to pure perfection rise:

Besides, who knows, how rais’d to higher life,

From stage to stage, the vital scale ascends?

Now, when the first foul torrent of the brooks,

380 Swell’d with the vernal rains, is ebb’d away—

And, whitening, down their mossy-tinctur’d ’stream

Descends the billowy foam—now is the time,

While yet the dark brown water aids the guile,

To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly,

The rod fine-tapering with elastic spring,

Snatch’d from the hoary steed the floating line,

And all thy slender watery stores, prepare.

But let not on thy hook the tortur’d worm,

26

Convulsive, twist in agonising folds;

390 Which, by rapacious hunger swallow’d deep,

Gives, as you tear it from the bleeding breast

Of the weak, helpless, uncomplaining wretch,

Harsh pain and horror to the tender hand.

29

Thus pass the temperate hours: but when the sun

Shakes from his noonday throne the scattering clouds,

Even shooting listless languor through the deeps,

Then seek the bank where flowering elders crowd,

Where scatter’d wild the lily of the vale

Its balmy essence breathes, where cowslips hang

The dewy head, where purple violets lurk,

450 With all the lowly children of the shade;

Or lie reclin’d beneath yon spreading ash

Hung o’er the steep, whence borne on liquid wing

The sounding culver shoots; or where the hawk

High in the beetling cliff his eyry builds.

There let the classic page thy fancy lead

Through rural scenes, such as the Mantuan swain

Paints in the matchless harmony of song;

Or catch thyself the landscape, gliding swift

Athwart imagination’s vivid eye;

460 Or, by the vocal woods and waters lull’d,

And lost in lonely musing, in a dream,

Confus’d, of careless solitude, where mix

Ten thousand wandering images of things,

Soothe every gust of passion into peace—

30

All but the swellings of the soften’d heart,

That waken, not disturb, the tranquil mind.

Behold, yon breathing prospect bids the muse

Throw all her beauty forth. But who can paint

Like Nature? Can imagination boast,

470 Amid its gay creation, hues like hers?

Or can it mix them with that matchless skill,

And lose them in each other, as appears

In every bud that blows? If fancy, then,

Unequal fails beneath the pleasing task,

Ah, what shall language do? ah, where find words

Ting’d with so many colours; and whose power,

To life approaching, may perfume my lays

With that fine oil, those aromatic gales,

That inexhaustive flow continual round?

32

See, where the winding vale its lavish stores,

Irriguous, spreads. See, how the lily drinks

The latent rill, scarce oozing through the grass,

Of growth luxuriant; or the humid bank,

In fair profusion, decks. Long let us walk,

Where the breeze blows from yon extended field

500 Of blossom’d beans. Arabia cannot boast

A fuller gale of joy than, liberal, thence

Breathes through the sense, and takes the ravish’d soul.

Nor is the mead unworthy of thy foot,

Full of fresh verdure, and unnumber’d flowers,

The negligence of Nature, wide and wild;

Where, undisguis’d by mimic art, she spreads

Unbounded beauty to the roving eye.

Here their delicious task the fervent bees,

In swarming millions, tend: around, athwart,

510 Through the soft air the busy nations fly,

Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube

Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul;

And oft, with bolder wing, they soaring dare

The purple heath, or where the wild-thyme grows,

And yellow load them with the luscious spoil.

33

At length the finish’d garden to the view

Its vistas opens, and its alleys green.

Snatch’d through the verdant maze, the hurried eye

Distracted wanders: now the bowery walk

520 Of covert close, where scarce a speck of day

Falls on the lengthen’d gloom, protracted sweeps;

Now meets the bending sky; the river now

Dimpling along, the breezy-ruffled lake,

The forest darkening round, the glittering spire,

The ethereal mountain, and the distant main.

But why so far excursive? when at hand,

Along these blushing borders, bright with dew,

34

And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers,

Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace:

530 Throws out the snowdrop and the crocus first;

The daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue,

And polyanthus of unnumber’d dyes;

The yellow wallflower, stain’d with iron-brown;

And lavish stock that scents the garden round;

From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed,

Anemonies; auriculas, enrich’d

With shining meal o’er all their velvet leaves;

And full ranunculus’, of glowing red.

Then comes the tulip-race, where beauty plays

540 Her idle freaks: from family diffus’d

To family, as flies the father-dust,

The varied colours run; and, while they break

On the charm’d eye, the exulting florist marks,

With secret pride, the wonders of his hand.

No gradual bloom is wanting; from the bud,

First-born of Spring, to Summer’s musky tribes

Nor hyacinths, of purest virgin-white,

Low-bent, and blushing inward; nor jonquils,

Of potent fragrance; nor narcissus fair,

35

550 As o’er the fabled fountain hanging still;

Nor broad carnations; nor gay-spotted pinks;

Nor, shower’d from every bush, the damask-rose.

Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells,

With hues on hues expression cannot paint,

The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom.

Hail, Source of Beings! Universal Soul

Of heaven and earth! Essential Presence, hail

To thee I bend the knee; to thee my thoughts,

Continual, climb; who, with a master-hand,

560 Hast the great whole into perfection touch’d.

By thee the various vegetative tribes,

Wrapt in a filmy net, and clad with leaves,

Draw the live ether, and imbibe the dew.

By thee dispos’d into congenial soils,

Stands each attractive plant, and sucks, and swells

The juicy tide; a twining mass of tubes.

At thy command the vernal sun awakes

The torpid sap, detruded to the root

By wintry winds, that now in fluent dance,

570 And lively fermentation, mounting, spreads

All this innumerous-colour’d scene of things.

36

As rising from the vegetable world

My theme ascends, with equal wing ascend,

My panting muse; and hark, how loud the woods

Invite you forth in all your gayest trim.

Lend me your song, ye nightingales! oh pour

The mazy-running soul of melody

Into my varied verse! while I deduce,

From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings,

580 The symphony of Spring, and touch a theme

Unknown to fame—the passion of the groves.

When first the soul of love is sent abroad,

Warm through the vital air, and on the heart

Harmonious seizes, the gay troops begin,

In gallant thought, to plume the painted wing;

And try again the long-forgotten strain,

At first faint-warbled. But no sooner grows

The soft infusion prevalent, and wide,

Than, all alive, at once their joy o’erflows

590 In music unconfin’d. Up springs the lark,

Shrill-voic’d and loud, the messenger of morn:

Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings

Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts

37

Calls up the tuneful nations. Every copse

Deep-tangled, tree irregular, and bush

Bending with dewy moisture, o’er the heads

Of the coy quiristers that lodge within,

Are prodigal of harmony. The thrush

600 And woodlark, o’er the kind contending throng

Superior heard, run through the sweetest length

Of notes; when listening philomela deigns

To let them joy, and purposes, in thought

Elate, to make her night excel their day.

The blackbird whistles from the thorny brake;

The mellow bullfinch answers from the grove;

Nor are the linnets, o’er the flowering furze

Pour’d out profusely, silent: join’d to these

Innumerous songsters, in the freshening shade

Of new-sprung leaves, their modulations mix

610 Mellifluous. The jay, the rook, the daw,

And each harsh pipe, discordant heard alone,

Aid the full concert; while the stockdove breathes

A melancholy murmur through the whole.

’Tis love creates their melody, and all

This waste of music is the voice of love;

38

That even to birds and beasts the tender arts

Of pleasing teaches. Hence the glossy kind

Try every winning way inventive love

Can dictate, and in courtship to their mates

620 Pour forth their little souls. First, wide around,

With distant awe, in airy rings they rove,

Endeavouring by a thousand tricks to catch

The cunning, conscious, half-averted glance

Of their regardless charmer. Should she seem,

Softening, the least approvance to bestow,

Their colours burnish, and, by hope inspir’d,

They brisk advance; then, on a sudden struck,

Retire disorder’d; then again approach;

In fond rotation spread the spotted wing,

630 And shiver every feather with desire.

Connubial leagues agreed, to the deep woods

They haste away, all as their fancy leads,

Pleasure, or food, or secret safety prompts;

That Nature’s great command may be obey’d,

Nor all the sweet sensations they perceive

Indulg’d in vain. Some to the holly-hedge

Nestling repair, and to the thicket some;

39

Some to the rude protection of the thorn

Commit their feeble offspring. The cleft tree

640 Offers its kind concealment to a few,

Their food its insects, and its moss their nests.

Others, apart, far in the grassy dale,

Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave.

But most in woodland solitudes delight,

In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy banks,

Steep, and divided by a babbling brook,

Whose murmurs soothe them all the livelong day,

When by kind duty fix’d. Among the roots

Of hazel, pendent o’er the plaintive stream,

650 They frame the first foundation of their domes;

Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid,

And bound with clay together. Now ’tis nought

But restless hurry through the busy air,

40

Beat by unnumber’d wings. The swallow sweeps

The slimy pool, to build his hanging house

Intent. And often, from the careless back

Of herds and flocks, a thousand tugging bills

Pluck hair and wool; and oft, when unobserv’d,

Steal from the barn a straw: till soft and warm,

660 Clean and complete, their habitation grows.

As thus the patient dam assiduous sits,

Not to be tempted from her tender task,

Or by sharp hunger, or by smooth delight,

Though the whole loosen’d Spring around her blows,

Her sympathising lover takes his stand

High on the opponent bank, and ceaseless sings

The tedious time away; or else supplies

Her place a moment, while she sudden flits

To pick the scanty meal. The appointed time

670 With pious toil fulfill’d, the callow young,

Warm’d and expanded into perfect life,

Their brittle bondage break, and come to light;

A helpless family, demanding food

With constant clamour. Oh, what passions then,

What melting sentiments of kindly care,

41

On the new parents seize! Away they fly,

Affectionate, and undesiring bear

The most delicious morsel to their young;

Which equally distributed, again

680 The search begins. Even so a gentle pair,

By fortune sunk, but form’d of generous mould,

And charm’d with cares beyond the vulgar breast,

In some lone cot amid the distant woods,

42

Sustain’d alone by providential Heaven,

Oft, as they weeping eye their infant train,

Check their own appetites and give them all.

Be not the muse asham’d here to bemoan

Her brothers of the grove, by tyrant man

Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage

From liberty confin’d, and boundless air.

43

Dull are the pretty slaves, their plumage dull,

Ragged, and all its brightening lustre lost;

Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes,

Which, clear and vigorous, warbles from the beech.

710 Oh then, ye friends of love and love-taught song,

Spare the soft tribes, this barbarous art forbear!

If on your bosom innocence can win,

Music engage, or piety persuade.

But let not chief the nightingale lament

Her ruin’d care, too delicately fram’d

To brook the harsh confinement of the cage.

Oft when, returning with her loaded bill,

The astonish’d mother finds a vacant nest,

By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns

720 Robb’d, to the ground the vain provision falls;

Her pinions ruffle, and, low-drooping, scarce

Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade,

Where all abandon’d to despair she sings

Her sorrows through the night; and, on the bough

Sole-sitting, still at every dying fall

Takes up again her lamentable strain

Of winding woe, till wide around the woods

44

Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound.

But now the feather’d youth their former bounds,

730 Ardent, disdain; and, weighing oft their wings,

Demand the free possession of the sky.

This one glad office more, and then dissolves

Parental love at once, now needless grown:

Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain.

’Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild,

When nought but balm is breathing through the woods,

With yellow lustre bright, that the new tribes

Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad

On Nature’s common, far as they can see

740 Or wing their range and pasture. O’er the boughs

Dancing about, still at the giddy verge

Their resolution fails—their pinions still,

In loose libration stretch’d, to trust the void

Trembling refuse—till down before them fly

The parent guides, and chide, exhort, command,

Or push them off. The surging air receives

The plumy burden; and their self-taught wings

Winnow the waving element. On ground

Alighted, bolder up again they lead,

45

750 Farther and farther on, the lengthening flight;

Till, vanish’d every fear, and every power

Rous’d into life and action, light in air

The acquitted parents see their soaring race,

And, once rejoicing, never know them more.

High from the summit of a craggy cliff,

Hung o’er the deep, such as amazing frowns

On utmost Kilda’s1 shore, whose lonely race

Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds,

The royal eagle draws his vigorous young;

760 Strong-pounc’d, and ardent with paternal fire.

Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own,

He drives them from his fort, the towering seat,

For ages, of his empire; which, in peace,

Unstain’d he holds, while many a league to sea

He wings his course, and preys in distant isles.

While thus the gentle tenants of the shade

790 Indulge their purer loves, the rougher world

Of brutes, below, rush furious into flame

And fierce desire. Through all his lusty veins

The bull, deep-scorch’d, the raging passion feels.

Of pasture sick, and negligent of food,

Scarce seen, he wades among the yellow broom,

While o’er his ample sides the rambling sprays

Luxuriant shoot; or through the mazy wood

Dejected wanders, nor the enticing bud

Crops, though it presses on his careless sense.

800 And oft, in jealous maddening fancy wrapt,

He seeks the fight; and, idly butting, feigns

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His rival gor’d in every knotty trunk.

Him should he meet, the bellowing war begins:

Their eyes flash fury; to the hollow’d earth,

Whence the sand flies, they mutter bloody deeds,

And groaning deep the impetuous battle mix;

While the fair heifer, balmy-breathing, near,

Stands kindling up their rage. The trembling steed,

With this hot impulse seiz’d in every nerve,

810 Nor hears the rein, nor heeds the sounding thong:

Blows are not felt; but, tossing high his head,

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And by the well-known joy to distant plains

Attracted strong, all wild he bursts away;

O’er rocks, and woods, and craggy mountains flies;

And, neighing, on the aërial summit takes

The exciting gale; then, steep-descending, cleaves

The headlong torrents foaming down the hills,

Even where the madness of the straiten’d stream

Turns in black eddies round—such is the force

820 With which his frantic heart and sinews swell.

Nor undelighted by the boundless Spring

Are the broad monsters of the foaming deep:

From the deep ooze and gelid cavern rous’d,

They flounce and tumble in unwieldy joy.

Dire were the strain, and dissonant, to sing

The cruel raptures of the savage kind;

How, by this flame their native wrath sublim’d,

They roam, amid the fury of their heart,

The far-resounding waste in fiercer bands,

830 And growl their horrid loves. But this, the theme

I sing, enraptur’d, to the British fair,

Forbids; and leads me to the mountain brow,

Where sits the shepherd on the grassy turf,

50

Inhaling, healthful, the descending sun.

Around him feeds his many-bleating flock,

Of various cadence; and his sportive lambs,

This way and that convolv’d, in friskful glee,

Their frolics play. And now the sprightly race

Invites them forth; when swift, the signal given,

840 They start away, and sweep the massy mound

That runs around the hill; the rampart once

Of iron war, in ancient barbarous times,

When disunited Britain ever bled,

Lost in eternal broil: ere yet she grew

To this deep-laid indissoluble state,

Where wealth and commerce lift the golden head;

And, o’er our labours, liberty and law

Impartial watch—the wonder of a world!

What is this mighty breath, ye curious, say,

850 That, in a powerful language, felt not heard,

Instructs the fowls of heaven; and through their breast

These arts of love diffuses? What, but God?

Inspiring God! who, boundless spirit all,

And unremitting energy, pervades,

Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole.

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He ceaseless works alone, and yet alone

Seems not to work; with such perfection fram’d

Is this complex stupendous scheme of things.

But, though conceal’d, to every purer eye

860 The informing Author in his works appears:

Chief, lovely Spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes,

The Smiling God is seen; while water, earth,

And air attest his bounty—which exalts

The brute creation to this finer thought,

And annual melts their undesigning hearts

Profusely thus in tenderness and joy.

Still let my song a nobler note assume,

And sing the infusive force of Spring on man;

When heaven and earth, as if contending, vie

870 To raise his being, and serene his soul.

Can he forbear to join the general smile

Of Nature? can fierce passions vex his breast,

While every gale is peace, and every grove

Is melody? Hence! from the bounteous walks

Of flowing Spring, ye sordid sons of earth,

Hard, and unfeeling of another’s woe,

Or only lavish to yourselves; away!

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But come, ye generous minds, in whose wide thought,

Of all his works, creative bounty burns

880 With warmest beam; and on your open front

And liberal eye sits, from his dark retreat

Inviting modest want. Nor till invok’d

Can restless goodness wait: your active search

Leaves no cold wint’ry corner unexplor’d;

Like silent-working Heaven, surprising oft

The lonely heart with unexpected good.

For you the roving spirit of the wind

Blows Spring abroad; for you the teeming clouds

Descend in gladsome plenty o’er the world;

890 And the sun sheds his kindest rays for you,

Ye flower of human race! In these green days,

Reviving sickness lifts her languid head;

Life flows afresh; and young-ey’d health exalts

The whole creation round. Contentment walks

The sunny glade, and feels an inward bliss

Spring o’er his mind, beyond the power of kings

To purchase. Pure serenity apace

Induces thought, and contemplation still.

By swift degrees the love of nature works,

53

900 And warms the bosom; till at last, sublim’d

To rapture and enthusiastic heat,

We feel the present Deity, and taste

The joy of God to see a happy world!

Flush’d by the spirit of the genial year,

Now from the virgin’s cheek a fresher bloom

Shoots, less and less, the live carnation round;

Her lips blush deeper sweets; she breathes of youth;

The shining moisture swells into her eyes

In brighter flow; her wishing bosom heaves

With palpitations wild; kind tumults seize

970 Her veins, and all her yielding soul is love.

From the keen gaze her lover turns away,

Full of the dear ecstatic power, and sick

With sighing languishment. Ah then, ye fair!

Be greatly cautious of your sliding hearts:

Dare not the infectious sigh; the pleading look,

Downcast and low, in meek submission drest,

But full of guile. Let not the fervent tongue,

Prompt to deceive, with adulation smooth,

57

Gain on your purpos’d will. Nor in the bower,

980 Where woodbines flaunt and roses shed a couch,

While evening draws her crimson curtains round,

Trust your soft minutes with betraying man.

And let the aspiring youth beware of love,

Of the smooth glance beware; for ’tis too late,

When on his heart the torrent-softness pours.

Then wisdom prostrate lies, and fading fame

Dissolves in air away; while the fond soul,

Wrapt in gay visions of unreal bliss,

Still paints the illusive form, the kindling grace,

990 The enticing smile, the modest-seeming eye,

Beneath whose beauteous beams, belying heaven,

Lurk searchless cunning, cruelty, and death;

And still, false-warbling in his cheated ear,

Her siren voice, enchanting, draws him on

To guileful shores, and meads of fatal joy.

Even present, in the very lap of love

Inglorious laid—while music flows around,

Perfumes, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours—

Amid the roses, fierce repentance rears

1000 Her snaky crest: a quick-returning pang

58

Shoots through the conscious heart; where honour still,

And great design, against the oppressive load

Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave.

But absent, what fantastic woes, arous’d,

Rage in each thought, by restless musing fed,

Chill the warm cheek, and blast the bloom of life!

Neglected fortune flies; and, sliding swift,

Prone into ruin fall his scorn’d affairs.

’Tis nought but gloom around. The darken’d sun

1010 Loses his light. The rosy-bosom’d Spring

To weeping fancy pines; and yon bright arch,

Contracted, bends into a dusky vault.

All nature fades extinct; and she alone

Heard, felt, and seen, possesses every thought,

Fills every sense, and pants in every vein.

Books are but formal dulness, tedious friends;

And sad amid the social band he sits,

Lonely and unattentive. From the tongue

The unfinish’d period falls: while, borne away

1020 On swelling thought, his wafted spirit flies

To the vain bosom of his distant fair;

And leaves the semblance of a lover, fix’d

59

In melancholy site, with head declin’d,

And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts,

Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs

To glimmering shades and sympathetic glooms,

Where the dun umbrage o’er the falling stream,

Romantic, hangs; there through the pensive dusk

Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation lost,

Indulging all to love; or on the bank

Thrown, amid drooping lilies, swells the breeze

1030 With sighs unceasing, and the brook with tears.

Thus in soft anguish he consumes the day;

Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon

Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy east,

Enlighten’d by degrees, and in her train

Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks,

Beneath the trembling languish of her beam,

With soften’d soul, and woos the bird of eve

To mingle woes with his; or, while the world

And all the sons of care lie hush’d in sleep,

1040 Associates with the midnight shadows drear;

And, sighing to the lonely taper, pours

His idly tortur’d heart into the page

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Meant for the moving messenger of love—

Where rapture burns on rapture, every line

With rising frenzy fir’d. But if on bed

Delirious flung, sleep from his pillow flies.

But happy they! the happiest of their kind!

Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.

’Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,

Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

64

Attuning all their passions into love;

1120 Where friendship full-exerts her softest power,

Perfect esteem enliven’d by desire

Ineffable, and sympathy of soul;

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,

With boundless confidence: for nought but love

Can answer love, and render bliss secure.

Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent

To bless himself, from sordid parents buys

The loathing virgin, in eternal care,

Well-merited, consume his nights and days;

1130 Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love

Is wild desire, fierce as the suns they feel;

Let eastern tyrants, from the light of heaven

Seclude their bosom-slaves, meanly possess’d

Of a mere lifeless, violated form:

While those whom love cements in holy faith,

And equal transport, free as Nature live,

Disdaining fear. What is the world to them,

Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all!

Who in each other clasp whatever fair

1140 High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;

65

Something than beauty dearer, should they look

Or on the mind, or mind-illumin’d face—

Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,

The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven.