Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line,
And teach me to deserve thy just applause.
THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE PLANETS AND OF THE EARTH AT-
TEST OMNIPOTENT WISDOM.
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 labored 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 !
THE MONTH OF JUNE. DAWN OF A SUMMER MORNING. -
PROSPECT. THE HARE; DEER; SINGING BIRDS; CHAN-
TICLEER; THE SHEPHERD.
When now no more the alternate Twins are fired,
And Cancer1 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.
EXHORTATION TO EARLY RISING.
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 waits without,
To bless the wildly-devious morning walk?
1 The Crab, the fourth sign of the zodiac.
SUNRISE IN SUMMER. APOSTROPHE TO LIGHT AND THE SUN.
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 colored 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?
THE SUN. ITS FUNCTIONS. THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
"Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force,
As with a chain indissoluble bound,
Thy system rolls entire : from the far bourn
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
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 SUN THE PARENT OF VEGETATION. THE SEASONS;
HOURS ZEPHYRS; RAINS; DEWS; STORMS.
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.
EFFECTS OF THE SUN ON THE MINERAL WORLD.-LAbor,
WAR, AND PEACE.-COMMERCE.
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 Labor 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.
GEMS PRODUCED BY HEAT. THE DIAMOND; RUBY; SAP-
PHIRE AMETHYST; TOPAZ; EMERALD OPAL.
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 EFFECTS OF SUNLIGHT ON STREAMS, ROCKS, OCEAN.
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!
THE PRIMAL SOURCE OF LIGHT.
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 forever 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.
PRAISE TO THE ALMIGHTY FATHER. DELIGHT IN INTERPRETING NATURE.
And yet was every faltering tongue of man, ALMIGHTY FATHER! silent in thy praise, Thy works themselves would raise a general voice, E'en in the depths of solitary woods By human foot untrod; proclaim thy power, And to the choir 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.
THE SUMMER FORENOON. FLOWERS WILTING LIKE A FEVERED GIRL. THE HELIOTRope.
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-colored bånds: 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 parting 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 enamored bosom to his ray.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE SUMMER NOON. THE FLOCK; COWS; DAW ROOK AND MAGPIE; SHADE OF GRAY OAKS; FOWLS; HOUSE-DOG AND GREYHOUND; INSECTS.
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 gray-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, Outstretched 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
Not mean, though simple: to the sun allied, From him they draw their animating fire.
SUMMER INSECTS. THEIR VARIETY AND BEAUTY. INSECTS ⚫ OF THE WATER; WOOD; FLOWERS; THE HOUSE, ETC.
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.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE SPIDER, HIS HUNTING AND HIS PREY;
INSECT HUM; DROWSY SHEPHERD.
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 carcasses, 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 gray, close-crowding o'er the brook.
THE INFINITUDE OF INSECT LIFE; IN THE FEN LEAF FOR-
EST-BOUGHS; FRUIT; POOL; AIR, AND EVERY LIQUID.
Gradual, from these what numerous kinds descend,
Evading e'en 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 enclosed 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.
MAN'S CRITICISM ON CREATIVE PROVIDENCE PRESUMPTUous.
-THE FLY ON THE DOME. IT BECOMES US TO ADORE,
NOT CAVIL.
Let no presuming impious railer tax Creative Wisdom, as if aught was formed In vain, or not for admirable ends. 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 naught? 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.
FATE OF INSECTS AND MAN. 4
Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways, Upward, and downward, thwarting, and convolved, The quivering nations sport; till, tempest-winged, Fierce Winter sweeps them from the face of day. E'en 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.
HAY-MAKING; YOUTHS; MAIDENS; CHILDHOOD AND AGE. —
MOWING AND TENDING. SONGS.
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.
E'en 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 the 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 labor, 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 clamor 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, labor to the furthest 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.
SHEEP-SHEARING; MARKING SHEEP; THE INDIGNANT RAM.GENTLENESS.
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-dressed 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 the 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, 't is not the knife
Of horrid slaughter that is o'er you waved;
No, 't is 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.
IMPORTANCE OF WOOL TO BRITAIN.
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, e'en now, Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast; Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world.
SUMMER NOON; THE BLAZE OF LIGHT AND HEAT.-SILENCE AND QUIET.
"T is 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 bloom, and wither e'en 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.
APOSTROPHE TO HEAT. FOREST SHADES AND GELID CAVERNS. UNDISTURBED VIRTUE.
All-conquering Heat, O, 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.
SHELTER OF FOREST-TREES. PINES; OAKS; ASH.
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.
A PICTURE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS ON THE BANK OF A
STREAM.THE OX; THE SLUMBERING HERDSMAN; HIS
DOG. THE HERD DISTURBED.
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 script, 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 laboring breasts a hollow moan
Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills.
THE HEATED HORSE; HIS PLUNGE INTO THE RIVER.
Oft in this season too the horse, provoked,
While his big sinews full of spirits swell,
Trembling with vigor, 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
He takes the river at redoubled draughts, [thirst:
And with wide nostrils, snorting, skims the wave.
FOREST GLOOMS; THE HAUNTS OF MEDITATION. BARDS AND PROPHETS.GUARDIAN ANGELS.
Still let me pierce into the midnight depth Of yonder grove, of wildest, largest growth; That, forming high in air a woodland choir, 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 favored 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.
METEORS; SPIRITS OF THE DEPARTED. THE VISIONARY WORLD. MUSIC TO THE POET'S EAR.
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 chanting from the wood-crowned hill,
The deepening dale, or inmost sylvan glade :
A privilege bestowed by us, alone,
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