Scarce staining ether; but by swift degrees, In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapour sails Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep, Sits on th' horizon round a settled gloom: Not such as wintry-storms on mortals shed, 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 aspin tall. Th' uncurling floods, diffus'd 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 th' approaching sign to strike, at once, Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales, And forests, seem impatient to demand 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 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. But who can hold the shade, while Heaven descends 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 Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush Of broken clouds, gay-shifting to his beam. The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes
Th' 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 Increas'd, the distant bleatings of the hills, And hollow lows responsive from the vales, Whence, blending all, the sweeten'd zephyr springs. 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; And to the sage-instructed eye unfold
The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd From the white mingling maze. Not so the boy; He wondering views the bright enchantment bend, Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs To catch the falling glory; but, amaz'd, Beholds th' amusive arch before him fly, Then vanish quite away.
SHORT is the doubtful empire of the night; And soon, observant of approaching day, The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews, At first faint gleaming in the dappled east; Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow; And, from before the lustre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quicken'd 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.
CONFESS'D from yonder slow extinguish'd 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 nought disdains: thoughtful to feed Her lowest sons, and clothe the coming year, From field to field the feather'd 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-mixt 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 urg'd Against his own sad breast to lift the hand Of impious violence. The lonely tower Is also shunn'd; whose mournful chambers hold, So night-struck fancy dreams, the yelling ghost.
Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge, The glow worm lights his gein; 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 array'd In mantle dun. A faint erroneous ray, Glanc'd from th' 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 retain'd
BUT see the fading many-colour'd woods, Shade deepening over shade, the country round Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk and dun, Of every hue, from wan declining green To sooty black. These now the lonesome Muse, Low whispering, lead into their leaf-strown walks, And give the season in its latest view.
Meantime, light-shadowing all, a sober calm Fleeces unbounded ether; whose least wave Stands tremulous, uncertain where to turn The gentle current: while illumin'd wide, The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the sun, And through their lucid veil his soften'd force Shed o'er the peaceful world. Then is the time, For those whom wisdom and whom nature charm, To steal themselves from the degenerate crowd, And soar above this little scene of things; To tread low-thoughted vice beneath their feet; To soothe the throbbing passions into peace; And woo lone Quiet in her silent walks.
Thus solitary, and in pensive guise,
Oft let me wander o'er the russet mead,
And through the sadden'd grove, where scarce is heard One dying strain, to cheer the woodman's toil. Haply some widow'd songster pours his plaint, Far, in faint warblings, through the tawny copse: While congregated thrushes, linnets, larks, And each wild throat, whose artless strains so late Swell'd all the music of the swarming shades, Robb'd of their tuneful souls, now shivering sit On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock; With not a brightness waving o'er their plumes, And nought save chattering discord in their note. O let not, aim'd from some inhuman eye, The gun the music of the coming year Destroy; and harmless, unsuspecting harm, Lay the weak tribes, a miserable prey, In mingled murder, fluttering on the ground.
The pale descending year, yet pleasing still, A gentler mood inspires; for now the leaf Incessant rustles from the mournful grove; Oft startling such as, studious, walk below, And slowly circles through the waving air. But should a quicker breeze amid the boughs
Till chok'd, and matted with the dreary shower, The forest-walks, at every rising gale,
Roll wide the wither'd waste, and whistle bleak. Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields;
And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race Their sunny robes resign. Even what remain'd Of stronger fruits, falls from the naked tree; And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around, The desolated prospect thrills the soul.
THE PLEASURES OF RURAL RETIREMENT.
THE rage of nations, and the crush of states, Move not the man, who, from the world escap'd, In still retreats, and flowery solitudes,
To Nature's voice attends, from month to month, And day to day, through the revolving year; Admiring, sees her in her every shape;
Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart; Takes what she liberal gives, nor thinks of more. He, when young spring protrudes the bursting germ, Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale Into his freshen'd soul; her genial hours He full enjoys; and not a beauty blows, And not an opening blossom breathes in vain. In summer he, beneath the living shade, Such as o'er frigid Tempe wont to wave, Or Hemus cool, reads what the muse, of these Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung; Or what she dictates writes: and, oft an eye Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year.
When autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world, And tempts the sickled swain into the field, Seiz'd by the general joy, his heart distends With gentle throes; and, through the tepid gleams Deep musing, then he best exerts his song. Even winter wild to him is full of bliss. The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste, Abrupt, and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth, Awake to solemn thought. At night the skies, Disclos'd and kindled by refining frost,
Pour every lustre on th' exalted eye.
A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure, And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing O'er land and sea imagination roams;
Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind, Elates his being, and unfolds his powers; Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.
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