[s] : SPRİNG. "Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos, "Nunc frondent fylvæ, nunc formosissimus annus." VIRG. COME, gentle Spring, ethereal Mildness, come, And from the bofom of yon dropping cloud, O Hertford, fitted or to shine in courts And fee where furly Winter passes off, As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd, B 3 : 5 10 15 20 To 1 To shake the founding marsh; or from the shore And fing their wild notes to the listening waste. At last from Aries rolls the bounteous fun, But, full of life and vivifying soul, 25 Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin, 30 Fleecy and white, o'er all-furrounding heaven. Forth fly the tepid airs; and unconfin'd, Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays. Joyous, th' impatient husbandman perceives Relenting Nature, and his lufty steers 35 Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough, Lies in the furrow, loosen'd from the froft. There, unrefusing, to the harness'd yoke Chear'd by the simple song and foaring lark. 49 White through the neighbouring field the fower stalks, With measur'd step; and liberal throws the grain 45 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! Ye softening dews, ye tender showers, defcend! And temper all, thou world-reviving fun, 59 Into the perfect year! Nor ye who live 55 In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, Ye generous Britons, venerate the plough; 65 : 70 75 Nor only through the lenient air this change, 80 At large, to wander o'er the vernant earth, In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay Green! Thou smiling Nature's universal robe ! 85 Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs, 90 95 100 Within its crimson folds. Now from the town Of sweet-briar hedges I pursue my walk; 105 110 Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies. 120 If, brush'd from Russian wilds, a cutting gale Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings The clammy mildew; or, dry-blowing, breathe 115 Untimely frost; before whose baleful blast The full-blown Spring through all her foliage shrinks, Joyless and dead, a wide-dejected waste. 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 facred fons of vengeance; on whose course Corrofive 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 125 From every cranny suffocated falls: Or scatters o'er the blooms the pungeant dust 130 Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe: Or, when th' envenom'd leaf begins to curl, 135 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, That, o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne, In endless train, would quench the summer-blaze, 140 And, chearless, drown the crude unripened year. The norh-east spends his rage; he now shut up |