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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,
While music wakes around, veil'd in a shower
Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.

O Hertford, fitted or to shine in courts
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain
With innocence and meditation join'd
In soft assemblage, listen to my song,
Which thy own Season paints; when Nature all
Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.

And fee where furly Winter passes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts:
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shatter'd forest, and the ravag'd vale;
While softer gales succeed, at whose kind touch,
Dissolving snows in livid torrents loft,
The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.

As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd,
And Winter oft at eve refumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving fleets
Deform the day delightless: so that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill ingulpht

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To shake the founding marsh; or from the shore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath,

And fing their wild notes to the listening waste.

At last from Aries rolls the bounteous fun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
Th' expanfive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold;

But, full of life and vivifying soul,

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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

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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
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,

Chear'd by the simple song and foaring lark.
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share
The mafter leans, removes th' obstructing clay,
Winds the whole work, and fidelong lays the glebe.

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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,

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Into the perfect year! Nor ye who live

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In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride,
Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear:
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 aweful fathers of mankind :
And fome, with whom compar'd your insect-tribes 60
Are but the beings of a summer's day,
Have held the scale of empire, rul'd the storm
Of mighty war; then, with unwearied hand,
Disdaining little delicacies, feiz'd
The plough, and greatly independent liv'd.

Ye generous Britons, venerate the plough;
And o'er your hills, and long withdrawing vales,
Let Autumn spread his treasures to the fun,
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 foil,
Exuberant, Nature's better blessings pour
O'er every land, the naked nations clothe,
And be th' exhauftless granary of a world!

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Nor only through the lenient air this change,
Delicious, breathes; the penetrative fun
His force deep-darting to the dark retreat
Of vegetation, sets the steaming Power

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At large, to wander o'er the vernant earth,

In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay Green!

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Thou smiling Nature's universal robe !
United light and shade! where the fight dwells
With growing strength, and ever-new delight.
From the moist meadow to the wither'd hill,

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Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs,
And swells, and deepens, to the cherish'd eye.
The hawthorn whitens; and the juicy groves
Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees,
Till the whole leafy forest stands display'd,
In full luxuriance to the fighing gales;
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
Lies yet a little embryo, unperceiv'd,

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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 sweet-briar hedges I pursue my walk;
Or taste the smell of dairy; or afcend
Some eminence, Augusta, in thy plains,
And fee the country, far diffus'd around,
One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms; where the raptur'd eye

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Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath

The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies.

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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

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From every cranny suffocated falls:

Or scatters o'er the blooms the pungeant dust

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Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe:

Or, when th' envenom'd leaf begins to curl,
With sprinkled water drowns them in their nest;
Nor, while they pick them up with bufy bill,
The little trooping birds unwisely scares.

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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

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