Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/107

Thy works themselves would raise a general voice,
Even in the depth of solitary woods,
By human foot untrod, proclaim thy power,
And to the quire celestial Thee resound, 190
Th' eternal cause, support and end of all!

To me be Nature's volume broad-display'd;
And to peruse its all-instructing page,
Or, haply catching inspiration thence,
Some easy passage, raptur'd, to translate, 195
My sole delight; as thro' the falling glooms
Pensive I stray, or with the rising dawn
On Fancy's eagle-wing excursive soar.

Now, flaming up the heavens, the potent fun
Melts into limpid air the high-rais'd clouds, 200
And morning fogs that hover'd round the hills
In party-colour'd bands; till wide unveil'd
The face of nature shines, from where earth seems,
Far-stretch'd around, to meet the bending sphere.

Half in a blush of clustering roses lost, 205
Dew-dropping Coolness to the shade retires;
There on the verdant tnrf, or flowery bed
By gelid founts and careless rills to muse:
While tyrant Heat, dispreading thro' the sky,
With rapid fway, his burning influence darts 210
On Man, and beast, and herb, and tepid stream.

Who can unpitying see the flowery race,
Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom resign,
Before the parching beam? so fade the fair,
When fevers revel thro' their azure veins. 215
But one, the lofty follower of the sun,
Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves,

Droop-