Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/120

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60
SUMMER.

Across his fancy comes; and then resounds 620
A louder song of sorrow thro' the grove.

Beside the dewy border let me sit
All in the freshness of the humid air;
There in that hollowed rock, grotesque and wild,
An ample chair moss-lin'd, and over head 625
By flowering umbrage shaded; where thee bee
Strays diligent, and with th' exstracted balm
Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh.

Now, while I taste the sweetness of the shade,
While Nature lies around deep-lull'd in Noon, 630
Now come, bold Fancy, spread a daring flight,
And view the wonders of the torrid Zone:
Climes unrelenting! with whose rage compar'd,
Yon blaze is feeble, and yon skies are cool.

See, how at once the bright-effulgent sun, 636
Rising direct, swift chases from the sky
The short-liv'd twilight; and with ardent blaze
Looks gayly fierce thro' all the dazzling air:
He mounts his throne; but kind before him sends,
Issuing from out the portals of the morn, 640
The general Breeze,[1] to mitigate his fire,
And breathe refreshment on a fainting world.
Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crown'd
And barbarous wealth, that see, each circling year,
Returning suns and [2] double seasons pass: 645
Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines,

That

  1. Which blows constantly between the tropics from the east, or the collateral points, the north-east and south-east: caused by the pressure of the rarefied air on that before it, according to the diurnal motion of the sun from east to west.
  2. In all climates between the tropics, the sun, as he passes and repasses in his annual motion, is twice a-year vertical which produces this effect.