James Thomson

“ How swell'd immense! amid whose azure thron'd
The radiant sun how gay! how calm below ⁠1205
The gilded earth! the harvest-treasures all
Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms,
Sure to the swain; the circling fence shut up;
And instant Winter's utmost rage defy'd.
While, loose to festive joy, the country round ⁠1210
Laughs with the loud sincerity of mirth,
Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-strung youth
By the quick sense of music taught alone,
Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance. ”

“ Incessant melts away. The juicy pear ⁠630
Lies, in a soft profusion, scatter'd round.
A various sweetness swells the gentle race;
In species different, but in kind the same,
By Nature's all-refining hand prepar'd;
Of temper'd sun, and water, earth, and air, ⁠635
In ever-changing composition mixt.
Such, falling frequent thro' the chiller night,
The fragrant stores, the wide-projected heaps
Of Apples, which the lusty-handed year,
Innumerous, o'er the blushing orchard shakes. ⁠640
A various spirit, fresh, delicious, keen,
Dwells in their gelid pores ”

“ To Nature's voice attends, from month to month, ⁠1295
And day to day, thro' 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 gems, ⁠1300
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. ”

“ Of every hue, from wan declining green
To sooty dark. These now the lonesome Muse,
Low-whispering, lead into their leaf-strown walks,
And give the season in its latest view. ⁠945
⁠Mean-time, 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, ⁠950
And thro' their lucid veil his softened force
Shed o'er the peaceful world. ”

“ By thousands, tumble from their honey'd domes,
Convolv'd, and agonizing in the dust.
And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring,
Intent from flower to flower? for this you toil'd
Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away? ⁠1175
For this in Autumn search'd the blooming waste,
Nor lost one funny gleam? for this sad fate?
O Man! tyrannic lord! how long, how long,
Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage,
Awaiting renovation? when obliged, ⁠1180
Must you destroy? of their ambrosial food
Can you not borrow; and, in just return,
Afford them shelter from the wintry winds ”

“ With gentle throws; and, thro' the tepid gleams
Deep-musing, then he best exerts his song. ⁠1315
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, ⁠1320
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, ⁠1325
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers ”

“ Blown o'er the keen-air'd mountain by the north,
He bursts the thickets, glances thro' the glades, ⁠435
And plunges deep into the wildest wood;
If slow, yet sure, adhesive to the track
Hot-steaming, up behind him come again
Th' inhuman rout, and from the shady depth
Expel him, circling thro' his every shift. ⁠440
He sweeps the forest oft; and sobbing sees
The glades, mild-opening to the golden day;
Where, in kind contest, with his butting friends
He wont to struggle, or his loves enjoy. ”

“ To smoak along the hilly country, these,
With weighty rains, and melted Alpine snows,
The mountain-cisterns fill, those ample stores
Of water, scoop'd among the hollow rocks:
Whence gush the streams, the ceaseless fountains play, ⁠740
And their unfailing wealth the rivers draw.
Some sages say, that, where the numerous wave
For ever lashes the resounding shore,
Drill'd thro' the sandy stratum, every way,
The waters with the sandy stratum rise; ⁠745
Amid whose angles infinitely strain'd,
They joyful leave their jaggy salts behind,
And clear and sweeten, as they soak along. ”

“ Has flow'd profuse, their piercing genius plan'd, ⁠895
And swell'd the pomp of peace their faithful toil.
As from their own clear north, in radiant streams,
Bright over Europe bursts the Boreal Morn.
⁠Oh is there not some patriot, in whose power
That best, that godlike luxury is placed, ⁠900
Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn,
Thro' late posterity? some, large of soul,
To chear dejected industry? to give
A double harvest to the pining swain?
And teach the labouring hand the sweets of toil? ”

“ Nor less the palm of peace inwreathes thy brow:
For, powerful as thy sword, from thy rich tongue
Persuasion flows, and wins the high debate; ⁠930
While mix'd in thee combine the charm of youth,
The force of manhood, and the depth of age.
Thee, Forbes, too, whom every worth attends,
As truth sincere, as weeping friendship kind,
Thee, truly generous, and in silence great, ⁠935
Thy country feels thro' her reviving arts,
Plann'd by thy wisdom, by thy soul inform'd ”

“ Old Ocean too, suck'd thro' the porous globe,
Had long ere now forsook his horrid bed, ⁠760
And brought Deucalion's watry times again.
⁠Say then, where lurk the vast eternal springs,
That, like creating Nature, lie conceal'd
From mortal eye, yet with their lavish stores
Refresh the globe, and all its joyous tribes? ⁠765
O thou pervading Genius, given to Man,
To trace the secrets of the dark abyss,
O lay the mountains bare! ”

“ Inflames imagination; thro' the breast ⁠1000
Infuses every tenderness; and far
Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought.
Ten thousand thousand fleet ideas, such
As never mingled with the vulgar dream,
Croud fast into the Mind's creative eye. ⁠1005
As fast the correspondent passions rise,
As varied, and as high: devotion rais'd
To rapture, and divine astonishment;
The love of Nature unconfin'd, and, chief,
Of human race; the large ambitious wish, ⁠1010
To make them blest; the sigh for suffering worth,
Lost in obscurity ”

“ Crown'd with the sickle, and the wheaten sheaf,
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain,
Comes jovial on,—the Doric reed once more,
Well pleas'd, I tune. ”

“ Think, oh grateful think!
How good the God of Harvest is to you; ⁠170
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields;
While these unhappy partners of your kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,
And ask their humble dole. ”

“ The savage soul of game is up at once: ⁠420
The pack full-opening, various; the shrill horn,
Resounded from the hills; the neighing steed,
Wild for the chace; and the loud hunter's shout;
O'er a weak, harmless, flying creature, all
Mix'd in mad tumult, and discordant joy. ⁠425
⁠The stag too, singled from the herd, where long
He rang'd the branching monarch of the shades,
Before the tempest drives. At first, in speed
He, sprightly, puts his faith; and, rous'd by fear
Gives all his swift aërial soul to flight. ”

“ Deep in the vale, with a choice Few retir'd,
Drinks the pure pleasures of the Rural Life. ”

“ Are of the social still, and smiling kind.
This is the life which those who fret in guilt,
And guilty cities, never knew; the life,
Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,
When angels dwelt, and God himself, with Man! ⁠1340
⁠Oh Nature! all-sufficient! over all!
Inrich me with the knowledge of thy works!
Snatch me to heaven; thy rolling wonders there,
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profusely scatter'd o'er the blue immense, ⁠1345
Shew me; their motions, periods, and their laws,
Give me to scan; thro' the disclosing deep
Light my blind way: the mineral strata there ”

“ When the dew wets its leaves; unstain'd, and pure
As is the lily, or the mountain snow. ”

“ Magnificent and vast, are heaven and earth.
Order confounded lies; all beauty void; ⁠1130
Distinction lost: and gay variety
One universal blot: such the fair power
Of light, to kindle and create the whole. ”

“ ⁠When Autumn scatters his departing gleams, ⁠825
Warn'd of approaching Winter, gather'd, play
The swallow-people; and toss'd wide around,
O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift,
The feather'd eddy floats: rejoicing once,
Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire; ”

“ Forsaking, raise it to the human mind.
Or if hereafter she, with juster hand, ⁠1050
Shall draw the tragic scene, instruct her thou,
To mark the varied movements of the heart,
What every decent character requires,
And every passion speaks: O thro' her strain
Breathe thy pathetic eloquence! ”

“ And happy. Nurse of art! the city rear'd
In beauteous pride her tower-encircled head;
And, stretching street on street, by thousands drew, ⁠115
From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew
To bows strong-straining, her aspiring sons.
⁠Then Commerce brought into the public walk
The busy merchant; the big ware-house built;
Rais'd the strong crane; choak'd up the loaded street ⁠120
With foreign plenty; and thy stream, O Thames,
Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods!
Chose for his grand resort. On either hand,
Like a long wintry forest, groves of masts
Shot up their spires ”

“ A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part of Autumn: whence a digression, enquiring into the rise of fountains and rivers. Birds of season considered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western isles of Scotland. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the discoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dusky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which succeeds a calm, pure, sun-shiny day, such as usually shuts up the season. The harvest being gatherd in, the country dissolved in joy. ”

“ For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn,
Should his heart own a gleaner in the field! ⁠235
And thus in secret to his soul he sigh'd.
⁠"What pity! that so delicate a form,
By beauty kindled, where enlivening sense,
And more than vulgar goodness seem to dwell,
Should be devoted to the rude embrace ⁠240
Of some indecent clown! she looks, methinks,
Of old Acasto's line ”

“ Sweet-beam'd, and shedding oft thro' lucid clouds
A pleasing calm; while broad, and brown, below ⁠30
Extensive harvests hang the heavy head.
Rich, silent, deep, they stand; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain ”

“ Sat fair proportion'd on her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of dress; for loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, ⁠205
But is when unadorn'd adorn'd the most. ”

“ Here too dwells simple truth; plain innocence;
Unsullied beauty; found unbroken youth,
Patient of labour, with a little pleas'd;
Health ever-blooming; unambitious toil; ⁠1265
Calm contemplation, and poetic ease. ”

“ Defraud us of the glittering finny swarms.
That heave our friths, and croud upon our shores;
How all-enlivening trade to rouse, and wing
The prosperous fail, from, every growing port,
Uninjur'd, round the sea-incircled globe ”

“ Preside, which shining thro' the chearful land
In countless numbers blest Britannia sees;
O lead me to the wide-extended walks, ⁠1030
The fair majestic paradise of Stowe! [3]
Not Persian Cyrus, on Ionia's shore,
E'er saw such silvan scenes; such various art
By genius fir'd, such ardent genius tam'd
By cool judicious art; that in the strife, ⁠1035
All-beauteous Nature fears to be outdone.
And there, O Pitt, thy country's early boast,
There let me sit beneath the sheltered slopes,
Or in that [4] Temple where, in future times,
Thou well shalt merit a distinguish'd name ”

“ home is the resort ⁠65
Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where,
Supporting and supported, polish'd friends,
And dear relations mingle into bliss. ”

“ ⁠But see the fading many-colour'd woods,
Shade deepening over shade, the country round ⁠940
Imbrown; a crouded umbrage, dusk, and dun,
Of every hue, from wan declining green
To sooty dark. ”

“ Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of dress; ”

“ To where the north-inflated tempest foams
O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak:
Nurse of a people, in misfortune's school
Train'd up to hardy deeds; soon visited
By Learning, when before the Gothic rage ⁠885
She took her western flight. A manly race,
Of unsubmitting spirit, wise, and brave;
Who still thro' bleeding ages struggled hard,
(As well unhappy Wallace can attest,
Great patriot-hero! ill-requited chief!) ⁠890
To hold a generous undiminish'd state ”

“ He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her down-cast modesty conceal'd. ”

“ ⁠Poor is the triumph o'er the timid hare! ”

“ A roll of periods, sweeter than her song. ”

“ Inrich me with the knowledge of thy works! ”

“ Dwell all on Thee, with Thee conclude my song;
And let me never never stray from Thee!
↑ The Moscovites call the Riphean Mountains Weliki Camenypoys, that is, the great stony Girdle; because they suppose them to encompass the whole earth. ↑ A range of mountains in Africa, that surround almost all Monomotapa. ”

“ On the dead tree, a full despondent flock; ”