And hark! the lengthening roar continuous runs Athwart the rifted deep: at once it bursts, And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds. Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd, That, tost amid the floating fragments, moors Beneath the shelter of an icy isle,
While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks More horrible. Can human force endure
Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege them round? Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness, The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice, Now ceasing, now renew'd with louder rage, And in dire echoes bellowing round the main. More to embroil the deep, leviathan
And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport,
Tempest the loosen'd brine, while through the gloom, Far from the bleak inhospitable shore,
Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks. Yet providence, that ever-waking eye, Looks down with pity on the feeble toil Of mortals lost to hope, and lights them safe, Through all the dreary labyrinth of fate.
'Tis done! dread Winter spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His desolate domain. Behold, fond man!
See here thy pictur'd life; pass some few years,
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, Thy sober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes Of happiness? those longings after fame? Those restless cares? those busy bustling days? Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts, Lost between good and ill, that shar'd thy life? All now are vanish'd! Virtue sole survives, Immortal never-failing friend of man, His guide to happiness on high. And see! "Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth
Of heaven and earth! awakening Nature hears The new-creating word, and starts to life, In every heighten'd form, from pain and death For ever-free. The great eternal scheme, Involving all, and in a perfect whole Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads, To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace. Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now, Confounded in the dust, adore that Power, And Wisdom, oft arraign'd: see now the cause, Why unassuming worth in secret liv'd,
And dy'd, neglected: why the good man's share In life was gall and bitterness of soul: Why the lone widow and her orphan's pin'd In starving solitude; while luxury,
In palaces, lay straining her low thought, To form unreal wants: why heaven-born truth, And moderation fair, wore the red marks Of superstition's scourge: why licens'd pain That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe, Imbitter'd all our bliss. Ye good distrest! Ye noble few! who here unbending stand Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile, And what your bounded view, which only saw A little part, deem'd evil, is no more: The storms of wintery time will quickly pass, And one unbounded Spring encircle all.
In an ingenious Essay on the Plan and Construction of "The Seasons," the editor observes, that the divine spirit which breaks forth, at intervals, in each division of the poem, shines full and concentred in the noble Hymn which crowns the work. This piece, the sublimest production of its kind since the days of Milton, should be considered as the winding up of all the variety of matter and design contained in the preceding parts; and thus, is not only admirable as a separate composition, but is contrived with masterly skill to strengthen the unity and connexion of the GREAT WHOLE!
THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, these, Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm; Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles; And every sense, and every heart, is joy. Then comes thy glory in the Summer months, With light and heat refulgent. Then thy sun Shoots full perfection through the swelling year: And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks; And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales. Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfin'd, And spreads a common feast for all that lives. In Winter awful thou! with clouds and storms Around thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest roll'd, Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing, Riding sublime, thou bid'st the world adore, And humblest nature with thy northern blast. Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine, Deep felt, in these appear! a simple train, Yet so delightful mixt with such kind art, Such beauty and beneficence combin'd; Shade, unperceiv'd, so softening into shade; And all so forming an harmonious whole; That, as they still succeed, they ravish still. But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, Man marks not thee, marks not the mighty hand, That ever-busy wheels the silent spheres ; Works in the secret deep; shoots, steaming, thence The fair profusion that o'erspreads the Spring: Flings from the sun direct the flaming day; Feeds every creature; hurls the tempest forth; And, as on earth this grateful change revolves, With transport touches all the springs of life. Nature attend! join every living soul,
Beneath the spacious temple of the sky, In adoration join; and, ardent, raise One general song! to him, ye vocal gales,
Breathe soft, whose spirit in your freshness breathes : Oh, talk of him in solitary glooms!
Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine Fills the brown shade with a religious awe.
And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar,
Who shake th' astonish'd world, lift high to heaven Th' impetuous song, and say from whom you rage. His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills; And let me catch it as I muse along.
Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze Along the vale; and thou, majestic main, A secret world of wonders in thyself,
Sound his stupendous praise; whose greater voice Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall.
Soft roll your incense, herbs and fruits, and flowers, In mingled clouds to him; whose sun exalts,
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints. Ye forests bend, ye harvests wave, to him; Breathe your still song into the reaper's heart, As home he goes beneath the joyous moon. Ye that keep watch in heaven, as earth asleep Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams, Ye constellations, while your angels strike, Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre. Great source of day! best image here below Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,
From world to world, the vital ocean round, On nature write with every beam his praise. The thunder rolls: be hush'd the prostrate world; While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn. Bleat out afresh, ye hills: ye mossy rocks, Retain the sound: the broad responsive lowe, Ye vallies, raise; for the Great Shepherd reigns; And his unsuffering kingdom yet will come. Ye woodlands all awake: a boundless song Burst from the groves! and when the restless day Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep, Sweetest of birds! sweet Philomela, charm
The listening shades, and teach the night his praise. Ye chief, for whom the whole creation smiles, At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all, Crown the great hymn! in swarming cities vast, Assembled men, to the deep organ join
The long-resounding voice, oft-breaking clear, At solemn pauses, through the swelling base; And, as each mingling flame increases each, In one united ardor rise to heaven.
Or, if you rather choose the rural shade, And find a fane in every secret grove, There let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's lay, The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre, Still sing the God of Seasons, as they roll. For me, when I forget the darling theme, Whether the blossom blows, the summer-ray Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams; Or Winter rises in the blackening east ; Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more, And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat.
Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam Flames on th' Atlantic isles; 'tis nought to me: Since God is ever present, ever felt,
In the void waste as in the city full;
And where he vital breathes, there must be joy. When ev'n at last the solemn hour should come, And wing my mystic flight to future worlds, I cheerful will obey; there, with new powers, Will rising wonders sing: I cannot go Where Universal Love not smiles around, Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns; From seeming evil still educing good, And better thence again, and better still, In infinite progression. But I lose Myself in him, in Light ineffable;
Come then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.
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