Summer

FROM brightening fields of ether fair disclos'd,

Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,

In pride of Youth, and felt thro' Nature's depth:

He comes attended by the sultry Hours,

And ever-fanning Breezes, on his way;

While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring

Averts her blushful face; and earth, and skies,

All-smiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me hafte into the mid-wood shade,

Where scarce a sun-beam wanders thro' the gloom;

And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink

Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak

Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large,

And sing the glories of the circling year.

Come, Inspiration! from thy hermit-seat,

By mortal seldom found: may Fancy dare,

From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptur'd glance

Shot on surrounding Heaven, to steal one look

Creative of the Poet, every power

Exalting to an Ecstasy of soul.