Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come, And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, While music wakes around, veil'd in a shower Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend. * * * * * Hail! Source of Being! Universal Soul Of heaven and earth! Essential Presence, hail; To Thee I bend the knee; to Thee my thought Continual climb; who, with a master hand. Hast the great whole into perfection touch'd. By Thee the various vegetative tribes, Wrapt in a filmy net, and clad with leaves, Draw the live ether, and imbibe the dew: By Thee disposed into congenial soils, Stands each attractive plant, and sucks and swells The juicy tide--a twining mass of tubes. At thy command the vernal sun awakes The torpid sap, detruded to the root By wintry winds, that now in fluent dance, And lively fermentation, mounting, spreads All this innumerous-colour'd scene of things. As rising from the vegetable world My theme ascends, with equal wing ascend My panting Muse! And hark! how loud the woods Invite you forth in all your gayest trim. Lend me your song, ye nightingales! oh, pour The mazy running soul of melody Into my varied verse! while I deduce From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings, The symphony of spring, and touch a theme Unknown to fame, the passion of the groves. [Illustration: SPRING.] SUMMER. [Illustration: Letter F.] From bright'ning fields of ether fair disclosed, Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes, In pride of youth, and felt through 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 his blushing face, and earth and skies, All-smiling, to his hot dominion leaves. * * * * * Cheer'd by the milder beam, the sprightly youth Speeds to the well-known pool, whose crystal depth A sandy bottom shows. Awhile he stands Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid To meditate the blue profound below; Then plunges headlong down the circling flood. His ebon tresses, and his rosy cheek, Instant emerge: and through the obedient wave, At each short breathing by his lip repell'd, With arms and legs according well, he makes, As humour leads, an easy-winding path; While from his polish'd sides a dewy light Effuses on the pleased spectators round. This is the purest exercise of health. The kind refresher of the Summer heats: Nor, when cold Winter keens the brightening flood, Would I, weak-shivering, linger on the brink. Thus life redoubles, and is oft preserved By the bold swimmer, in the swift elapse Of accident disastrous. [Illustration: SUMMER.] AUTUMN. [Illustration: Letter C.]