Come, Aurelia, come and see

What a lodge I've dress'd for thee,
But the seat you cannot see,
'Tis so hid with jessamy,

With the vine that o'er the walls,
And in every window, crawls;
Let us there be blithe and gay!
Come, Aurelia, come away.

Come with all thy sweetest wiles,
With thy graces and thy smiles;
Come, and we will merry be,
Who shall be so blest as we?
We will frolic all the day,
Haste, Aurelia, while we may:
Ay! and should not life be gay?
Yes, Aurelia, come away.

James Thomson

1700-1748

SPRING

(1728)

(From The Seasons)

5

10

15

20

11

16

Come, gentle Spring, etherial 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.
And see where surly Winter passes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts:
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shatter'd forest, and the ravag'd vale;
While softer gales succeed, at whose kind touch,
Dissolving snows in livid torrents lost,
The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.
As yet the trembling year is unconfirm'd,
And Winter oft at eve resumes the breeze,
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets
Deform the day delightless; so that scarce
The bittern knows his time, with bill engulf'd
To shake the sounding marsh; or from the shore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath,
And sing their wild notes to the listening
waste.

21

25

The Mall, a shady walk in St. James's Park, and the Ring, in Hyde Park, London, were places of fashionable

resort.

At last from Aries' rolls the bounteous Sun, And the bright Bull receives him. Then no

more

Th' expansive atmosphere is cramp'd with cold;

But, full of life and vivifying soul,

Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin,

30

Fleecy and white, o'er all-surrounding heaven.
Forth fly the tepid airs; and unconfin'd,
Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays.
Joyous, the impatient husbandman perceives
Relenting Nature, and his lusty steers
Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd
plough

35

Lies in the furrow, loosen'd from the frost.
There, unrefusing, to the harness'd yoke
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,
Cheer'd by the simple song and soaring lark. 40
Meanwhile incumbent o'er the shining share
The master leans, removes th' obstructing clay,
Winds the whole work, and sidelong lays the
glebe.

While thro' the neighb'ring fields the sower stalks,

With measur'd step; and liberal throws the grain

45

51

Into the faithful bosom of the ground:
The harrow follows harsh, and shuts the scene.
Be gracious, Heaven! for now laborious Man
Has done his part. Ye fostering breezes, blow!
Ye softening dews, ye tender showers, descend!
And temper all, thou world-reviving sun,
Into the perfect year! Nor ye who live
In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride,
Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear:
Such themes as these the rural Maro3 sung
To wide imperial Rome, in the full height
Of elegance and taste, by Greece refin'd.

Ye generous Britons, venerate the plough; And o'er your hills, and long-withdrawing vales, Let Autumn spread his treasures to the sun, Luxuriant and unbounded: as the Sea, Far thro' his azure turbulent domain, Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports; So with superior boon may your rich soil, Exuberant, Nature's better blessings pour O'er every land, the naked nations clothe, And be th' exhaustless granary of a world! From the moist meadow to the wither'd hill, Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs

75

88

1-2 Aries, the Ram, is the first of the Zodiac Signs, and Taurus, the Bull, the second. The date the poet indicates is the latter part of April.

Vergil, whose full name was Publius Vergilius Maro.

And swells, and deepens, to the cherish'd eye.
The hawthorn whitens; and the juicy groves 90
Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees,
Till the whole leafy forest stands display'd,
In full luxuriance to the sighing gales;
Where the deer rustle through the twining
brake,

And the birds sing conceal'd. At once array'd 95
In all the colours of the flushing year,
By Nature's swift and secret-working hand,
The garden glows, and fills the liberal air
With lavish fragrance; while the promis'd fruit
Lies yet a little embryo, unperceiv'd,

100

Within its crimson fold. Now from the town, Buried in smoke, and sleep, and noisome damps,

Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields, Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling drops

106

From the bent bush, as thro' the verdant maze
Of sweet-briar hedges I pursue my walk;
Or taste the smell of dairy, or ascend
Some eminence, AUGUSTA, in thy plains,
And see the country, far diffused around,
One boundless blush, one white empurpled
shower

110

Of mingled blossoms; where the raptur'd eye
Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath
The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies.

352

Now swarms the village o'er the joyful mead: The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil, Healthful and strong; full as the summer rose Blown by prevailing suns, the ruddy maid, 355 Half naked, swelling on the sight, and all Her kindled graces burning o'er her cheek. E'en stooping age is here; and infant hands Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load O'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppression roll. Wide flies the tedded grain;' all in a row Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field,

360

4 London. (See Dryden's Mac-Flecknoe, p. 275, and n. 7). In Thomson's time many elevations on the outskirts of London afforded a good view of the fields.

1i. e., grain which is spread to dry.

380

Ere the soft fearful people to the flood
Commit their woolly sides. And oft the swain,
On some impatient seizing, hurls them in:
Embolden'd then, nor hesitating more,
Fast, fast, they plunge amid the flashing wave,
And, panting, labour to the farther shore.
Repeated this, till deep the well-wash'd fleece
Has drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt
The trout is banish'd by the sordid stream; 386
Heavy, and dripping to the breezy brow
Slow move the harmless race; where, as they
spread

Their swelling treasures to the sunny ray,
Inly disturb'd, and wond'ring what this wild 390
Outrageous tumult means, their loud com-
plaints

The country fill; and, tost from rock to rock,
Incessant bleatings run around the hills.
At last, of snowy white, the gather'd flocks
Are in the wattled pen innumerous press'd, 395
Head above head: and, rang'd in lusty rows,
The shepherds sit, and whet the sounding
shears.

The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores,
With all her gay-drest maids attending round.
One, chief, in gracious dignity enthron'd,
Shines o'er the rest, the pastoral queen, and

rays

400

970

Thus solitary, and in pensive guise, Oft let me wander o'er the russet mead, And thro' the sadden'd grove, where scarce is heard

One dying strain, to cheer the woodman's toil. Haply some widow'd songster pours his plaint, Far, in faint warblings, thro' the tawny copse; While congregated thrushes, linnets, larks, 975 And each wild throat, whose artless strains so late

Swell'd all the music of the swarming shades, Robb'd of their tuneful souls, now shivering sit

On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock;
With not a brightness waving o'er their plumes,
And nought save chattering discord in their

985

Oh, let not, aim'd from some inhuman eye,
The gun the music of the coming year
Destroy; and harmless, unsuspecting harm,
Lay the weak tribes a miserable prey,
In mingled murder, fluttering on the ground!
The pale descending year, yet pleasing still,
A gentler mood inspires; for now the leaf
Incessant rustles from the mournful grove;
Oft startling such as, studious, walk below, 990
And slowly circles thro' the waving air.
But should a quicker breeze amid the boughs
Sob, o'er the sky the leafy deluge streams;
Till chok'd, and matted with the dreary shower,
The forest-walks, at every rising gale,
Roll wide the wither'd waste, and whistle
bleak.

995

Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields:
And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race
Their sunny robes resign. Even what remain'd
Of stronger fruits fall from the naked tree; 1000
And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around
The desolated prospect thrills the soul.

2 The calm spreads over the atmosphere as soft as a fleece of wool,

Along the mazy current. Low the woods
Bow their hoar head; and, ere the ranguid Sun
Faint from the West emits his evening ray,
Earth's universal face, deep-hid, and chill,
Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide
The works of Man. Drooping, the labourer-ox
Stands cover'd o'er with snow, and then de-

The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heaven,
Tam'd by the cruel season, crowd around
The winnowing store, and claim the little boon
Which Providence assigns them. One alone, 245
The red-breast, sacred to the household gods,
Wisely regardful of th' embroiling sky,
In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves
His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man
His annual visit. Half afraid, he first
Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights
On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the
floor,

Eyes all the smiling family askance,

250

And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is: Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs 255 Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare Though timorous of heart, and hard beset

1 The dark colored clouds fume or swirl from the East.