A POEM...

IN TWO CANTOS.

CONTENTS.---CANTO I.

INVOCATION, addressed to Fancy: Subject proposed. A short excur sive survey of the earth-aud heavens. The Poem opens with a description of the face of Nature in the different scenes of morning, sunrise, en, with a thunder-storm, evening, night, and a particular night-piece, with the character of a friend deceased. With the return of morning Fancy continues her excursion, first northward a view of the Arctic Continent and the deserts of Tartary....From thence southward: a general prospect of the globe, followed by another of the nidland part of Europe, Suppose Italy. A city there upon the point of heing, swallowed up by an arthquake: signs that usher it is described in its causes and effects at length Eruption of a burning mountain, happening at the same time and from the same causes, likewise described.

CANTO II.

Contains, on the same plan, a survey of the solar system, and of the fixed

stars.

CANTO I..

COMPANION of the Muse, creative pow'r, d'un
Imagination! at whose great command procs shak
Arise unnumber'd images of things, prometube
Thy hourly offspring; thou who canst at will!

المه

*This poem is among the author's earliest perfor mances. Whether the writing may, in some degree, atone for the irregularity of the composition, which he confesses, and does not even attempt to excuse, is submitted entirely to the candour of the reader,

People with air-born shapes the silent wood on
And solitary vale, thy own domain,

Where Contemplation haunts; oh! come, învuk'd, ́

To waft me on thy many-tinctur'd wing

ま

O'er earth's extended space; and thence, on high,

Spread to superior worlds thy bolder flight,
Excursive, unconfin'd: hence from the haunts
Of vice and folly, vanity and man---

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To yon' expanse of plains where Truth delights, Simple of heart, and hand in hand with her ONGSON Where blameless Virtue walks. Now parting Spring, Parent of beauty and of song, has left

THE EX

ple-glimm to north, in

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stre sho

de and silen

His mantle, flow'r-embroider'd, on the ground, NA
While Summer laughing comes, and bids the Months
Crown his prime season with their choicest stores,
Fresh roses op'ning to the solar ray, b
And fruits slow-swelling on the loaded bough.
Here let me frequent roam, preventing morn,
Attentive to the cock, whose early throat,
Heard from the distant village in the vale,
Crows cheerly out, far-sounding thro' the gloom:
Night hears from where, wide-hov'ring in mid-sky,
She rules the sable hour, and calls her train
Of visionary fears, the shrouded ghost,
The dream distressful, and th' incumbent hag,
That rise to Fancy's eye in horrid forms,
While Reason'slumb'ring lies: at once they fly,
As shadows pass, nor is their path beheld."

gold and

Canto. 1.

THE EXCURSION

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And now, pale-glimm'ring on the verge of heav'n, From east to north, in doubtful twilight seen, Awit ning lustre shoots its tender beam, While shade and silence yet involve the ball; Now sacred Morn, ascending, smiles serene A dewy radiance, bright'ning o'er the world a thrott Gay daughter of the Air, for ever young, w; For ever pleasing, lo she onward comes, ban In fluid gold and azure loose array'd,. Sun-tinctured, changeful hues: at her approach, The western gray of yonder breaking clouds {, Slow-reddens into flame; the rising mists,di From off the mountain's brow, roll blue away In curling spires, and open all his woods,enue dan High waving in the sky; th uncolour'd stream Beneath her glowing ray translucent shines: Glad Nature feels her thiro' her boundless realms Of life and sense, and calls forth all her sweets, Fragrance and song: from each unfolding flow'r Transpires the balm of life that Zephyr, wafts, Delicious, on his rosy wing: each bird, Or high in air or secret in the shade, Rejoicing warbles wild his matin hymn, While beasts of chase, by secret instinct mov'd, Scud o'er the lawns, and, plunging into night, I brake or cavern slumber out the day. Invited by the cheerful Morn abroad, See, from his humble roof the goodman comes

To taste her freshness, and improve her rise
In holy musing: rapture in his eye
And kneeling wonder speak his silent soul
With gratitude o'erflowing, and with p
praise.
Now Industry is up: the village pours
Her useful sons abroad to various toil;
The lab'rer here with ev'ry instrument
Of future plenty arin'd, and there the swain,
A rural king amid his subject flocks;
Whose bleatings wake the vocal hills afar...
The trav'ller, tco, pursues his eatly road
Among the dews of morn. Aurora calls,
And all the living landscape moves around.
But see, the flush'd horizon flames intense
With vivid red,
d. in rich pr

The Ko?c

profusion

behold!

O'er heav'n's pure arch. At once the clouds assume Their gayest liv'ries; these with silv'ry beams, Fring'd lovely, splendid those in liquid gold, And speak their sov'reign's state. He comes; Fountain Tight and colour, warmth and life! of Glory! round his head divine Diffusive e show'rs of radiance circling flow, As o'er the Indian wave up-rising fair He looks abroad on Nature, and invests, Where'er his universal eye surveys, Her ample bosom, earth, air, sea, and sky, In one bright robe with heav'nly tinctures gay. From this hoar hill, that climbs above the plain

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Half-way up heav'n ambitious, brown with woods
Of broadest shade, and terrac'd round with walks

Winding and

Maze above

at deep embow'ring rise

thro' all its

shelter'd height,

From hence th' aerial concave without cloud,

Translucent, and in purest azure dress'd;

The boundless scene beneath, hill, dale, and plain;

Th' precipice abrupt; the distant deep,

Whose shores remurmur to the sounding surge;
The nearest forest in wide circuit spread,

Solemn recess, whose solitary walks

Fair truth and wisdom love; the bord'ring lawn, 100
With flocks and herds enrich'd; the daisy'd vale;
The river's crystal, and the meadow's green---
Grateful diversity! allure the eye

Abroad to rove amid ten thousand charms..
These scenes, where ev'ry Virtue, ev'ry Muse,
Delighted range, serene the soul, and lift,
Borne on Devotion's wing, beyond the pole.
To highest heav'n her thought; to Nature's God,

First source

things

Eternal, infinite! before

Sits sovereign Bounty, and thro' heav'n and earth
Careless diffuses plentitude of bliss;

Him all things own; he speaks, and it is day:

Obedient to his nod, alternate night

Obscures the world: the seasons at his call

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Succeed in train, and lead the year around.