26 ON THE DEATH OF MR. THOMSON The genial meads assigned to bless Long, long, thy stone, and pointed clay, THE ARGUMENT, The subject proposed. Inscribed to the Countess of Hertford. The season is described as it affects the various parts of Nature, ascending from the lower to the higher, with digressions arising from the subject. Its influence on inanimate matter. On vegetables. On brute animals. And last on man. Concluding with a dissuasive from the wild and irregular passion of love, opposed to that of a purt and happy kind. SPRING. COME, gentle SPRING! ethereal Mildness! come; And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, And see where surly WINTER passes off, And sing their wild notes to the listening waste. And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thin, Fleecy and white, o'er all-surrounding heaven. Forth fly the tepid airs! and, unconfin'd, Drives from their stalls, to where the well-us'd plough They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil, Be gracious, Heaven! for now laborious man |