Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/29

Book I. Smooths her mellifluent stream. Thee,, thee The regal dome, and thy enlivening ray The mossy roofs adore: thou, better sun! For ever beamest on th' inchanted heart Love, and harmonious wonder, and delight Poetic. Brightest progeny of heav'n! How shall I trace thy features? where select The roseate hues to emulate thy bloom? Haste then, my song, thro' nature's wide expanse, Haste then, and gather all her comeliest wealth, Whate'er bright spoils the florid earth contains, Whate'er the waters, or the liquid air, To deck thy lovely labour. Wilt thou fly With laughing Autumn to th' Atlantic isles , And range with him th' Hesperian field, and see, Where'er his fingers touch the fruitful grove, The branches shoot with gold; where'er his step Marks the glad soil, the tender clusters glow With purple ripeness, and invest each hill As with the blushes of an evening sky. Or wilt thou rather stoop thy vagrant plume, Where