Page:The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated.djvu/358

224 From Heav'n's high cope the fierce effulgence shook

Of parting Summer, a serener blue,

With golden light enliven'd, wide invests

The happy world. Attemper'd suns arise,

Sweet-beamed, and shedding oft through lucid clouds

A pleasing calm; while broad and brown below,

Extensive harvests hang the heavy head.

Rich, silent, deep they stand, for not a gale

Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain:

A calm of plenty! till the ruffled air

Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow.

Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky;

The clouds fly different; and the sudden Sun,

By fits effulgent, gilds th' illumined field,

And black by fits the shadows sweep along.

A gaily-chequer'd, heart-expanding view,

Far as the circling eye can shoot around

Unbounded tossing in a flood of corn.

Autumn in England is a joyous and a glorious season, the time when nature's wealth of field and tree is most lavishly displayed, and gathered with thankful merriment. How richly, glowingly beautiful are corn-fields now!—with their troops of reapers, gleaners, and country maidens—heavily-laden waggons, sleek, sturdy horses, and gambolling children.

Herrick's "Hock-cart, or Harvest-home," well describes such scenes, though he seems to allude to ceremonies not now in use at that festive time—

Come, sons of Summer, by whose toile

We are the lords of wine and oile;

By whose tough labours and rough hands,

We rip up first, then reap our lands.