Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/136

 The noise astounds: till over head a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide, then shuts And opens wider, shuts and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosen'd, aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling, peal on peal Crush'd horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.

comes a deluge of sonorous hail, Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds, Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquench'd, Th' unconquerable lightning struggles through, Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, And fires the mountains with redoubled rage. Black from the stroke, above, the smouldering pine Stands a shattered trunk; and, stretch'd below, A lifeless groupe the blasted cattle lie: Here the soft flock, with that same harmless look They wore alive, and ruminating still In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull, And ox half-rais'd. Struck on the castled cliff, The venerable tower and spiry fane Resign their aged pride. The gloomy woods Start at the flash, and from their deep recess, Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake. Amid Carnavon's mountains rages loud The repercussive roar: with mighty crush, Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky, Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowden's peak, Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. Far-seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, And Thule bellows thro' her utmost isles.

hears appall'd with deeply troubled thought. And yet not always on the guilty head Descends