Page:The Seasons - Thomson (1791).djvu/69

 all day long the full-distended clouds Indulge their genial stores, and well-shower'd earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life; Till, in the western sky, the downward sun Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush Of broken clouds, gay-shifting to his beam. The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes Th' illumin'd mountain, thro' the forest streams, Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist, Far smoaking o'er th' interminable plain, In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems. Moist, bright, and green, the landskip laughs around. Full swell the woods; their every musick wakes, Mix'd in wild consort with the warbling brooks Increas'd, the distant bleatings of the hills, And hollow lows responsive from the vales, Whence blending all the sweeten'd zephyr springs. Meantime refracted from yon eastern cloud, Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds, In fair proportion running from the red, To where the violet fades into the sky. Here, awful Author:Isaac Newton, the dissolving clouds Form, fronting on the sun, thy showery prism; And to the sage-instructed eye unfold The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd From the white mingling maze. Not so the boy: He wond'ring views the bright enchantment bend, Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs To catch the falling glory; but amaz'd Beholds th' amusive arch before him fly, Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds, A softened shade, and saturated earth Awaits the morning-beam to give to light, Rh