504 POEMS. 



Divide the simple meal, and drain the cask : 

 The swinging cradle lulls the whimp'ring babe, 

 Meantime ; while growling round, if at the tread 

 Of hasty passenger alarm'd, as of their store 

 Protective, stalks the cur with bristling back, 

 To guard the scanty scrip and russet frock. 



ON THE EARLY AND LATE BLOWING OF THE VERNAL 

 AND AUTUMNAL CROCUS. 



SAT, what impels amidst surrounding snow 

 Congeal'd the Crocus' flamy bud to grow ; 

 Say, what retards amidst the summer's blaze 

 Th' autumnal bulb ; till pale declining days ? 

 The God of Seasons ! whose pervading power 

 Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower ; 

 He bids each flower his quick'ning word obey, 

 Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay. 



ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY WARM WEATHER, OCCA- 

 SIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. 



TH' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves 

 Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 

 Wavers no more, long-settling to a point. 



All nature nodding seems compos'd ; thick steams 

 From land, from flood up-drawiij dimming the day, 

 " Like a dark ceiling stand ;" slow thro' the air 

 Gossamer floats, or stretch'd from blade to blade 

 The wavy net- work whitens all the field. 



Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 

 The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 

 Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube. a 



While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings 

 Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark runs 

 a The Barometer. 



