336 POEMS. 



With pastoral dance the smitten swain surprise, 

 And bring all Arcady before our eyes. 

 Return, blithe maidens ; with you bring along 

 Free, native humour, all the charms of song, 

 The feeling heart, and unaffected ease, 

 Each nameless grace, and every power to please. 



Nov. l. 1763. 



ON THE RAINBOW. 



Look upon the Rainbow, and praise him that made it ; very beautiful is 

 the brightness thereof." Eccles. xliii. 11. 



ON morning or on evening cloud hnpress'd, 

 Bent in vast curve, the watery meteor shines 

 Delightfully, to the levelled sun opposed : 

 Lovely refraction ! while the vivid brede 

 In listed colours glows, th' unconscious swain 

 With vacant eye gazes on the divine 

 Phenomenon, gleaming o'er the illumined fields, 

 Or runs to catch the treasures which it sheds. 



Not so the sage, inspired with pious awe; 

 He hails the federal arch ;* and looking up, 

 Adores that God, whose fingers form'd this bow 

 Magnificent, compassing heaven about, 

 With a resplendent verge, "Thoumadest the cloud, 

 Maker Omnipotent, and thou the bow ; 

 And by that covenant graciously hast sworn 

 Never to drown the world again :f henceforth, 

 Till time shall be no more, in ceaseless round, 

 Season shall follow season : day to night, 

 Summer to winter, harvest to seed time, 

 Heat shall to cold in regular array 

 Succeed." Heaven-taught, so sang the Hebrew bard.:}: 



A HARVEST SCENE. 



WAKED by the gentle gleamings of the morn, 

 Soon clad, the reaper, provident of want, 

 Hies cheerful-hearted to the ripen'd field ; 

 Nor hastes alone ; attendant by his side 

 His faithful wife, sole partner of his cares, 

 Bears on her breast the sleeping babe ; behind, 

 With steps unequal, trips her infant train : 

 Thrice happy pair, in love and labour join'd ! 



* Gon. ix. 1217. f Gen. viii. 22. J Moses. 



