 | The British Months |  |
280
Same cause produces the fruits of the earth. Wild fruits ripe. Strawberries, &c. Garden fruits. Cherries, Apricots. Corn in ear: Wheat, Barley, Oats. Flax in blossom. Potatoes, Hops. Beans, Vetches, Peas: their papilionaceous forms. The proprietor's feelings. The passenger's
And what, but nature's God, his wealth
Pours forth profuse; while, as by stealth,
Unseen, we know not how, the earth
With many a fast maturing birth
Is mantled, and completes her part,
To glad man's face, and cheer his heart?
Pours forth profuse; while, as by stealth,
Unseen, we know not how, the earth
With many a fast maturing birth
Is mantled, and completes her part,
To glad man's face, and cheer his heart?
On shady hills and woodland banks,
Or the trim garden's cultur'd ranks,
Half seen, in many-colour'd heaps,
The granulated Strawberry peeps
Abundant from his leafy bed.
Blue Bilberries, Whortleberries red,
And scarlet Cranberries' richer prize,
Stain'd with the bright vermilion's dies,
This oval, those of form globose,
In heath, or moor, or peaty moss,
Where bloom'd of late the shrub-borne bell,
Now to their full siz'd ripeness swell,
And moulded in the sugar'd paste
Court with sharp zest the approving taste.
Or the trim garden's cultur'd ranks,
Half seen, in many-colour'd heaps,
The granulated Strawberry peeps
Abundant from his leafy bed.
Blue Bilberries, Whortleberries red,
And scarlet Cranberries' richer prize,
Stain'd with the bright vermilion's dies,
This oval, those of form globose,
In heath, or moor, or peaty moss,
Where bloom'd of late the shrub-borne bell,
Now to their full siz'd ripeness swell,
And moulded in the sugar'd paste
Court with sharp zest the approving taste.
See, pendent from the branching bough,
Of sanguine or empurpled glow,
The clustering Cherry's glossy balls.
And studding thick the sunny walls,
First of his luscious tribe to bear
To ripeness in our northern air,
Unshelter'd from the nipping cold,
His fruit, now ripening into gold,
With blush of roseate brown inrobes
The Apricot his pulpy globes.
Of sanguine or empurpled glow,
The clustering Cherry's glossy balls.
And studding thick the sunny walls,
First of his luscious tribe to bear
To ripeness in our northern air,
Unshelter'd from the nipping cold,
His fruit, now ripening into gold,
With blush of roseate brown inrobes
The Apricot his pulpy globes.
From blades of blue-ting'd verdure rears
The Wheat its sharp and swelling ears,
And its fresh green with change indues
Day after day of richer hues,
Till dipt in molten gold it seem,
Stol'n from Pactolus' fabled stream.
The bristling Barley's purple bloom
Waves in the gale its egret plume:
Waved in the gale as lightly float
The pendents of the bended Oat.
The Wheat its sharp and swelling ears,
281
Day after day of richer hues,
Till dipt in molten gold it seem,
Stol'n from Pactolus' fabled stream.
The bristling Barley's purple bloom
Waves in the gale its egret plume:
Waved in the gale as lightly float
The pendents of the bended Oat.
O'er its green stalks the flax-field draws
A meshy veil of azure gauze,
So thick the scatter'd blossoms lie:
Till every bright cerulean eye,
As tir'd and studious of repose,
The sun's receding splendour close;
At morn their eyelids to unfold,
And his warm rays again behold.
A meshy veil of azure gauze,
So thick the scatter'd blossoms lie:
Till every bright cerulean eye,
As tir'd and studious of repose,
The sun's receding splendour close;
At morn their eyelids to unfold,
And his warm rays again behold.
Green 'mid brown earth's alternate rows
Its flow'rs the dark Potato shows,
With yellow cones appearing through
Its wheel-like blossoms, white or blue.
Its flow'rs the dark Potato shows,
With yellow cones appearing through
Its wheel-like blossoms, white or blue.
Round the tall pole tenacious sweeps
The spiral Hop, and twisting creeps
Aloft with hairy stalk, and weaves
His scaly flow'rs 'mid rugged leaves.
The spiral Hop, and twisting creeps
Aloft with hairy stalk, and weaves
His scaly flow'rs 'mid rugged leaves.
Here stands, what lately blooming lent
To passing gales delicious scent,
Erect the podded Bean: and there
The wing'd and many-blossom'd Tare
To every friendly object clings
With its lithe tendril's curling rings.
And there the Pea, with pranked dies,
In shape like painted butterflies,
That flit from flow'r to flow'r, and sip
Metheglin from each nectar'd lip,
Scarce bending to the touch; and play
In the blue sky, and to the ray
Of noontide shew their gleaming sails,
Vesture all hues, and feathery scales.
To passing gales delicious scent,
Erect the podded Bean: and there
The wing'd and many-blossom'd Tare
To every friendly object clings
With its lithe tendril's curling rings.
And there the Pea, with pranked dies,
In shape like painted butterflies,
282
Metheglin from each nectar'd lip,
Scarce bending to the touch; and play
In the blue sky, and to the ray
Of noontide shew their gleaming sails,
Vesture all hues, and feathery scales.
With fond anticipating hope,
Presageful of the future crop,
Each fruitful field the owner eyes,
And triumphs in the expected prize.
He too, the casual passer by,
To whom all nature's gifts supply
Food for improving pleasing thought,
He, with no selfish interest fraught,
Exulting hails each promis'd boon;
And feels it for the time his own;
And lifts his heart to Him, whose hand,
Still prompt in bounty to expand,
Is fain the things he made to bless,
And fills with food and joyfulness!
Presageful of the future crop,
Each fruitful field the owner eyes,
And triumphs in the expected prize.
He too, the casual passer by,
To whom all nature's gifts supply
Food for improving pleasing thought,
He, with no selfish interest fraught,
Exulting hails each promis'd boon;
And feels it for the time his own;
And lifts his heart to Him, whose hand,
Still prompt in bounty to expand,
Is fain the things he made to bless,
And fills with food and joyfulness!
| The British Months | |