The Poetical Works of Anna Seward :: :: University of Virginia Library

In sultry noon's oppressive ray,
Beneath the holme, of ample shade,
His listless limbs he loves to lay
On herbage, matted in the glade;
Hears down the steeps the white rills dashing play,
Till under the long grass they purl away;
While, on wing of swift vibration,
Murmuring range the honied nation,
And the sweet stock-dove, the thick boughs among,
His dewy slumber courts with her complaining song.

II.

Loud when wintry winds arise,
And the feeble race appal,
While o'er the earth, from dim and thicken'd skies,
The flaky snows in white profusion fall,

297

Then the sylvan chace he seeks;—
Lo! furious from the thicket breaks
The gnashing boar!—Flies he, or stands at bay,
Into the circling toils the staunch dogs drive the prey.