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THE

Poetry of Summer.

SUMMER.

HEN came jolly summer, being dight
In a thin silken cassock, colored green,
That was unlined, all to be more light,

And on his head a garland well beseene.

- Edmund Spenser.

THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT.

THE

HE spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heaven, a shining frame,
Their great original proclaim;

Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land

The work of an Almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wond'rous tale,
And nightly to the list'ning earth

Repeats the story of her birth;

Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though, in solemn silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine.

DAYBREAK.

-Joseph Addison.

AY had awakened all things that be,

DA

The lark, and the thrush, and the swallow free,
And the milkmaid's song, and the mower's scythe,
And the matin bell and the mountain bee:
Fireflies were quenched on the dewy corn,
Glowworms went out, on the river's brim,
Like lamps which a student forgets to trim:
The beetle forgot to wind his horn,

The crickets were still in the meadow and hill:
Like a flock of rooks at a farmer's gun,
Night's dreams and terrors, every one,
Fled from the brains which are their prey,
From the lamp's death to the morning ray.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley.

S

MORNING.

WEET is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet

With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun When first on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,

Glistening with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train.
-John Milton.

THEY COME! THE MERRY SUMMER
MONTHS.

HEY come! the merry summer months of beauty, song, and flowers;

They come ! the gladsome months that bring thick leafiness to bowers.

Up, up, my heart! and walk abroad; fling cark and care aside;

Seek silent hills, or rest thyself where peaceful waters

glide;

Or, underneath the shadow vast of patriarchal tree,
Scan through its leaves the cloudless sky in rapt tranquillity.

The grass is soft, its velvet touch is grateful to the hand; And, like the kiss of maiden love, the breeze is sweet and bland;

The daisy and the buttercup are nodding courteously;

It stirs their blood with kindest love, to bless and welcome

thee;

And mark how with thine own thin locks they now are silvery gray

That blissful breeze is wantoning, and whispering, "Be gay!"

There is no cloud that sails along the ocean of yon sky
But hath its own winged mariners to give it melody;
Thou seest their glittering fans outspread, all gleaming like
red gold;

And hark! with shrill pipe musical, their merry course they

hold.

God bless them all, those little ones, who, far above this

earth,

Can make a scoff of its mean joys, and vent a nobler mirth.

But soft! mine ear upcaught a sound, - from yonder wood it came!

The spirit of the dim green glade did breathe his own glad

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Yes, it is he! the hermit bird, that, apart from all his kind, Slow spells his beads monotonous to the soft western wind; Cuckoo! Cuckoo! he sings again, his notes are void of

art;

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But simplest strains do soonest sound the deep founts of the heart.

- William Motherwell.

A DROP OF DEW.

EE how the orient dew,

SEE

Shed from the bosom of the morn

Into the blowing roses,

(Yet careless of its mansion new

For the clear region where 'twas born)
Round in itself incloses,

And in its little globe's extent
Frames, as it can, its native element.

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