Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SPRING [Dedicated, 1728, to the Rt. Hon. the Countess of Hertford, in a letter in which the poet writes—' As this poem grew up under your encouragement, it has therefore a natural claim to your patronage.' First published early in 1728 (1,082 11.); last edition in author's lifetime published 1746 (1,176 11.).] THE ARGUMENT The subject proposed. Inscribed to the Countess of Hartford. The Season is described as it affects the various parts of nature, ascending from the lower to the higher; and mixed with digressions arising from the subject. Its influence on inanimate natter, on vegetables, on brute animals, and last on Man ; concluding with a dissuasive from the wild and irregular passion of Love, opposed to that of a pure and happy kind. Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come ; And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud, While music wakes around, veiled in a shower Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend. O Hartford, fitted or to shine in courts With unaffected grace, or walk the plain The above is the Argument prefixed to the last edition (1746) published in the author's lifetime. It is the same as the Argument of 1730, except that in the earlier edition the Countess of Hartford is designated ' Lady Hertford '; ' This Season ' appears for ' The Season '; and instead of ' pure and happy ' in the concluding note we have ' purer and more reasonable ' in the original form of the Argument. 5 Hertford 1728, 1729, 1730, 1738; Hartford 1744, 1746. The second edition (1729) is an exact reprint of the first (1728). With innocence and meditation joined In soft assemblage, listen to my song, Which thy own season paints—when nature all Is blooming and benevolent, like thee. 10 And see where surly Winter passes off Far to the north, and calls his r...