FRUIT OF OLD.
7
Falls to pell-mell, and routs the flying plain,
Crushes the clods of over-fat argill,
And floods the seedland with the ductile rill?
When parch'd fields gasp with dying herbage—lo,
He tempts the runnel from the hill-side trough;
The purling runnel brawls and falls away 126
Through the smooth stones, and slakes the thirsty clay.
Or him who, lest the stalk be overweigh'd,
Feeds off the rankness of the tender blade,
When first they top the furrow's edge; and drains
The stagnant plashes from the spongy plains? 131
Especially if, by the season's whim,
A flooded river overswell its brim,
A slimy mantle o'er the field diffuse,
And fill the ditches with fermenting ooze. 135
And yet, when carls and beeves have done their best,
The felon goose will prove no trifling pest;
Strymonian cranes, and bitter endive's root
Annoy, and shade is noxious to the fruit.
Our heavenly Father hath not judged it right 140
To leave the road of agriculture light:
Crushes the clods of over-fat argill,
And floods the seedland with the ductile rill?
When parch'd fields gasp with dying herbage—lo,
He tempts the runnel from the hill-side trough;
The purling runnel brawls and falls away 126
Through the smooth stones, and slakes the thirsty clay.
Or him who, lest the stalk be overweigh'd,
Feeds off the rankness of the tender blade,
When first they top the furrow's edge; and drains
The stagnant plashes from the spongy plains? 131
Especially if, by the season's whim,
A flooded river overswell its brim,
A slimy mantle o'er the field diffuse,
And fill the ditches with fermenting ooze. 135
And yet, when carls and beeves have done their best,
The felon goose will prove no trifling pest;
Strymonian cranes, and bitter endive's root
Annoy, and shade is noxious to the fruit.
Our heavenly Father hath not judged it right 140
To leave the road of agriculture light:
