- Which fell with slight aspersion, now descend
- In streams continuous on the laughing land.
- The coyest Naiads1 quit their rocky caves, [355]
- And, with delight, run brawling to the main;
- While those, who love still visible to glad
- The thirsty plains from never-ceasing urns,
- Assume more awful majesty, and pour,
- With force resistless, down the channel’d rocks. [360]
- The rocks, or split, or hurried from their base,
- With trees, are whirl’d impetuous to the sea:
- Fluctuates the forest; the torn mountains roar:
- The main itself recoils for many a league,
- While its green face is chang’d to sordid brown. [365]
- A grateful freshness every sense pervades;
- While beats the heart with unaccustom’d joy:
- Her stores fugacious2 Memory now recalls;
- And Fancy prunes her wings for loftiest flights.
- The mute creation share the enlivening hour; [370]
- Bounds the brisk kid, and wanton plays the lamb.
- The drooping plants revive; ten thousand blooms,
- Which, with their fragrant scents, perfume the air,
- Burst into being; while the Canes put on
- Glad Nature’s liveliest robe, the vivid green. [375]