Across his fancy comes; and then resounds 620
A louder song of sorrow thro' the grove.
Beside the dewy border let me sit
All in the freshness of the humid air;
There in that hollowed rock, grotesque and wild,
An ample chair moss-lin'd, and over head 625
By flowering umbrage shaded; where thee bee
Strays diligent, and with th' exstracted balm
Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh.
Now, while I taste the sweetness of the shade,
While Nature lies around deep-lull'd in Noon, 630
Now come, bold Fancy, spread a daring flight,
And view the wonders of the torrid Zone:
Climes unrelenting! with whose rage compar'd,
Yon blaze is feeble, and yon skies are cool.
See, how at once the bright-effulgent sun, 636
Rising direct, swift chases from the sky
The short-liv'd twilight; and with ardent blaze
Looks gayly fierce thro' all the dazzling air:
He mounts his throne; but kind before him sends,
Issuing from out the portals of the morn, 640
The general Breeze,[1] to mitigate his fire,
And breathe refreshment on a fainting world.
Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crown'd
And barbarous wealth, that see, each circling year,
Returning suns and [2] double seasons pass: 645
Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines,
- ↑ Which blows constantly between the tropics from the east, or the collateral points, the north-east and south-east: caused by the pressure of the rarefied air on that before it, according to the diurnal motion of the sun from east to west.
- ↑ In all climates between the tropics, the sun, as he passes and repasses in his annual motion, is twice a-year vertical which produces this effect.
