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James Thomson - Scene Between May and June
Work rating: Medium

In lowly dale, fast by a river`s side,
With woody hill o`er hill encompass`d round,
A most enchanting wizard did abide,
Than whom a fiend more fell is nowhere found.

It was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground;
And there a season atween June and May,
Half prankt with spring, with summer half imbrown`d,
A listless climate made, where, sooth to say,
No living wight could work, ne cared e`en for play.

Was nought around but images of rest,
Sleep-soothing groves, and quiet lawns between,
And flowery beds, that slumbrous influence kest
From poppies breath`d, and beds of pleasant green,
Where never yet was creeping creature seen. 
Meatime unnumber`d glittering streamlets play`d,
And hurl`d everywhere their water`s sheen,
That, as they bicker`d through the sunny glade,
Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made.

Join`d to the prattle of the purling rills,
Were heard the lowing herds along the vale,
And flocks loud bleating from the distant hills,
And vacant shepherds piping in the dale:
And now and then sweet Philomel would wail,
Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep,
That drowsy rustled to the sighing gale;
And still a coil the grasshopper did keep;
Yet all these sounds y-blent inclined all to sleep.

Full in the passage of the vale above,
A sable, silent, solemn, forest stood,
Where nought but shadowy forms was seen to move,
As Idless fancy`d in her dreaming mood;
And up the hills, on either side, a wood
Of black`ning pines, aye waving to and fro,
Sent forth a sleepy horror through the blood;
And where this valley winded out, below,
The murmuring main was heard, and scarcely heard, to flow.

A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
For ever flushing round a summer sky; 
There eke the soft delights, that witchingly
Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast,
And the calm pleasures, always hover`d nigh;
But whate`er smack`d of noyace or unrest,
Was far, far off expell`d from this delicious nest.
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