thers circle on the lake."

_2d. Of Rain._

"But when grim Boreas thunders; when the East
And black-winged West, roll out the sonorous peal,
The teeming dikes o'erflow the wide champaign,
And seamen furl their dripping sails. The shower,
Forsooth, ne'er took the traveler unawares!
The soaring cranes descried it in the vale,
And shunn'd its coming; heifers gazed aloft,
With nostrils wide, drinking the fragrant gale;
Skimm'd the sagacious swallow round the lake,
And croaking frogs renew'd their old complaint.
Oft, too, the ant, from secret chambers, bears
Her eggs--a cherished treasure--o'er the sand,
Along the narrow track her steps have worn.
High vaults the thirsty bow; in wide array
The clamorous rooks from every pasture rise
With serried wings. The varied sea-fowl tribes,
And those that in Caeyster's meadows seek,
Amid the marshy pools, their skulking prey,
Fling the cool plenteous shower upon their wings,
Crouch to the coming wave, sail on its crest,
And idly wash their purity of plume.
The audacious crow, with loud voice, hails the rain
A lonesome wanderer on the thirsty sand.
Maidens that nightly toil the tangled fleece,
Divine the coming tempest; in the lamp
Crackles the oil; the gathering wick grows dim."

_3d. Of Fair Weather._

"Nor less, by sure prognostics, mayest thou learn
(When rain prevails), in prospect to behold
Warm suns, and cloudless heavens, around thee smile.
Brightly the stars shine forth; Cynthia no more
Glimmers obnoxious to her brother's rays;
Nor fleecy clouds float lightly through the sky.
The chosen birds of Thetis, halcyons, now
Spread not their pinions on the sun-bright shore;
Nor swine the bands unloose, and toss the straw.
The clouds, descending, settle on the plain;
While owls forget to chant their evening song,
But watch the sunset from the topmost ridge.
The merlin swims the liquid sky, sublime,
While for the purple lock the lark atones:
Where she, with light wing, cleaves the yielding air,
Her shrieking fell pursuer follows fierce--
The dreaded merlin; where the merlin soars,
_Her_ fugitive swift pinion cleaves the air.
And now, from throat compressed, the rook emits,
Treble or fourfold, his clear, piercing cry;
While oft amid their high and leafy roosts,
Bursts the responsive note from all the clan,
Thrill'd with unwonted rapture--oh! 'tis sweet,
When b