PREFACE. IT is with no ambitious ends that I have adopted a title which Thomson has immortalized in his own I am far from celebrated poem, The Seasons. urging the pretensions of a Turner, who desires that his own painting should hang between two Claudes. Perhaps only he who has laboured at all in the same direction can adequately appreciate the wealth and the power of Thomson's work. I may remark, also, that I have not ventured upon that poet's use of blank verse. My simple aim has been chiefly to set forth God's wisdom, love, and bounty in the natural world, and to describe not only physical changes as they occur, but also to delineate some familiar features of our social life which mark for us the progress of the seasons. Lastly, I have endeavoured to trace in this varied order some emblems of 'the things which shall remain' when this visible creation shall have passed away. November 1877. O. R. Spring. ARGUMENT. Spring's Approach-The Voices of Birds-Returning Verdure-Valentine's Day-Lessons of reviving NatureThe Nightingale-Contemplation and Action comparedFly Fishing-The merciful Angler-His calm Enjoyments -The River a Poet's Theme-Sheep-washing-Sheepshearing-Thoughts on the Resurrection. |