With many a cool translucent brimming flood
Washed lovely...."
And in A Hymn we read:
Ye headlong torrents rapid and profound,
Ye softer floods that lead the humid maze
Along the vale; and thou, majestic main,
A secret world of wonders in thyself.
It is the lack of human life, the didactic tone, and the wearisome detail which destroys interest in the Seasons--the lack of happy moments of invention. Yet it had great influence on his contemporaries in rousing love for Nature, and it contains many beautiful passages. For example:
Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come,
And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud,