"For me, when I forget the darling theme, / Whether the blossom blows, the summer-ray / Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams; / Or Winter rises in the blackening east; / Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more, / And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!"
Hymn [from the Seasons (1746)]
Searching text from <u>The Poetical Works</u> (1830), checked against earlier editions. Also reading James Sambrook's edition of <u>The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence</u> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), which reproduces the 1746 edition of Thomson's poem.