John Dyer

“ Th' o'erflowing wave—Enough—the plaint disdain.
⁠Seest thou yon fane? ev'n now incessant time
Sweeps her low mould'ring marbles to the dust; ⁠400
And Phœbus' temple, nodding with its woods,
Threatens huge ruin o'er the small rotund.
'Twas there, beneath a fig-tree's umbrage broad,
Th' astonish'd swains with rev'rend awe beheld
Thee, O Quirinus! and thy brother twin, ⁠405
Pressing the teat within a monster's grasp
Sportive, while oft the gaunt and rugged wolf
Turn'd her stretch'd neck, and form'd your tender limbs:
So taught of Jove, ev'n the fell savage fed
Your sacred infancies ”

“ Teach their unwilling hands, nor yet complain :
Yours with the public good shall ever rise, 100
Ever, while o'er the lawns and airy downs
The bleating sheep and shepherd's pipe are heard ;
While in the brook ye blanch the glist'ning Fleece,
And th' am'rous youth, delighted with your toils,
Quavers the choicest of his sonnets, warm'd 105
By growing traffic, friend to wedded love.
The am'rous youth, with various hopes inflam'd,
Now on the busy stage see him step forth,
With beating breast : high-honour'd he beholds
Rich industry. First he bespeaks a loom ”

“ Tainting the pasturage: and let thy fields
In slopes descend and mount, that chilling rains
May trickle off, and hasten to the brooks.
Yet some defect in all on earth appears: 80
All seek for help, all press for social aid.
Too cold the grassy mantle of the marle,
In stormy winter's long and dreary nights,
For cumbent sheep; from broken slumber oft
They rise benumb'd, and vainly shift the couch;85
Their wasted sides their evil plight declare:
Hence, tender in his care, the shepherd swain
Seeks each contrivance. ”

“ Their motion stopp'd by wild Intemperance,
Toil's scoffing foe, who lures the giddy rout 230
To scorn their task-work, and to vagrant life
Turns their rude steps, while Misery, among
The cries of infants, haunts their mould'ring huts.
O when, thro' every province, shall be rais'd
Houses of labour, seats of kind constraint, 235
For those who now delight in fruitless sports
More than in cheerful works of virtuous trade,
Which honest wealth would yield, and portion due
Of public welfare ? Ho, ye Poor ! ”

“ Which kindle arts, and occupy the poor,
And spread Brittania's flocks o'er every dale.
Ye who the shuttle cast along the loom, 525
The silk-worms' thread inweaving with the Fleece,
Pray for the culture of the Georgian tract,
Nor slight the green savannahs and the plains
Of Carolina, where thick woods arise
Of mulberries, and in whose water'd fields 530
Upsprings the verdant blade of thirsty rice.
Where are the happy regions which afford
More implements of commerce and of wealth ? ”

“ From intermingled flocks he steals ; or when,
With loosen'd tether of his horse or cow, 130
The milky stalk of the tall green-ear'd corn,
The year's slow rip'ning fruit, the anxious hope
Of his laborious neighbour, he destroys.
There are who over-rate our spungy stores,
Who deem that Nature grants no clime but ours 135
To spread upon its fields the dews of heav'n,
And feed the silky Fleece ”

“ Felicity of clime, and aspect bland,
Where gentle sheep may nourish locks of price.
In vain the silken Fleece on windy brows,
And northern slopes of cloud-dividing hills,
Is sought, tho' soft Iberia spreads her lap 130
Beneath their rugged feet and names their heights
Biscaian or Segovian. Bothnic realms,
And dark Norwegian, with their choicest fields,
Dingles, and dells, by lofty fir embower'd,
In vain the bleaters court. Alike they shun 135
Libya's hot plains. What taste have they for groves
Of palm, or yellow dust of gold? ”

“ Then snatch away thy sheep: beware the rot;
And with detersive bay-salt rub their mouths,
Or urge them on a barren bank to feed,
In hunger's kind distress, on tedded hay;
Or to the marish guide their easy steps, 260
If near thy tufted crofts the broad sea spreads.
Sagacious care foreacts. When strong disease
Breaks in, and stains the purple streams of health,
Hard is the strife of art. The coughing pest
From their green pasture sweeps whole flocks away. 265
That dire distemper, sometimes may the swain,
Tho' late, discern ”

“ The conquests, glories, of th' Ausonian state,
Wrapp'd in their secret seeds. Each kindred soul,
Robust and stout, ye grapple to your hearts,
And little Rome appears. Her cots arise,
Green twigs of osier weave the slender walls,⁠415
Green rushes spread the roofs; and here and there
Opens beneath the rock the gloomy cave.
Elate with joy, Etruscan Tiber views
Her spreading scenes enamelling his waves,
Her huts and hollow dells, and flocks and herds,⁠420
And gath'ring swains, and rolls his yellow car
To Neptune's court with more majestic train. ”

“ Eager, and at unwonted hour, they feed.
Slight not the warning; soon the tempest rolls,
Scatt'ring them wide, close rushing at the heels
Of th' hurrying o'ertaken swains: forbear 385
Such nights to fold; such nights be theirs to shift
On ridge or hillock; or in homesteads soft,
Or softer cots, detain them. Is thy lot
A chill penurious turf, to all thy toils
Untractable? Before harsh winter drowns 390
The noisy dykes, and starves the rushy glebe,
Shift the frail breed to sandy hamlets warm;
There let them sojourn, till gay Procne skims
The thick'ning verdure and the rising flow'rs. ”

“ Fast tumbling brooks on brooks enormous swell,595
And sudden overwhelm their vanish'd fields:
Down with the flood away the naked sheep,
Bleating in vain, are borne, and straw-built huts,
And rifted trees, and heavy enormous rocks,
Down with the rapid torrent to the deep.600
At shearing-time along the lively vales
Rural festivities are often heard;
Beneath each blooming arbour all is joy
And lusty merriment. ”

“ But those expensive toils are now no more,
Proud Tyranny devours their flocks and herds:520
Nor bleat of sheep may now, nor sound of pipe,
Sooth the sad plains of once sweet Arcady,
The shepherds' kingdom: dreary solitude
Spreads o'er Hymettus, and the shaggy vale
Of Athens, which in solemn silence sheds 525
Her venerable ruins to the dust.
The weary Arabs roam from plain to plain,
Guiding the languid herd in quest of food,
And shift their little home's uncertain scene
With frequent farewell ”

“ When the pale blood slow rises through the veins.
Still shall o'er all prevail the shepherd's stores 410
For num'rous uses known : none yield such warmth,
Such beauteous hues receive, so long endure ;
So pliant to the loom, so various, none.
Wild rove the flocks, no burd'ning Fleece they bear
In fervid climes ; Nature gives not in vain. ”

“ With white sails glist'ning, thro' the gloomy woods
Haste to their harbours. See the silver maze
Of stately Thamis, ever checker'd o'er
With deeply-laden barges, gliding smooth
And constant as his stream : in growing pomp, 625
By Neptune still attended, slow he rolls
To great Augusta's mart, where lofty Trade,
Amid a thousand golden spires enthron'd,
Gives audience to the world ; the strand around
Close swarms with busy crowds of many a realm. 630
What bales, what wealth, what industry, what fleets !
Lo, from the simple Fleece how much proceeds ! ”

“ Thro' dusty roads roll nodding ; or the bark, 65
That silently adown the cerule stream
Glides with white sails, dispense the downy freight
To copsy villages on either side,
And spiry towns, where ready Diligence,
The grateful burden to receive, awaits, 70
Like strong Briareus, with his hundred hands.
In the same Fleece diversity of wool
Grows intermingled, and excites the care
Of curious skill to sort the several kinds. ”

“ And emulation: the whole world receive,
And with their arts, their virtues, deck your isle.
Each clime, each sea, the spacious orb of each,
Shall join their various stores, and amply feed 540
The mighty brotherhood, while ye proceed,
Active and enterprising, or to teach
The stream a naval course, or till the wild,
Or drain the fen, or stretch the long canal,
Or plough the fertile billows of the deep: 545
Why to the narrow circle of our coast
Should we submit our limits, while each wind
Assists the stream and sail, and the wide main
Woos us in every port ? ”

“ With grass and thyme o'erspread, and clover wild,
Where smiling Phœbus tempers ev'ry breeze,20
The fairest flocks rejoice: they nor of halt,
Hydropic tumours, nor of rot, complain,
Evils deform'd and foul: nor with hoarse cough
Disturb the music of the past'ral pipe;
But, crowding to the note, with silence soft25
The close-woven carpet graze, where Nature blends
Flow'rets and herbage of minutest size,
Innoxious luxury. Wide airy downs
Are Health's gay walks to shepherd and to sheep. ”

“ Sheep also pleurisies and dropsies know,
Driven oft from Nature's path by artful man,
Who blindly turns aside, with haughty hand,295
Whom sacred Instinct would securely lead.
But thou, more humble Swain! thy rural gates
Frequent unbar, and let thy flocks abroad
From lea to croft, from mead to arid field,
Noting the fickle seasons of the sky. 300
Rain-sated pastures let them shun, and seek
Changes of herbage and salubrious flowers.
By their All-perfect Master inly taught,
They best their food and physic can discern ”

“ And various blessings of ingenious trade.
Be these our arts; and ever may we guard,
Ever defend, thee with undaunted heart.
Inestimable good! who giv'st us Truth, ⁠230
Whose hand upleads to light, divinest Truth!
Array'd in ev'ry charm; whose hand benign
Teaches unwear'd Toil to clothe the fields,
And on his various fruits inscribes the name
Of Property: O nobly hail'd of old ⁠235
By thy majestic daughters, Judah fair,
And Tyrus and Sidonia, lovely nymphs,
And Libya bright, and all-enchanting Greece,
Whose num'rous towns, and isles, and peopled seas,
Rejoic'd around her lyre ”

“ Their wit has giv'n the Fleece, now taught to link
With flax, or cotton, or the silk-worm's thread,
And gain the graces of variety ;
Whether to form the matron's decent robe, 490
Or the thin-shading trail for Agra's nymphs ;
Or solemn curtains, whose long gloomy folds
Surround the soft pavilions of the rich. ”

“ The Muse, in faithful notes, shall brief describe.
From the proud mart of Petersburg, ere-while
The watery seat of Desolation wide,
Issue these trading caravans, and urge, 405
Thro' dazzling snows, their dreary trackless road ;
By compass steering oft from week to week,
From month to month; whole seasons view their toils.
Neva they pass, and Kesma's gloomy flood,
Volga, and Don, and Oka's torrent prone, 410
Threatening in vain ; and many a cataract
In its fall stopp'd, and bound with bars of ice. ”

“ To know their duties; that their only strife,
Their gen'rous strife, and greatly to perform.
They thro' all shapes of peril and of pain,
Intent on honour, dar'd in thickest death
To snatch the glorious deed. Nor Trebia quell'd, ⁠445
Nor Thrasymene, nor Cannæ's bloody field,
Their dauntless courage: storming Hannibal
In vain the thunder of the battle roll'd ”

“ Content me with an humble shade,
My passions tam'd, my wishes laid;
For while our wishes wildly roll,
We banish quiet from the soul;
'Tis thus the busy beat the air,135
And misers gather wealth and care. ”

“ Thro' solitary vallies seeks the sea :
Or green Altinum, by an hundred Alps
High-crown'd, whose woods and snowy peaks aloft
Shield her low plains from the rough northern blast. 320
Those too of Boetica's delicious fields,
With golden fruitage bless'd of highest taste,
What need I name ? the Turdetanian track,
Or rich Coraxus, whose wide looms unroll'd
The finest webs ? where scarce a talent weigh'd 325
A ram's equivalent. Then only tin
To late-improv'd Britannia gave renown. ”

“ See, the flowery Spring is blown,
Let us leave the smoky Town:
From the Mall, and from the Ring,
Every one has taken wing;
Cloe, Strephon, Corydon,⁠5
To the meadows all are gone;
What is left you worth your stay? ”

“ A various journey to the deep,
Like human life to endless sleep:
Thus is Nature's vesture wrought,
To instruct our wand'ring thought;100
Thus she dresses green and gay,
To disperse our cares away. ”

“ The artist's hand : he, unseen, flow'rs, and trees,
And vales, and azure hills, unerring works :
Or that whose num'rous needles, glitt'ring bright,
Weave the warm hose to cover tender limbs :
Modern invention ; modern is the want. 160
Next from the slacken'd beam the woof, unroll'd,
Near some clear-sliding river, Aire or Stroud,
Is by the noisy fulling-mill receiv'd,
Where tumbling waters turn enormous wheels,
And hammers, rising and descending, learn 165
To imitate the industry of man. ”

“ Where spoles, cards, wheels, and looms, with motion quick,
And ever-murm'ring sound, th' unwonted sense
Wrap in surprise. To see them all employ'd,
All blithe, it gives the spreading heart delight, 270
As neither meats, nor drinks, nor aught of joy
Corporeal can bestow. Nor less they gain
Virtue than wealth, while, on their useful works
From day to day intent, in their full minds
Evil no place can find. With equal scale 275
Some deal abroad the well-assorted Fleece ;
These card the short, those comb the longer flake ”

“ Gray-mouldering temples swell, and wide o'ercast
The solitary landscape, hills and woods,
And boundless wilds; while the vine-mantled brows ⁠35
The pendent goats unveil, regardless they
Of hourly peril, tho' the clefted domes
Tremble to every wind. ”

“ Or real exigencies ; passions swift
Forerunning reason ; strong contrarious bents,
The steps of men dispersing wide abroad
O'er realms and seas. There, in the solemn scene, 625
Infinite wonders glare before their eyes,
Humiliating the mind enlarg'd ; for they
The clearest sense of Deity receive
Who view the widest prospect of his works,
Ranging the globe with trade thro' various climes; 630
Who see the signatures of boundless love,
Nor less the judgments of Almighty Pow'r,
That warn the wicked, and the wretch who 'scapes
From human justice ”

“ Ev'n Nature lives by toil :
Beast, bird, air, fire, the heav'ns, and rolling worlds,
All live by action : nothing lies at rest
But death and ruin : man is born to care ; 25
Fashion'd, improv'd, by labour. ”