Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/105

They from their isle, as from some ark secure, 465
Careless, unpitying, view the fiery bolts
Of Superstition and tyrannic rage,
And all the fury of the rolling storm,
Which fierce pursues the suff'rers in their flight.
Shall not our gates, shall not Britannia's arms, 470
Spread ever open to receive their flight ?
A virtuous people, by distresses oft
(Distresses for the sake of truth endur'd)
Corrected, dignify'd ; creating good
Wherever they inhabit : this our isle 475
Has oft experienc'd ; witness all ye realms
Of either hemisphere where commerce flows:
Th' important truth is stamp'd on every bale ;
Each glossy cloth, and drape of mantle warm,
Receives th' impression ; every airy woof, 480
Cheyney, and baize, and serge, and alepine,
Tammy, and crape, and the long countless list
Of woollen webs ; and every work of steel ;
And that crystalline metal, blown or fus'd,
Limpid as water dropping from the clefts 485
Of mossy marble : not to name the aids
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.
They, too, the many-colour'd Arras taught
To mimic nature, and the airy shapes 495
Of sportive fancy ; such as oft appear
In old Mosaic pavements, when the plough
Upturns the crumbling glebe of Weldon field,
Or that o'ershaded erst by Woodstock's bower,