Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FLEECE: BOOK 4, by JOHN DYER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FLEECE: BOOK 4, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now, with our wooly treasures amply stored
Last Line: Or as air's vital fluid o'er the globe.
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Merchants; Trade; Travel; Weaving & Weavers; Work; Workers; Journeys; Trips


Our manufactures exported. Voyage through the Channel, and by the coast of
Spain. View of the Mediterranean. Decay of the Turkey trade. Address to the
factors there. Voyage through the Baltic. The mart of Petersburg. The ancient
channels of commerce to the Indies. The modern course thither. Shores of Africa.
Reflections on the slave-trade. The Cape of Good Hope, and the eastern part of
Africa. Trade to Persia and Indostan, precarious through tyranny and frequent
insurrections. Disputes between the French and English, on the coast of
Cormandel, censured. A prospect of the Spice-islands, and of China. Traffic at
Canton. Our woollen manufactures known at Pekin, by the caravans from Russia.
Description of that journey. Transition to the western hemisphere. Voyage of
Raleigh. The state and advantages of our North American colonies. Severe winters
in those climates: hence the passage through Hudson's bay impracticable.
Inquiries for an easier passage into the Pacific Ocean. View of the coasts of
South America, and of those tempestuous seas. Lord Anson's expedition, and
success against the Spaniards. The naval power of Britain consistent with the
welfare of all nations. View of our probable improvements in traffic, and the
distribution of our woollen manufactures over the whole globe.

Now, with our woolly treasures amply stored,
Glide the tall fleets into the widening main,
A floating forest: every sail, unfurled,
Swells to the wind, and gilds the azure sky.
Meantime, in pleasing care, the pilot steers
Steady; with eye intent upon the steel,
Steady, before the breeze, the pilot steers:
While gaily o'er the waves the mounting prows
Dance, like a shoal of dolphins, and begin
To streak with various paths the hoary deep.
Batavia's shallow sounds by some are sought,
Or sandy Elb or Weser, who receive
The swain's and peasant's toil with grateful hand,
Which copious gives return: while some explore
Deep Finnic gulfs, and a new shore and mart,
The bold creation of that Kaisar's power,
Illustrious Peter! whose magnific toils
Repair the distant Caspian, and restore
To trade its ancient ports. Some Thanet's strand,
And Dover's chalky cliff, behind them turn.
Soon sinks away the green and level beach
Of Rumney marish, and Rye's silent port,
By angry Neptune closed, and Vecta's isle,
Like the pale moon in vapour, faintly bright.
An hundred opening marts are seen, are lost;
Devonia's hills retire, and Edgecombe mount,
Waving its gloomy groves, delicious scene.
Yet steady o'er the waves they steer: and now
The fluctuating world of waters wide
In boundless magnitude around them swells;
O'er whose imaginary brim, nor towns,
Nor woods, nor mountain tops, nor aught appears,
But Phœbus' orb, refulgent lamp of light,
Millions of leagues aloft: heaven's azure vault
Bends over-head, majestic, to its base,
Uninterrupted clear circumference;
Till, rising o'er the flickering waves, the Cape
Of Finisterre, a cloudy spot appears.
Again, and oft, the adventurous sails disperse;
These to Iberia; others to the coast
Of Lusitania, the ancient Tharsis deemed
Of Solomon; fair regions, with the webs
Of Norwich pleased, or those of Manchester;
Light airy clothing for their vacant swains.
And visionary monks. We in return
Receive Cantabrian steel and fleeces soft,
Segovian or Castilian, far renowned;
And gold's attractive metal, pledge of wealth,
Spur of activity, to good or ill
Powerful incentive; or Hesperian fruits,
Fruits of spontaneous growth, the citron bright,
The fig, and orange, and heart-cheering wine.
Those ships, from ocean broad, which voyage through
The gates of Hercules, find many seas
And bays unnumbered opening to their keels:
But shores inhospitable oft, to fraud
And rapine turned, or dreary tracts become
Of desolation. The proud Roman coasts,
Fallen, like the Punic, to the dashing waves
Resign their ruins: Tiber's boasted flood,
Whose pompous moles o'erlooked the subject deep,
Now creeps along, through brakes and yellow dust,
While Neptune scarce perceives its murmuring rill:
Such are the effects, when virtue slacks her hand;
Wild nature back returns: along these shores
Neglected Trade with difficulty toils,
Collecting slender stores, the sun-dried grape,
Or capers from the rock, that prompt the taste
Of luxury. Even Egypt's fertile strand,
Bereft of human discipline, has lost
Its ancient lustre: Alexandria's port,
Once the metropolis of trade, as Tyre,
And elder Sidon, as the Attic town,
Beautiful Athens, as rich Corinth, Rhodes,
Unhonoured droops. Of all the numerous marts,
That in those glittering seas with splendour rose,
Only Byzantium, of peculiar site,
Remains in prosperous state; and Tripolis,
And Smyrna, sacred ever to the Muse.
To these resort the delegates of trade,
Social in life, a virtuous brotherhood;
And bales of softest wool from Bradford looms,
Or Stroud, dispense; yet see, with vain regret,
Their stores, once highly prized, no longer now
Or sought, or valued: copious webs arrive,
Smooth-woven of other than Britannia's fleece,
On the thronged strand alluring; the great skill
Of Gaul, and greater industry, prevails;
That proud imperious foe. Yet, ah—'tis not—
Wrong not the Gaul; it is the foe within,
Impairs our ancient mart: it is the bribe;
'Tis he who pours into the shops of trade
That impious poison: it is he who gains
The sacred seat of parliament by means
That vitiate and emasculate the mind;
By sloth, by lewd intemperance, and a scene
Of riot, worse than that which ruined Rome.
This, this the Tartar, and remote Chinese,
And all the brotherhood of life bewail.
Meantime (while those, who dare be just, oppose
The various powers of many-headed Vice,)
Ye delegates of trade, by patience rise
O'er difficulties: in this sultry clime
Note what is found of use: the flix of goat,
Red-wool, and balm, and caufee's berry brown,
Or dropping gum, or opium's lenient drug;
Unnumbered arts await them: trifles oft,
By skilful labour, rise to high esteem.
Nor what the peasant, nor some lucid wave,
Pactolus, Simois, or Meander slow,
Renowned in story, with his plough upturns,
Neglect; the hoary medal, and the vase,
Statue and bust, of old magnificence
Beautiful reliques: oh, could modern time
Restore the mimic art, and the clear mien
Of patriot sages, Walsinghams, and Yorkes,
And Cecils, in long-lasting stone preserve!
But mimic art and nature are impaired—
Impaired they seem—or in a varied dress
Delude our eyes; the world in change delights:
Change then your searches, with the varied modes
And wants of realms. Sabean frankincense
Rare is collected now: few altars smoke
Now in the idol fane: Panchaia views
Trade's busy fleets regardless pass her coast:
Nor frequent are the freights of snow-white woofs,
Since Rome, no more the mistress of the world,
Varies her garb, and treads her darkened streets
With gloomy cowl, majestical no more.
See the dark spirit of tyrannic power.
The Thracian channel, long the road of trade
To the deep Euxine and its naval streams,
And the Mœotis, now is barred with chains,
And forts of hostile battlement: in aught
That joys mankind the arbitrary Turk
Delights not: insolent of rule, he spreads
Thraldom and desolation o'er his realms.
Another path to Scythia's wide domains
Commerce discovers: the Livonian gulf
Receives her sails, and leads them to the port
Of rising Petersburg, whose splendid streets
Swell with the webs of Leeds: the Cossack there,
The Calmuc, and Mongolian, round the bales
In crowds resort, and their warmed limbs enfold,
Delighted; and the hardy Samoid,
Rough with the stings of frost, from his dark caves
Ascends, and thither hastes, ere winter's rage
O'ertake his homeward step; and they that dwell
Along the banks of Don's and Volga's streams;
And borderers of the Caspian, who renew
That ancient path to India's climes, which filled
With proudest affluence the Colchian state.
Many have been the ways to those renowned
Luxuriant climes of Indus, early known
To Memphis; to the port of wealthy Tyre;
To Tadmor, beauty of the wilderness,
Who down the long Euphrates sent her sails;
And sacred Salem, when her numerous fleets,
From Ezion-geber, passed the Arabian gulf.
But later times, more fortunate, have found,
O'er ocean's open wave a surer course,
Sailing the western coast of Afric's realms,
Of Mauritania, and Nigritian tracts,
And islands of the Gorgades, the bounds,
On the Atlantic brine, of ancient trade;
But not of modern, by the virtue led
Of Gama and Columbus. The whole globe
Is now of commerce made the scene immense,
Which daring ships frequent, associated,
Like doves, or swallows, in the ethereal flood,
Or, like the eagle, solitary seen.
Some, with more open course, to Indus steer;
Some coast from port to port, with various men
And manners conversant; of the angry surge,
That thunders loud, and spreads the cliffs with foam,
Regardless, or the monsters of the deep,
Porpoise, or grampus, or the ravenous shark,
That chase their keels; or threatening rock o'erhead
Of Atlas old; beneath the threatening rocks,
Reckless, they furl their sails, and bartering take
Soft flakes of wool; for in soft flakes of wool,
Like the Silurian, Atlas' dales abound.
The shores of Sus inhospitable rise,
And high Bojador; Zara too displays
Unfruitful deserts; Gambia's wave in-isles
An oosy coast, and pestilential ills
Diffuses wide; behind are burning sands,
Adverse to life, and Nilus' hidden fount.
On Guinea's sultry strand, the drapery light
Of Manchester or Norwich is bestowed
For clear transparent gums and ductile wax
And snow-white ivory; yet the valued trade,
Along this barbarous coast, in telling wounds
The generous heart, the sale of wretched slaves;
Slaves by their tribes condemned, exchanging death
For life-long servitude; severe exchange!
These till our fertile colonies, which yield
The sugar-cane, and the Tobago-leaf,
And various new productions, that invite
Increasing navies to their crowded wharfs.
But let the man, whose rough tempestuous hours
In this adventurous traffic are involved,
With just humanity of heart pursue
The gainful commerce: wickedness is blind:
Their sable chieftains may in future times
Burst their frail bonds, and vengeance execute
On cruel unrelenting pride of heart
And avarice. There are ills to come of crimes.
Hot Guinea too gives yellow dust of gold,
Which, with her rivers, rolls adown the sides
Of unknown hills, where fiery-wingèd winds,
And sandy deserts roused by sudden storms,
All search forbid: howe'er, on either hand
Valleys and pleasant plains, and many a tract
Deemed uninhabitable erst, are found
Fertile and populous: their sable tribes,
In shade of verdant groves and mountains tall,
Frequent enjoy the cool descent of rain,
And soft refreshing breezes: nor are lakes
Here wanting; those a sea-wide surface spread,
Which to the distant Nile and Senegal
Send long meanders: whate'er lies beyond,
Of rich or barren, ignorance o'ercasts
With her dark mantle. Mon'motapa's coast
Is seldom visited; and the rough shore
Of Caffres, land of savage Hottentots,
Whose hands unnatural hasten to the grave
Their aged parents: what barbarity
And brutal ignorance, where social trade
Is held contemptible! Ye gliding sails,
From these inhospitable gloomy shores
Indignant turn, and to the friendly Cape,
Which gives the cheerful mariner good hope
Of prosperous voyage, steer: rejoice to view,
What trade, with Belgian industry, creates,
Prospects of civil life, fair towns, and lawns,
And yellow tilth, and groves of various fruits,
Delectable in husk or glossy rind:
There the capacious vase from crystal springs
Replenish, and convenient store provide,
Like ants, intelligent of future need.
See, through the fragrance of delicious airs,
That breathe the smell of balms, how traffic shapes
A winding voyage, by the lofty coast
Of Sofala, thought Ophir; in whose hills
Even yet some portion of its ancient wealth
Remains, and sparkles in the yellow sand
Of its clear streams, though unregarded now:
Ophirs more rich are found. With easy course
The vessels glide; unless their speed be stopped
By dead calms, that oft lie on those smooth seas
While every zephyr sleeps: then the shrouds drop:
The downy feather on the cordage hung,
Moves not; the flat sea shines like yellow gold,
Fused in the fire; or like the marble floor
Of some old temple wide. But where so wide,
In old or later time, its marble floor
Did ever temple boast as this, which here
Spreads its bright level many a league around?
At solemn distances its pillars rise,
Sofal's blue rocks, Mozambique's palmy steeps,
And lofty Madagascar's palmy shores,
Where various woods of beauteous vein and hue,
And glossy shells in elegance of form,
For Pond's rich cabinet, or Sloane's, are found.
Such calm oft checks their course, 'till this bright scene
Is brushed away before the rising breeze,
That joys the busy crew, and speeds again
The sail full-swelling to Socotra's isle,
For aloes famed; or to the wealthy marts
Of Ormus or Gombroon, whose streets are oft
With caravans and tawny merchants thronged,
From neighbouring provinces and realms afar;
And filled with plenty, though dry sandy wastes
Spread naked round; so great the power of trade!
Persia few ports; more happy Indostan
Beholds Surat and Goa on her coasts,
And Bombay's wealthy isle and harbour famed,
Supine beneath the shade of cocoa groves.
But what avails, or many ports or few?
Where wild Ambition frequent from his lair
Starts up; while fell Revenge and Famine leads
To havoc, reckless of the tyrant's whip,
Which clanks along the valleys: oft in vain
The merchant seeks upon the strand, whom erst,
Associated by trade, he decked and clothed;
In vain, whom rage or famine has devoured,
He seeks; and with increased affection thinks
On Britain. Still howe'er Bombaya's wharfs
Pile up blue indigo, and, of frequent use,
Pungent saltpetre, woods of purple grain,
And many-coloured saps from leaf or flower,
And various gums; the clothier knows their worth;
And wool resembling cotton, shorn from trees,
Not to the fleece unfriendly; whether mixed
In warp or woof, or with the line of flax,
Or softer silk's material: though its aid
To vulgar eyes appear not; let none deem
The fleece in any traffic unconcerned;
By every traffic aided; while each work
Of art yields wealth to exercise the loom,
And every loom employs each hand of art.
Nor is there wheel in the machine of trade,
Which Leeds, or Cairo, Lima, or Bombay,
Helps not with harmony to turn around,
Though all, unconscious of the union, act.
Few the peculiars of Canara's realm,
Or sultry Malabar; where it behoves
The wary pilot, while he coasts their shores,
To mark o'er ocean the thick rising isles;
Woody Chaetta, Birter rough with rocks;
Green-rising Barmur, Mincoy's purple hills;
And the minute Maldivias, as a swarm
Of bees in summer, on a poplar's trunk
Clustering innumerable; these behind
His stern receding, o'er the clouds he views
Ceylon's grey peaks, from whose volcanoes rise
Dark smoke and ruddy flame, and glaring rocks
Darted in air aloft; around whose feet
Blue cliffs ascend, and aromatic groves,
In various prospect; Ceylon also deemed
The ancient Ophir. Next Bengala's bay,
On the vast globe the deepest, while the prow
Turns northward to the rich disputed strand
Of Cormandel, where traffic grieves to see
Discord and Avarice invade her realms,
Portending ruinous war, and cries aloud,
'Peace, peace, ye blinded Britons, and ye Gauls;
Nation to nation is a light, a fire,
Enkindling virtue, sciences, and arts:'
But cries aloud in vain. Yet wise defence,
Against ambition's wide-destroying pride,
Madras erected, and Saint David's fort,
And those which rise on Ganges' twenty streams,
Guarding the woven fleece, Calcutta's tower,
And Maldo's and Patana's: from their holds
The shining bales our factors deal abroad,
And see the country's products, in exchange,
Before them heaped; cotton's transparent webs,
Aloes, and cassia, salutiferous drugs,
Alum, and lacque, and clouded tortoiseshell,
And brilliant diamonds, to decorate
Britannia's blooming nymphs. For these, o'er all
The kingdoms round our draperies are dispersed,
O'er Bukor, Cabul, and the Bactrian vales,
And Casimere, and Atoc, on the stream
Of old Hydaspes, Porus' hardy realm;
And late-discovered Thibet, where the fleece,
By art peculiar is compressed and wrought
To threadless drapery, which in conic forms
Of various hues their gaudy roofs adorns.
The keels, which voyage through Molucca's straits,
Amid a cloud of spicy odours sail,
From Java and Sumatra breathed, whose woods
Yield fiery pepper that destroys the moth
In woolly vestures: Ternate and Tidore
Give to the festal board the fragrant clove
And nutmeg, to those narrow bounds confined;
While gracious Nature, with unsparing hand,
The needs of life o'er every region pours.
Near those delicious isles, the beauteous coast
Of China rears its summits. Know ye not,
Ye sons of trade, that ever-flowery shore,
Those azure hills, those woods and nodding rocks?
Compare them with the pictures of your chart;
Alike the woods and nodding rocks o'erhang.
Now the tall glossy towers of porcelain,
And pillared pagods shine; rejoiced they see
The port of Canton opening to their prows,
And in the winding of the river moor.
Upon the strand they heap their glossy bales,
And works of Birmingham in brass or steel,
And flint, and ponderous lead from deep cells raised,
Fit ballast in the fury of the storm,
That tears the shrouds and bends the stubborn mast:
These for the artists of the fleece procure
Various materials; and, for affluent life,
The flavoured tea and glossy painted vase;
Things elegant, ill-titled luxuries,
In temperance used, delectable and good.
They too from hence receive the strongest thread
Of the green silkworm. Various is the wealth
Of that renowned and ancient land, secure
In constant peace and commerce; tilled to the height
Of rich fertility; where, thick as stars,
Bright habitations glitter on each hill
And rock and shady dale; even on the waves
Of copious rivers, lakes, and bordering seas,
Rise floating villages; no wonder, when,
In every province, firm and level roads,
And long canals, and navigable streams,
Ever with ease conduct the works of toil
To sure and speedy markets, through the length
Of many a crowded region, many a clime,
To the imperial towers of Cambalu,
Now Pekin, where the fleece is not unknown;
Since Calder's woofs, and those of Exe and Frome,
And Yare, and Avon slow, and rapid Trent,
Thither by Russic caravans are brought,
Through Scythia's numerous regions, waste and wild,
Journey immense! which to the attentive ear
The Muse in faithful notes shall brief describe.
From the proud mart of Petersburg, erewhile
The watery seat of desolation wide,
Issue these treading caravans, and urge,
Through 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,
Threatening in vain; and many a cataract,
In its fall stopp'd, and bound with bars of ice.
Close on the left unnumbered tracts they view
White with continual frost; and on the right
The Caspian lake, and ever-flowery realms,
Though now abhorred, behind them turn, the haunt
Of arbitrary rule, where regions wide
Are destined to the sword; and on each hand
Roads hung with carcases, or under foot
Thick strown; while, in their rough bewildered vales,
The blooming rose its fragrance breathes in vain,
And silver fountains fall, and nightingales
Attune their notes, where none are left to hear.
Sometimes o'er level ways, on easy sleds,
The generous horse conveys the sons of trade;
And ever and anon the docile dog;
And now the light rein-deer with rapid pace
Skims over icy lakes; now slow they climb
Aloft o'er clouds, and then adown descend
To hollow valleys, till the eye beholds
The roofs of Tobol, whose hill-crowning walls
Shine like the rising moon through watery mists:
Tobol, the abode of those unfortunate
Exiles of angry state, and thralls of war;
Solemn fraternity! where carl, and prince,
Soldier, and statesman, and uncrested chief,
On the dark level of adversity
Converse familiar; while, amid the cares
And toils for hunger, thirst, and nakedness,
Their little public smiles, and the bright sparks
Of trade are kindled: trade arises oft,
And virtue, from adversity and want:
Be witness, Carthage, witness, ancient Tyre,
And thou, Batavia, daughter of distress.
This, with his hands, which erst the truncheon held,
The hammer lifts; another bends and weaves
The flexile willow; that the mattock drives:
All are employed; and by their works acquire
Our fleecy vestures. From their tenements,
Pleased and refreshed, proceeds the caravan
Through lively-spreading cultures, pastures green,
And yellow tillages in opening woods:
Thence on, through Narim's wilds, a pathless road
They force, with rough entangling thorns perplexed;
Land of the lazy Ostiacs, thin dispersed,
Who, by avoiding, meet the toils they loathe,
Tenfold augmented; miserable tribe,
Void of commercial comforts: who, nor corn,
Nor pulse, nor oil, nor heart-enlivening wine,
Know to procure; nor spade, nor scythe, nor share,
Nor social aid: beneath their thorny bed
The serpent hisses, while in thickets nigh
Loud howls the hungry wolf. So on they fare,
And pass by spacious lakes begirt with rocks,
And azure mountains; and the heights admire
Of white Imaus, whose snow-nodding crags
Frighten the realms beneath, and from their urns
Pour mighty rivers down, the impetuous streams
Of Oby, Irtis, and Jenisca swift,
Which rush upon the northern pole, upheave
Its frozen seas, and lift their hills of ice.
These rugged paths and savage landscapes passed,
A new scene strikes their eyes: among the clouds
Aloft they view what seems a chain of cliffs,
Nature's proud work; that matchless work of art,
The wall of Sina, by Chihoham's power
In earliest times erected. Warlike troops
Frequent are seen in haughty march along
Its ridge, a vast extent, beyond the length
Of many a potent empire; towers and ports,
Three times a thousand, lift their brows
At equal spaces, and in prospect 'round,
Cities, and plains, and kingdoms overlook.
At length the gloomy passage they attain
Of its deep vaulted gates, whose opening folds
Conduct at length to Pekin's glittering spires,
The destined mart, where joyous they arrive.
Thus are the textures of the fleece conveyed
To Sina's distant realm, the utmost bound
Of the flat floor of stedfast earth; for so
Fabled antiquity, ere peaceful trade
Informed the opening mind of curious man.
Now to the other hemisphere, my Muse,
A new world found, extend thy daring wing.
Be thou the first of the harmonious Nine
From high Parnassus, the unwearied toils
Of industry and valour, in that world
Triumphant, to reward with tuneful song.
Happy the voyage, o'er the Atlantic brine,
By active Raleigh made, and great the joy,
When he discerned above the foamy surge
A rising coast, for future colonies,
Opening her bays and figuring her capes,
Even from the northern tropic to the pole.
No land gives more employment to the loom,
Or kindlier feeds the indigent; no land
With more variety of wealth rewards
The hand of labour: thither, from the wrongs
Of lawless rule the freeborn spirit flies;
Thither affliction, thither poverty,
And arts and sciences: thrice happy clime,
Which Britain makes the asylum of mankind.
But joy superior far his bosom warms,
Who views those shores in every culture dressed;
With habitations gay, and numerous towns,
On hill and valley; and his countrymen
Formed into various states, powerful and rich,
In regions far remote: who from our looms
Take largely for themselves, and for those tribes
Of Indians, ancient tenants of the land,
In amity conjoined, of civil life
The comforts taught, and various new desires,
Which kindle arts, and occupy the poor,
And spread Britannia's flocks o'er every dale.
Ye, who the shuttle cast along the loom,
The silkworm's 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 watered fields
Up springs the verdant blade of thirsty rice.
Where are the happy regions, which afford
More implements of commerce, and of wealth?
Fertile Virginia, like a vigorous bough
Which overshades some crystal river, spreads
Her wealthy cultivations wide around,
And, more than many a spacious realm, rewards
The fleecy shuttle: to her growing marts
The Iroquese, Cheroques, and Oubacks, come,
And quit their feathery ornaments uncouth
For woolly garments; and the cheers of life,
The cheers, but not the vices, learn to taste.
Blush, Europeans, whom the circling cup
Of luxury intoxicates; ye routs,
Who for your crimes have fled your native land;
And ye voluptuous idle, who in vain
Seek easy habitations, void of care:
The sons of nature, with astonishment
And detestation, mark your evil deeds:
And view, no longer awed, your nerveless arms,
Unfit to cultivate Ohio's banks.
See the bold emigrants of Accadie,
And Massachuset, happy in those arts,
That join the politics of trade and war,
Bearing the palm in either; they appear
Better exemplars; and that hardy crew,
Who, on the frozen beach of Newfoundland,
Hang their white fish amid the parching winds:
The kindly fleece, in webs of Duffield woof,
Their limbs benumbed enfolds with cheerly warmth,
And frieze of Cambria, worn by those who seek,
Through gulfs and dales of Hudson's winding bay,
The beaver's fur, though oft they seek in vain,
While winter's frosty rigour checks approach,
Even in the fiftieth latitude. Say why
(If ye, the travelled sons of commerce, know)
Wherefore lie bound their rivers, lakes, and dales,
Half the sun's annual course, in chains of ice?
While the Rhine's fertile shore, and Gallic realms,
By the same zone encircled, long enjoy
Warm beams of Phœbus, and, supine, behold
The plains and hillocks blush with clustering vines.
Must it be ever thus? or may the hand
Of mighty labour drain their gusty lakes,
Enlarge the brightening sky, and, peopling, warm
The opening valleys, and the yellowing plains?
Or rather shall we burst strong Darien's chain,
Steer our bold fleets between the cloven rocks,
And through the great Pacific every joy
Of civil life diffuse? Are not her isles
Numerous and large? Have they not harbours calm,
Inhabitants, and manners? haply, too,
Peculiar sciences, and other forms
Of trade, and useful products, to exchange
For woolly vestures? 'Tis a tedious course
By the Antarctic circle: nor beyond
Those sea-wrapt gardens of the dulcet reed,
Bahama and the Caribbee, may be found
Safe mole or harbour, till on Falkland's isle
The standard of Britannia shall arise.
Proud Buenos Ayres, low-couched Paraguay,
And rough Corrientes, mark with hostile eye
The labouring vessel: neither may we trust
The dreary naked Patagonian land,
Which darkens in the wind. No traffic there,
No barter for the fleece. There angry storms
Bend their black brows, and, raging, hurl around
Their thunders. Ye adventurous mariners,
Be firm; take courage from the brave. 'Twas there
Perils and conflicts inexpresssible
Anson, with steady undespairing breast,
Endured, when o'er the various globe he chased
His country's foes. Fast-gathering tempests roused
Huge Ocean, and involved him: all around
Whirlwind, and snow, and hail, and horror: now,
Rapidly, with the world of waters, down
Descending to the channels of the deep,
He viewed the uncovered bottom of the abyss;
And now the stars, upon the loftiest point
Tossed of the sky-mixed surges. Oft the burst
Of loudest thunder, with the dash of seas
Tore the wild-flying sails and tumbling masts;
While flames, thick-flashing, in the gloom revealed
Ruins of decks and shrouds, and sights of death.
Yet on he fared, with fortitude his cheer,
Gaining, at intervals, slow way beneath
Del Fuego's rugged cliffs, and the white ridge,
Above all height, by opening clouds revealed,
Of Montegorda, and inaccessible
Wreck-threatening Staten-land's o'erhanging shore,
Enormous rocks on rocks, in ever-wild
Posture of falling; as when Pelion, reared
On Ossa, and on Ossa's tottering head
Woody Olympus, by the angry gods
Precipitate on earth were doomed to fall.
At length, through every tempest, as some branch,
Which from a poplar falls into a loud
Impetuous cataract, though deep immersed,
Yet reascends, and glides, on lake or stream,
Smooth through the valleys: so his way he won
To the serene Pacific, flood immense,
And reared his lofty masts, and spread his sails.
Then Paita's walls, in wasting flames involved,
His vengeance felt, and fair occasion gave
To show humanity and continence,
To Scipio's not inferior. Then was left
No corner of the globe secure to pride
And violence: although the far-stretched coast
Of Chili, and Peru, and Mexico,
Armed in their evil cause; though fell disease,
Un'bating labour, tedious time, conspired,
And heat inclement, to unnerve his force;
Though that wide sea, which spreads o'er half the world,
Denied all hospitable land or port;
Where, seasons voyaging, no road he found
To moor, no bottom in the abyss, whereon
To drop the fastening anchor; though his brave
Companions ceased, subdued by toil extreme;
Though solitary left in Tinian's seas,
Where never was before the dreaded sound
Of Britain's thunder heard; his wave-worn bark
Met, fought, the proud Iberian, and o'ercame.
So fare it ever with our country's foes.

Rejoice, ye nations, vindicate the sway
Ordained for common happiness. Wide o'er
The globe terraqueous let Britannia pour
The fruits of plenty from her copious horn.
What can avail to her, whose fertile earth
By ocean's briny waves are circumscribed,
The armed host, and murdering sword of war,
And conquest o'er her neighbours? She ne'er breaks
Her solemn compacts, in the lust of rule:
Studious of arts and trade, she ne'er disturbs
The holy peace of states. 'Tis her delight
To fold the world with harmony, and spread
Among the habitations of mankind
The various wealth of toil, and what her fleece,
To clothe the naked, and her skilful looms,
Peculiar give. Ye too rejoice, ye swains;
Increasing commerce shall reward your cares.
A day will come, if not too deep we drink
The cup which luxury on careless wealth,
Pernicious gift, bestows; a day will come,
When, through new channels sailing, we shall clothe
The Californian coast, and all the realms
That stretch from Anian's straits to proud Japan;
And the green isles, which on the left arise
Upon the glassy brine, whose various capes
Not yet are figured on the sailor's chart:
Then every variation shall be told
Of the magnetic steel; and currents marked,
Which drive the heedless vessel from her course.
That portion too of land, a tract immense,
Beneath the Antarctic spread, shall then be known,
And new plantations on its coast arise.
Then rigid winter's ice no more shall wound
The only naked animal; but man
With the soft fleece shall everywhere be clothed.
The exulting Muse shall then, in vigour fresh,
Her flight renew. Meanwhile, with weary wing,
O'er ocean's wave returning, she explores
Siluria's flowery vales, her old delight,
The shepherd's haunts, where the first springs arise
Of Britain's happy trade, now spreading wide,
Wide as the Atlantic and Pacific seas,
Or as air's vital fluid o'er the globe.





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