A POEM.
103
While foreign wealth by busy hands is stored,
Or British manufactures borne aboard: 520
Arabia far shall send her rich perfumes;
Persia the shining product of her looms;
With spices kindled in hot Ceylon's air,
And China's painted vases for the fair.
But let the sailors shun the faithless shore
Behind the Cumbrays, where white surges roar;
Bend to the east, where Clyde runs dark and deep,
His borders edged with precipices steep;
Where in a sweet recess, by hills embraced,
Ardgowan's chieftain has his mansion placed; 530
Its view extending o'er the western main,
Where isles unnumbered deck the liquid plain.
Where Bute's green bosom spreads to meet the day,
Round Rothsay's towers the morning sun-beams play,
That, like her chief, superior and serene,
Smiles o'er the murmurs of the curling main:
Mid groves with undiminished verdure gay,
She mocks the waves, and laughs the storms away;
And bids her Brandons, mid the ranks of fame,
Aspiring rise, and claim a nation's name; 540
A Cambrian race, whose arms durst long deride
The Scotish laurels, and the Norman pride.
Or British manufactures borne aboard: 520
Arabia far shall send her rich perfumes;
Persia the shining product of her looms;
With spices kindled in hot Ceylon's air,
And China's painted vases for the fair.
But let the sailors shun the faithless shore
Behind the Cumbrays, where white surges roar;
Bend to the east, where Clyde runs dark and deep,
His borders edged with precipices steep;
Where in a sweet recess, by hills embraced,
Ardgowan's chieftain has his mansion placed; 530
Its view extending o'er the western main,
Where isles unnumbered deck the liquid plain.
Where Bute's green bosom spreads to meet the day,
Round Rothsay's towers the morning sun-beams play,
That, like her chief, superior and serene,
Smiles o'er the murmurs of the curling main:
Mid groves with undiminished verdure gay,
She mocks the waves, and laughs the storms away;
And bids her Brandons, mid the ranks of fame,
Aspiring rise, and claim a nation's name; 540
A Cambrian race, whose arms durst long deride
The Scotish laurels, and the Norman pride.
