Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/106

Now grac'd by Blenheim, in whose stately rooms 500
Rise glowing tapestries that lure the eye
With Marlb'rough's wars : here Schellenbergh exults
Behind surrounding hills of ramparts steep,
And vales of trenches dark ; each hideous pass
Armies defend ; yet on the hero leads 550
His Britons, like a torrent, o'er the mounds.
Another scene is Blenheim's glorious field,
And the red Danube. Here the rescued states
Crowding beneath his shield ; there Ramillies'
Important battle : next the tenfold chain 510
Of Arleux burst, and th' adamantine gates
Of Gaul flung open to the tyrant's throne.
A shade obscures the rest Ah ! then, what pow'r
Invidious from the lifted sickle snatch'd
The harvest of the plain ? So lively glows 515
The fair delusion, that our passions rise
In the beholding, and the glories share
Of visionary battle. This bright art
Did zealous Europe learn of Pagan hands,
While she assay'd with rage of holy war, 520
To desolate their fields : but old the skill ;
Long were the Phrygians' picturing looms renown'd ;
Tyre also, wealthy seat of arts, excell'd,
And elder Sidon, in th' historic web.
Far-distant Tibet in her gloomy woods 525
Rears the gay tent, of blended wool unwoven.
And glutinous materials : the Chinese
Their porcelain, Japan its varnish, boasts.
Some fair peculiar graces every realm,
And each from each a share of wealth acquires. 530
But chief by numbers of industrious hands
A nation's wealth is counted : numbers raise
Warm emulation : where that virtue dwells
There will be Traffic's seat ; there will she build