Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/109

To naval union. Trent and Severn's wave,
By plains alone disparted, woo to join 605
Majestic Thamis. With their silver urns
The nimble-footed Naiads of the springs
Await, upon the dewy lawn, to speed
And celebrate the union ; and the light
Wood-nymphs, and those who o'er the grots preside, 610
Whose stores bituminous, with sparkling fires,
In summer's tedious absence, cheer the swains,
Long sitting at the loom ; and those besides
Who crown with yellow sheaves the farmer's hopes,
And all the genii of commercial toil : 615
These on the dewy lawns await to speed
And celebrate the union, that the Fleece
And glossy web to every port around
May lightly glide along. Ev'n now behold,
Adown a thousand floods the burden'd barks, 620
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 !