Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/59

And with detersive bay-salt rub their mouths,
Or urge them on a barren bank to feed,
In hunger's kind distress, on tedded hay;
Or to the marish guide their easy steps, 260
If near thy tufted crofts the broad sea spreads.
Sagacious care foreacts. When strong disease
Breaks in, and stains the purple streams of health,
Hard is the strife of art. The coughing pest
From their green pasture sweeps whole flocks away. 265
That dire distemper, sometimes may the swain,
Tho' late, discern; when on the lifted lid,
Or visual orb, the turgid veins are pale,
The swelling liver then her putrid store
Begins to drink: ev'n yet thy skill exert,270
Nor suffer weak despair to fold thy arms;
Again detersive salt apply, or shed
The hoary med'cine o'er their arid food.
In cold stiff soils the bleaters oft complain
Of gouty ails, by shepherds term'd the Halt: 275
Those let the neighb'ring fold or ready crook
Detain, and pour into their cloven feet
Corrosive drugs, deep-searching arsenic,
Dry allum, verdigrise, or vitriole keen:
But if the doubtful mischief scarce appears, 280
'Twill serve to shift them to a dryer turf,
And salt again. Th' utility of salt
Teach thy slow swains; redundant humours cold
Are the diseases of the bleating kind.
Th' infectious scab, arising from extremes 285
Of want or surfeit, is by water cured
Of lime, or sodden staves-acre, or oil
Dispersive of Norwegian tar, renown'd
By virtuous Berkeley, whose benevolence
Explored its pow'rs, and easy med'cine thence 290
Sought for the poor. Ye Poor! with grateful voice