Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/84

And every sultry clime the snowy down
Of cotton, bursting from its stubborn shell
To gleam amid the verdure of the grove.
With glossy hair of Tibet's shagged goat 405
Are light tiaras woven, that wreath the head,
And airy float behind The beaver's flix
Hives kindliest warmth to weak enervate limbs,
When the pale blood slow rises through the veins.
Still shall o'er all prevail the shepherd's stores 410
For num'rous uses known : none yield such warmth,
Such beauteous hues receive, so long endure ;
So pliant to the loom, so various, none.
Wild rove the flocks, no burd'ning Fleece they bear
In fervid climes ; Nature gives not in vain. 415
Carmenian wool on the broad tail alone
Resplendent swells, enormous in its growth :
As the sleek ram from green to green removes,
On aiding wheels his heavy pride he draws,
And glad resigns it for the hatters' use. 420
Ev'n in the new Columbian world appears
The woolly covering : Apacheria's glades,
And Canses', echo to the pipes and flocks
Of foreign swains. While Time shakes down his sands,
And works continual change, be none secure : 425
Quicken your labours, brace your slackening nerves,
Ye Britons ! nor sleep careless on the lap
Of bounteous Nature ; she is elsewhere kind.
See Mississippi lengthen on her lawns,
Propitious to the shepherds ; see the sheep 430
Of fertile Arica, like camels form'd,
Which bear huge burdens to the sea-beat shore,
And shine with Fleeces soft as feathery down.
Coarse Bothnic locks are not devoid of use ;
They clothe the mountain carl, or mariner 435
Labouring at the wet shrouds or stubborn helm,