Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/88

Denoting Labour's happy progress, moves,
Procession slow and solemn : first the rout,
Then servient youth, and magisterial eld ;
Each after each, according to his rank, 545
His sway, and office, in the commonweal ;
And to the board of smiling Plenty's stores
Assemble, where delicious cates and fruits
Of every clime are pil'd ; and with free hand
Toil only tastes the feast, by nerveless Ease 550
Unrelish'd. Various mirth and song resound ;
And oft they interpose improving talk,
Divulging each to other knowledge rare,
Sparks from experience that sometimes arise,
Till night weighs down the sense, or morning's dawn 555
Rouzes to labour man, to labour born.
Then the sleek brightening lock from hand to hand
Renews its circling course ; this feels the card ;
That in the comb admires its growing length ;
This blanch'd, emerges from the oily wave ; 560
And that the amber tint, or ruby, drinks.
For it suffices not in flow'ry vales
Only to tend the flock, and shear soft wool ;
Gums must be stor'd of Guinea's arid coast,
Mexican woods, and India's brightening salts; 565
Fruits, herbage, sulphurs, minerals, to stain
The Fleece prepar'd, which oil-imbibing earth
Of Wooburn blanches, and keen alum-waves
Intenerate. With curious eye observe
In what variety the tribe of salts, 570
Gums, ores, and liquors, eye-delighting hues
Produce, abstersive or restringent ; how
Steel casts the sable ; how pale pewter, fus'd
In fluid spirituous, the scarlet dye ;
And how each tint is made, or mix'd, or chang'd, 575
By mediums colourless ; why is the fume