Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/96

And vales, and azure hills, unerring works :
Or that whose num'rous needles, glitt'ring bright,
Weave the warm hose to cover tender limbs :
Modern invention ; modern is the want. 160
Next from the slacken'd beam the woof, unroll'd,
Near some clear-sliding river, Aire or Stroud,
Is by the noisy fulling-mill receiv'd,
Where tumbling waters turn enormous wheels,
And hammers, rising and descending, learn 165
To imitate the industry of man.
Oft the wet web is steep'd, and often rais'd,
Fast dripping, to the river's grassy bank,
And sinewy arms of men, with full-strain'd strength
Wring out the latent water : then up-hung 170
On rugged tenters, to the fervid sun
Its level surface, reeking, it expands,
Still brightening in each rigid discipline,
And gathering worth, as human life in pains,
Conflicts, and troubles. Soon the clothier's shears 175
And burler's thistle skim the surface sheen.
The round of work goes on from day to day,
Season to season. So the husbandman
Pursues his cares ; his plough divides the glebe ;
The seed is sown ; rough rattle o'er the clods 180
The harrow's teeth ; quick weeds his hoe subdues ;
The fickle labours, and the slow team strains,
Till grateful harvest-home rewards his toils.
The ingenious artist, learn'd in drugs, bestows
The last improvement; for th' unlabour'd Fleece 185
Rare is permitted to imbibe the dye.
In penetrating waves of boiling vats
The snowy web is steep'd, with grain of weld,
Fustic, or logwood, mix'd, or cochineal,
Or the dark purple pulp of Pictish woad, 190
Of stain tenacious, deep as summer skies,