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

 To naval union. Trent and Severn's wave, By plains alone disparted, woo to join 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, 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 : 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, 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, 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. What bales, what wealth, what industry, what fleets ! Lo, from the simple Fleece how much proceeds !