Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/120

 The kingdoms round, our drap'ries are dispers'd, O'er Bukor, Cabul, and the Bactrian vales, And Cassimere, and Atoc, on the stream Of old Hydaspes, Porus' hardy realm ; And late-discover'd Tibet, where the Fleece, By art peculiar, is compress'd and wrought To threadless drapery, which in conic forms Of various hues their gaudy roofs adorns. The keels which voyage thro' Molucca's Straits Amid a cloud of spicy odours sail, From Java and Sumatra breath'd, whose woods Yield fiery pepper, that destroys the moth In woolly vestures. Ternate and Tidore Give to the festal board the fragrant clove And nutmeg, to those narrow bounds confin'd, While gracious Nature, with unsparing hand, The needs of life o'er every region pours. Near those delicious isles the beauteous coast Of China rears its summits. Know ye not, Ye sons of Trade ! that ever-flow'ry shore, Those azure hills, those woods and nodding rocks ? Compare them with the pictures of your chart ; Alike the woods and nodding rocks o'erhang. Now the tall glossy tow'rs of porcelain And pillar'd pagod shine ; rejoic'd they see The port of Canton opening to their prows, And in the winding of the river moor v Upon the strand they heap their glossy bales ; And works of Birmingham, in brass or steel, And flint, and pond'rous lead, from deep cells rais'd, Fit ballast in the fury of the storm, That tears the shrouds, and bends the stubborn mast : These for the artists of the Fleece procure Various materials ; and for affluent life