Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/125

 Form'd into various states, pow'rful and rich, In regions far remote ; who from our looms Take largely for themselves, and for those tribes Of Indians, ancient tenants of the land, In amity conjoin'd, of civil life The comforts taught, and various new desires, Which kindle arts, and occupy the poor, And spread Brittania's flocks o'er every dale. Ye who the shuttle cast along the loom, The silk-worms' thread inweaving with the Fleece, Pray for the culture of the Georgian tract, Nor slight the green savannahs and the plains Of Carolina, where thick woods arise Of mulberries, and in whose water'd fields Upsprings the verdant blade of thirsty rice. Where are the happy regions which afford More implements of commerce and of wealth ? Fertile Virginia, like a vigorous bough, Which overshades some crystal river, spreads Her wealthy cultivations wide around, And, more than many a spacious realm, rewards The Fleecy shuttle : to her growing marts, The Iroquese, Cheroques, and Oubacks, come, And quit their feathery ornaments uncouth For woolly garments ; and the cheers of life, The cheers, but not the vices, learn to taste. Blush, Europeans ! whom the circling cup Of Luxury intoxicates. Ye routs, Who for your crimes have fled your native land ; And ye voluptuous idle, who in vain Seek easy habitations, void of care ; The sons of Nature with astonishment And detestation mark your evil deeds, And view, no longer aw'd, your nerveless arms, Unfit to cultivate Ohio's banks.