Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/53

 Ruin of ages! nods: such, too, the leas And ruddy tilth which spiry Ross beholds, From a green hillock, o'er her lofty elms; And Lemster's brooky tract and airy Croft; And such Harleian Eywood's swelling turf, Wav'd as the billows of a rolling sea; And Shobden, for its lofty terrace fam'd, Which from a mountain's ridge, elate o'er woods, And girt with all Siluria, seas around Regions on regions blended in the clouds. Pleasant Siluria! land of various views, Hills, rivers, woods, and lawns, and purple groves Pomaceous, mingled with the curling growth Of tendril hops, that flaunt upon their poles, More airy wild than vines along the sides Of treacherous Falernum, or that hill Vesuvius, where the bowers of Bacchus rose, And Herculanean and Pompeian domes. But if thy prudent care would cultivate Leicestrian Fleeces, what the sinewy arm Combs thro' the spiky steel in lengthen'd flakes; Rich saponaceous loam, that slowly drinks The blackening shower, and fattens with the draught, Or heavy marl's deep clay, be then thy choice, Of one consistence, one complexion, spread Thro' all thy glebe; where no deceitful veins Of envious gravel lurk beneath the turf, To loose the creeping waters from their springs, Tainting the pasturage: and let thy fields In slopes descend and mount, that chilling rains May trickle off, and hasten to the brooks. Yet some defect in all on earth appears: All seek for help, all press for social aid. Too cold the grassy mantle of the marle, In stormy winter's long and dreary nights,