John Dyer (Джон Дайер)

Bedford Level

Yet much may be performed, to check the force
Of nature's rigour: the high heath, by trees
Warm-sheltered, may despise the rage of storms:
Moors, bogs, and weeping fens, may learn to smile,
And leave in dykes their soon-forgotten tears.
Labour and art will ev'ry aim achieve
Of noble bosoms. Bedford Level, erst
A dreary pathless waste, the coughing flock
Was wont with hairy fleeces to deform;
And, smiling with her lure of summer flow'rs,
The heavy ox, vain-struggling, to ingulph;
Till one, of that high-honoured patriot name,
RUSSELL, arose, who drained the rushy fen,
Confined the waves, bid groves and gardens bloom,
And through his new creation led the Ouze,
And gentle Camus, silver-winding streams:
Godlike beneficence; from chaos drear
To raise the garden and the shady grove.

1. Written at Ocriculum, in Italy, 1725
2. To His Son
3. Ah Gentle Shepherd, Thine the Lot to Tend
4. How to Shear Sheep
5. For Doctor Mackenzie’s Book “The History of Health” Etc. 1756

Распечатать (To print)

Количество обращений к стихотворению: 1701

Последние стихотворения

To English version