Poem by John Dyer

The English Fog

How erring oft the judgment in its hate
Or fond desire! Those slow-descending showers,
Those hovering fogs, that bathe our growing vales
In deep November (loathed by trifling Gaul,
Effeminate), are gifts the Pleiads shed,
Britannia's handmaids. As the beverage falls,
Her hills rejoice, her valleys laugh and sing.

Hail noble Albion! where no golden mines,
No soft perfumes, nor oils, nor myrtle bowers,
The vigorous frame and lofty heart of man
Enervate: round whose stern cerulean brows
White-winged snow, and cloud, and pearly rain,
Frequent attend, with solemn majesty:
Rich queen of mists and vapors!

1. Ah Gentle Shepherd, Thine the Lot to Tend
2. To His Son
3. Paraphrase of Part of Chapter 7 of Ecclesiastes
4. How to Shear Sheep
5. Written at Ocriculum, in Italy, 1725

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