Classic Poem

Of heat impatient, as of pinching cold
Afraid, he shelters from the rising sun,
Beneath the mountain's western side; and when
The evening beam shoots eastward, turning seeks
Th' alternate umbrage. Now to the sweetest food
Of fallow'd fields he leads, and nightly folds,
T' enrich the exhausted soil; defending safe
From murd'rous theives, and from the prowling fox,
Their helpless innocence. His skilful eye
Studious explores the latent ills which prey
Upon the bleating nation. The foul mange
Infectious, their impatient foot, by oft
Repeated scratchings, will betray. This calls
For his immediate aid, the spreading taint
To stop. Tobacco, in the briny wave
Infus'd, affords a wash of sovereign use
To heal the dire disease, the wriggling tail
Sure indication gives, that, bred beneath,
Devouring vermin lurk: these, or with dust
Or deaden'd lime besprinkled thick, fall off
In smother'd crowds. Diseases numerous
Assault the harmless race: but the chief fiend
Which taints with rottenneis their inward frame,
And sweeps them from the plain in putrid heaps,
A nuisance to the smell. This, this demands
His watchful care. If he perceives the fleece
In patches lost; if the dejected eye
Looks pale and languid; if the rosy gums
Change to a yellow foulness; and the breath,
Panting and short, emits a sickly stench;
Warn'd by the fatal symptoms, he removes
To rising grounds and dry the tainted flock;
The best expedient to restore that health
Which the full pasture, or the low damp moor
Endanger'd. But if bare and barren hills,
Or dry and sandy plains, too far remov'd
Deuy their aid: he speedily prepares
Rue's bitter juice, with brine and brimstone mix'd,
A powerful remedy; which from an horn
Injected, stops the dangerous malady.
Refulgent summer now his hot domain
Hath carried to the tropic, and begins
His backward journey. Now beneath the sun
Mellowing their fleeces for th' impending shears,
The woolly people in full clothing sweat:
When the smooth current of a limpid brook
The shepherd seeks, and plunging in its waves
The srighted innocents their whitening robes
In the clear stream grow pure. Emerging hence,
On litter'd straw the bleating flocks recline
Till glowing heat shall dry, and breathing dews
Perspiring soft, again through all the fleece
Dissuse their oily fatness. Then the swain
Prepares th' elastic shears, and gently down
The patient creature lays; divesting soon
Its lighten'd limbs of their encumbering load.
O more than mines of gold, than diamonds far
More precious, more important is the fleece!
This, this the soild base on which the sons
Of commerce build, exalted to the sky,
The structure of their grandeur, wealth! and power,
Hence in the earliest childhood of her state,
Ere yet her merchants spread the British sail,
To earth descending in a radiant cloud,
Britannia seiz'd th' invaluable spoil.
To ocean's verge exulting swift she slew;
There, on the bosom of the bounding wave,
Rais'd on her pearly car, fair commerce rode
Sublime, the goddess of the wat'ry world,
On every coast, and every clime ador'd.
High waving in her hand the woolly prize,
Britannia hail'd and beckon'd to her shore
The power benign. Invited by the fleece,
From whence her penetrating eyes foresaw
What mighty honours to her name should life,
She beam'd a gracious smile. Th' obedient winds
Rein'd by her hand, conducted to the beach
Her sumptuous car. But more convenient place
The muse shall find, to sing the friendly league,
Which here commenc'd, to time's remotest age,
Shall bear the glory of the British sail
Cautious and fearful, some in early spring
Recruit their flocks; as when the wint'y storms
The tender frame hath prov'd. But he whose aim
Ambitious should aspire to mend the breed,
In fruitful autumn flocks the bleating field
With buxom ewes, that, to their soft desires
Indulgent, he may give the noblest rains.
Yet not too early in the genial sport
Invite the modest ewe; let Michael's feast
Commemorate the deed; left the cold hand
Of winter pinch too hard the new-yean'd lamb,
How nice, how delicate appears his choice,
When fixing on the sire to raise his flock!
His shape, his marks, how curious he surveys!
His body large and deep, his buttocks broad
Give indication of internal strength;
Be short his leg, yet active; small his head;
So shall Lucina's pains less pungent prove,
And less the hazard of the teeming ewe!
Long be his tail, and large his wool-grown ear;
Thick, shining, white, his fleece; his hazel eye
Large, bold, and cheerful; and his horns, if horns
You choose, not straight, but curving round and round
On either side his head. These the sole arms
His inoffensive mildness bears; not made
For shedding blood, nor hostile war: yet these,
When love, all-powerful, swells his breast, and pours
Into his heart new courage, these he aims,
With meditated fury at his foe.
In glowing colours, here the tempted muse
Might paint the rushing conflict, when provok'd
The rival rams, opposing front to front,
Spring forth with desperate madness to the fight:
But as deterr'd by the superior bard,
Whose steps, at awful distance, I revere,
Nor dare to tread; so by the thundering strife
Of his majestic fathers of the herd,
My feebler combatants appall'd retreat.
At leisure now, O let me once again,
Once, ere I leave the cultivated fields,
My favourite Patty, in her dairy's pride,
Revisit; and the generous steeds which grace
The pastures of her swain, well-pleas'd, survey.
The lowing kine, fee, at their custom'd hour,