POETICAL WORKS

OF

JOHN DYER.

WITH THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

O Britons! O my Countrymen! beware ;
Gird, gird your hearts: the Romans once were free,
Were brave, were virtuous.--0 Luxury!
Bane of clated life, ot ailluent stares,
What dreary change, what ruin, is not thine ?
How doth thy bow intoxicate the mind!
To the soft entrance of thy rosy cave
How dost thou lure the fortunate and great!
Dreadful attraction while behind thee sapes
Th' unfathomable guf where Ashur lies
O'erwhelm'd, forgotten--and beauteous Greece,
And the great queen of earth, imperial Rome!

RUINS OF ROME.

LONDON:
PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF J. BELL,

BRITISH LIBRARY, STRAND,
BOOKSELLER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE PRINCE OF WALIS.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR JOHN BELL, BOOKSELLER TO HIS

ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE PRINCE OF WALES.

JOHN DYER.

Mr. John Dyer was born in Caermarthenshire, and educated at Westminster School. His father, an attorney of great practice and reputation, intended to introduce this his second son into his own business; but his genius led him a different way: besides his early taste for poetry, he had a passion no less strong for the arts of design; and he determined to make painting his profession.

With this view he made the voyage of Italy, where, besides the usual study of the remains of antiquity, and the works of the great masters, he frequently spent whole days in the country about Rome and Florence, sketching those picturesque prospects with facility and spirit. Images from hence naturally transported themselves into his poetical compositions. The principal beauties of The Ruins of Rome are perhaps of this kind, and the various landscapes in The Fleece have been particularly admired.

On his return to England he soon found he could not relish a town life, nor submit to the assiduity required in his profession : his talent indeed was rather for sketching than finishing. So he contentedly sat down in the country with his little fortune, painting now and then a portrait or a landscape, as his fancy led him.