 | The British Months |  |
The Garden Bower. Its constituents. Traveller's joy. Why so called. Gerard's Herbal. Character of the work and its author. True use of knowledge
Confirm'd the summer sunbeams beat
On the dry earth, nor breezes chill
Come loaded with rheumatick ill;
In lonely thought, or converse bland,
Or with amusive book in hand,
'Tis sweet in yon o'erarching bower
To pass retir'd the sultry hour.
There with the tea-tree's purple bloom,
And fragrant stars that waft perfume
From white and yellow Jessamine,
Plants of more homely growth intwine,
Indigenous: the Woodbine wreath,
And Eglantine with dulcet breath;
And golden Hop, that still his course
Guides by the fostering sun, nor force
Will that his natural bent destroy;
And with green bloom the Traveller's joy,
Most beauteous when its flow'rs assume
Their autumn form of feathery plume.
The Traveller's joy! name well bestow'd
On that wild plant, which, by the road
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Fails not the hedge of prickly thorn,
Or wilding rose-bush, apt to creep
O'er the dry limestone's craggy steep.
There still a gay companion near
To the way-faring “traveller”
Its lithe and straggling wreaths proclaim:
Thence honour'd with its gladsome name
By him, the plants' Historian old
In good Eliza's days, who told
In tale exact, with figures true,
And gave to all their honours due,
Each plant that merry England held,
In garden trim, or open field,
Native, or by his fostering care
Induced to breathe our foreign air,
Well-natur'd Gerard! And in days,
To more of scientifick praise
Aspiring, and with more command
Of graver's style, and painter's hand,
Be still his peerless worth confest,
Our England's early Herbarist!
Who 'mid his joy and great delight,
To see before his raptur'd sight
“The earth with herbs and flow'rs bespread,
As with a robe apparelled
Of broider's work, and garnish'd fair
With pearls and jewels rich and rare;”
With more delight his mental eye
Uprais'd the Maker to descry;
Saw in his works “his wisdom shine,
And pow'r, and workmanship divine;
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The praise of God invisible ”
True use of knowledge, when it draws
The mind to ponder nature's Cause;
And makes man's intellectual wealth
Subservient to his spirit's health!
| The British Months | |