The botanic garden, a poem In two parts. Part I. Containing The economy of Vegetation, Part II. The Loves of the plants. With philosophical notes. The fourth edition. [by Erasmus Darwin] |
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IV. | CANTO IV. |
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The botanic garden, a poem | ||
CANTO IV.
ARGUMENT OF THE FOURTH CANTO.
Address to the Sylphs. I. Trade-winds. Monsoons. N. E. and S. W. winds. Land and sea breezes. Irregular winds, 9. II. Production of vital air from oxygene and light. The marriage of Cupid and Psyche, 25. III. I. Syroc. Simoom. Tornado, 63. 2. Fog. Contagion. Story of Thyrsis and Ægle. Love and Death, 79. IV. 1. Barometer. Air-pump. 127. 2. Air-balloon of Mongolfier. Death of Rozier. Icarus, 143. V. Discoveries of Dr. Priestley. Evolutions and combinations of pure air. Rape of Proserpine, 177. VI. Sea-balloons, or houses constructed to move under the sea. Death of Mr. Day. Of Mr. Spalding. Of Captain Pierce and his Daughters, 207. VII. Sylphs of music. Cecilia singing. Cupid with a lyre riding upon a lion, 245. VIII. Destruction of Senacherib's army by a pestilential wind. Shadow of Death, 275. IX. 1. Wish to possess the secret of changing the course of the winds, 307. 2. Monster devouring air subdued by Mr. Kirwan, 333. X. 1. Seeds suspended in their pods. Stars discovered by Mr. Herschel. Destruction and resuscitation of all things, 363. 2. Seeds within seeds, and bulbs within bulbs. Picture on the retina of the eye. Concentric strata of the earth. The great seed, 393. 3. The root, pith, lobes, plume, calyx, corol, sap, blood, leaves respire and absorb light. The crocodile in its egg, 421. XI. Opening of the flower. The petals, style, anthers,
Cacalia opens all her honey'd flowers;
And nations hover on aurelian wing;
So round the Goddess, ere she speaks, on high
Impatient Sylphs in gawdy circlets fly;
Quivering in air their painted plumes expand,
And coloured shadows dance upon the land.
I.
“Sylphs! your light troops the tropic Winds confine,And guide their streaming arrows to the Line;
While in warm floods ecliptic Breezes rise,
And sink with wings benumb'd in colder skies.
You bid Monsoons on Indian seas reside,
And veer, as moves the sun, their airy tide;
While southern Gales, o'er western oceans roll,
And Eurus steals his ice-winds from the Pole.
Your playful trains, on sultry islands born,
Turn on fantastic toe at eve and morn;
With soft susurrant voice alternate sweep
Earth's green pavilions and encircling deep.
On tides of ether, float from clime to clime;
O'er waving Autumn bend your airy ring,
Or waft the fragrant bosom of the Spring.
II.
O'er the bright plains her dewy lustre showers;
Till from her sable chariot Eve serene
Drops the dark curtain o'er the brilliant scene;
You form with chemic hands the airy surge,
Mix with broad vans, with shadowy tridents urge.
Sylphs! from each sun-bright leaf, that twinkling shakes
O'er Earth's green lap, or shoots amid her lakes,
Your playful bands with simpering lips invite,
And wed the enamour'd Oxygene to Light.—
Cling the fond Pair with unabating love;
Hand link'd in hand on buoyant step they rise,
And soar and glisten in unclouded skies.
Whence in bright floods the Vital Air expands,
And with concentric spheres involves the lands;
Where teeming Nature broods her myriad births;
Fills the fine lungs of all that breathe or bud,
Warms the new heart, and dyes the gushing blood;
With Life's first spark inspires the organic frame,
And, as it wastes, renews the subtile flame.
Fair Psyche, kneeling at the ethereal throne;
Won with coy smiles the admiring court of Jove,
And warm'd the bosom of unconquer'd Love.—
Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers
Onward they march to Hymen's sacred bowers;
With lifted torch he lights the festive train,
Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain;
Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows,
And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows.
Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling,
Meet with warm lip, and clasp with rustling wing.—
Her fading forms, repeoples all her realms;
Soft Joys disport on purple plumes unfurl'd,
And Love and Beauty rule the willing world.
III.
1.
Stay the fell Syroc's suffocative breath;
Arrest Simoom in his realms of sand,
The poisoned javelin balanced in his hand;—
Points his keen eye, and waves his whistling hair;
Rolls in red waves, and billowy deserts boil.
Burst his dense clouds, his wheeling spires untwist;
Wide o'er the West when borne on headlong gales,
Dark as meridian night, the Monster sails,
Howls high in air, and shakes his curled brow,
Lashing with serpent-train the waves below,
Whirls his black arm, the forked lightning flings,
And showers a deluge from his demon-wings.
2.
That lingering slumbers on the sedge-wove bog,
Or flings his hairy limbs on stagnant deeps,
You meet Contagion issuing from afar,
And dash the baleful conqueror from his car;
When, Guest of Death! from charnel vaults he steals,
And bathes in human gore his armed wheels.
Look'd through the mist and shook his clotted hair;
O'er shrinking nations steer'd malignant clouds,
And rain'd destruction on the gasping crouds.
The beauteous Ægle felt the venom'd dart,
Slow roll'd her eye, and feebly throbb'd her heart;
And starting Friendship shunn'd her, as she pass'd.
—With weak unsteady step the fainting Maid
Seeks the cold garden's solitary shade,
Sinks on the pillowy moss her drooping head,
And prints with lifeless limbs her leafy bed.
—On wings of Love her plighted Swain pursues,
Shades her from winds, and shelters her from dews,
Extends on tapering poles the canvas roof,
Spreads o'er the straw-wove mat the flaxen woof,
Sweet buds and blossoms on her bolster strows,
And binds his kerchief round her aching brows;
Sooths with soft kiss, with tender accents charms,
And clasps the bright Infection in his arms.—
With pale and languid smiles the grateful Fair
Applauds his virtues, and rewards his care;
Mourns with wet cheek her fair companions fled
On timorous step, or number'd with the dead;
And pours on Thyrsis the collected blaze;
Braves the chill night, caressing and caress'd,
And folds her Hero-lover to her breast.—
Less bold, Leander at the dusky hour
Eyed, as he swam, the far love-lighted tower;
Breasted with struggling arms the tossing wave,
And sunk benighted in the watery grave.
Less bold, Tobias claim'd the nuptial bed
Where seven fond Lovers by a Fiend had bled;
And drove, instructed by his Angel-Guide,
The enamour'd Demon from the fatal bride.—
—Sylphs! while your winnowing pinions fann'd the air,
And shed gay visions o'er the sleeping pair;
Love round their couch effused his rosy breath,
And with his keener arrows conquer'd Death.
IV.
1.
“You charm'd, indulgent Sylphs! their learned toil,And crown'd with fame your Torricell, and Boyle;
The spring and pressure of the viewless air.
Of liquid silver from the lake below,
Weigh the long column of the incumbent skies,
And with the changeful moment fall and rise.
—How, as in brazen pumps the pistons move,
The membrane-valve sustains the weight above;
Stroke follows stroke, the gelid vapour falls,
And misty dew-drops dim the crystal walls;
Rare and more rare expands the fluid thin,
And Silence dwells with Vacancy within.—
So in the mighty Void with grim delight
Primeval Silence reign'd with ancient Night.
2.
Bade from low earth the bold Mongolfier rise;
And bore the Sage on levity of wing;—
Where were ye, Sylphs! when on the ethereal main
Young Rosiere launch'd, and call'd your aid in vain?
Fair mounts the light balloon, by Zephyr driven,
Parts the thin clouds, and sails along the heaven;
Higher and yet higher the expanding bubble flies,
Lights with quick flash, and bursts amid the skies.—
Headlong He rushes through the affrighted Air
With limbs distorted, and dishevel'd hair,
Whirls round and round, the flying croud alarms,
And Death receives him in his sable arms!—
Breathes the loud sob, and sheds the incessant tear;
Pursues the sad procession, as it moves
Through winding avenues and waving groves;
Hears the slow dirge amid the echoing ailes,
And mingles with her sighs discordant smiles.
Then with quick step advancing through the gloom,
“I come!” she cries, and leaps into his tomb.
“Oh, stay! I follow thee to realms above!—
“Oh, wait a moment for thy dying love!—
“Thus, thus I clasp thee to my bursting heart!—
“Close o'er us, holy Earth!—We will not part!”—
Sunk hapless Icarus on unfaithful wings;
His scatter'd plumage danced upon the wave,
And sorrowing Mermaids deck'd his watery grave;
And strew'd with crimson moss his marble bed;
Struck in their coral towers the pausing bell,
And wide in ocean toll'd his echoing knell.
V.
Where oft your Priestley woos your airy powers,
As sits the Sage with Science by his side;
Or pour your secrets on his raptured ear.
How nitrous Gas from iron ingots driven
Drinks with red lips the purest breath of heaven;
How, while Conferva from its tender hair
Gives in bright bubbles empyrean air,
The crystal floods phlogistic ores calcine,
And the pure Ether marries with the Mine.
When playful Proserpine from Ceres stray'd,
O'er Etna's steeps, and Enna's golden plains;
Pluck'd with fair hand the silver-blossom'd bower,
And purpled mead,—herself a fairer flower;
Sudden, unseen amid the twilight glade,
Rush'd gloomy Dis, and seized the trembling maid.—
Her starting damsels sprung from mossy seats,
Dropp'd from their gauzy laps the gather'd sweets,
Clung round the struggling Nymph, with piercing cries
Pursued the chariot, and invoked the skies;—
Pleased as he grasps her in his iron arms,
Frights with soft sighs, with tender words alarms,
The wheels descending roll'd in smoky rings,
Infernal Cupids flapp'd their demon wings;
And far in Night celestial Beauty blaz'd.
VI.
“Led by the Sage, Lo! Britain's sons shall guideHuge Sea-balloons beneath the tossing tide;
Ribb'd with strong oak, and barr'd with bolts of brass,
Buoy'd with pure air shall endless tracks pursue,
And Priestley's hand the vital flood renew.—
Then shall Britannia rule the wealthy realms,
Which Ocean's wide insatiate wave o'erwhelms;
Confine in netted bowers his scaly flocks,
Part his blue plains, and people all his rocks.
Deep, in warm waves beneath the Line that roll,
Beneath the shadowy ice-isles of the Pole,
Onward, through bright meandering vales, afar,
Obedient Sharks shall trail her sceptred car,
With harness'd necks the pearly flood disturb,
Stretch the silk rein, and champ the silver curb;
Pleased round her triumph wondering Tritons play,
And Sea-maids hail her on the watery way.
—Oft shall she weep beneath the crystal waves
O'er shipwreck'd lovers weltering in their graves;
Mingling in death the Brave and Good behold
With slaves to glory, and with slaves to gold;
Shrin'd in the deep shall Day and Spalding mourn,
Each in his treacherous bell, sepulchral urn!—
Her sighs shall breathe, her sorrows dew their hearse.—
He cried, and clasp'd them to his aching heart,—
—Dash'd in dread conflict on the rocky grounds,
Crash the shock'd masts, the staggering wreck rebounds;
Through gaping seams the rushing deluge swims,
Chills their pale bosoms, bathes their shuddering limbs,
Climbs their white shoulders, buoys their streaming hair,
And the last sea-shriek bellows in the air.—
Each with loud sobs her tender sire caress'd,
And gasping strain'd him closer to her breast!—
—Stretch'd on one bier they sleep beneath the brine,
And their white bones with ivory arms intwine!
VII.
The fine vibrations of the aerial tide;
Or stretch and modulate the trembling cords.
You strung to melody the Grecian lyre,
Breathed the rapt song, and fan'd the thought of fire,
Or brought in combinations, deep and clear,
Immortal harmony to Handel's ear.—
You with soft breath attune the vernal gale,
When breezy evening broods the listening vale;
Or wake the loud tumultuous sounds, that dwell
In Echo's many-toned diurnal shell.
You melt in dulcet chords, when Zephyr rings
The Eolian Harp, and mingle all its strings;
Or trill in air the soft symphonious chime,
When rapt Cecilia lifts her eye sublime,
Swell, as she breathes, her bosom's rising snow,
O'er her white teeth in tuneful accents flow,
Through her fair lips on whispering pinions move,
And form the tender sighs, that kindle love!
With ribbon-rein the indignant Lion guides;
And shakes delirious rapture from the strings;
Slow as the pausing Monarch stalks along,
Sheaths his retractile claws, and drinks the song;
Soft Nymphs on timid step the triumph view,
And listening Fawns with beating hoofs pursue;
With pointed ears the alarmed forest starts,
And Love and Music soften savage hearts.
VIII.
“Sylphs! your bold hosts, when Heaven with justice dreadCalls the red tempest round the guilty head,
Fierce at his nod assume vindictive forms,
And launch from airy cars the vollied storms.—
From Ashur's vales when proud Senacherib trod,
Pour'd his swoln heart, defied the living God,
Urged with incessant shouts his glittering powers,
And Judah shook through all her massy towers;
Round her sad altars press the prostrate crowd,
Hosts beat their breasts, and suppliant chieftains bow'd;
Loud shrieks of matrons thrill'd the troubled air,
And trembling virgins rent their scatter'd hair;
Spread the blaspheming scroll before the Lord,
Raised his pale hands, and breathed his pausing sighs,
And fixed on Heaven his dim imploring eyes,—
“Oh! Mighty God! amidst thy Seraph-throng
“Who sit'st sublime, the Judge of Right and Wrong;
“Thine the wide earth, bright sun, and starry zone,
“That twinkling journey round thy golden throne;
“Thine is the crystal source of life and light,
“And thine the realms of Death's eternal night.
“Oh! bend thine ear, thy gracious eye incline,
“Lo! Ashur's King blasphemes thy holy shrine,
“Insults our offerings, and derides our vows,—
“Oh! strike the diadem from his impious brows,
“Tear from his murderous hand the bloody rod,
“And teach the trembling nations, “Thou Art God!”
—Sylphs! in what dread array with pennons broad
Onward ye floated o'er the ethereal road,
Contagious vapours, and volcanic gales,
Gave the soft South with poisonous breath to blow,
And rolled the dreadful whirlwind on the foe!—
Man falls on Man, on buckler buckler rings;
Groan answers groan, to anguish anguish yields,
And Death's loud accents shake the tented fields!
—High rears the Fiend his grinning jaws, and wide
Spans the pale nations with colossal stride,
Waves his broad falchion with uplifted hand,
And his vast shadow darkens all the land.
IX.
1.
“Ethereal Cohorts! Essences of Air!Make the green children of the Spring your care!
Oh, Sylphs! disclose in this inquiring age
One Golden Secret to some favour'd sage;
Or guides the changeful pinions of the winds!
—No more shall hoary Boreas, issuing forth
With Eurus, lead the tempests of the North;
Rime the pale Dawn, or veil'd in flaky showers
Chill the sweet bosoms of the smiling Hours.
By whispering Auster waked shall Zephyr rise,
Meet with soft kiss, and mingle in the skies,
Fan the gay floret, bend the yellow ear,
And rock the uncurtain'd cradle of the year;
Autumn and Spring in lively union blend,
And from the skies the golden Age descend.
2.
“Castled on ice, beneath the circling Bear,A vast Camelion drinks and vomits air;
O'er twelve degrees his ribs gigantic bend,
And many a league his gasping jaws extend;
Half-fish, beneath, his scaly volutes spread,
And vegetable plumage crests his head;
From panting gills, wide lungs, and waving leaves;
Then with dread throes subsides his bloated form,
His shriek the thunder, and his sigh the storm.
Oft high in heaven the hissing Demon wins
His towering course, upborne, on winnowing fins;
Steers with expanded eye and gaping mouth,
His mass enormous to the affrighted South;
Spreads o'er the shuddering Line his shadowy limbs,
And Frost and Famine follow as he swims.—
Sylphs! round his cloud-built couch your bands array,
And mould the Monster to your gentle sway;
Charm with soft tones, with tender touches check,
Bend to your golden yoke his willing neck,
With silver curb his yielding teeth restrain,
And give to Kirwan's hand the silken rein.
—Pleased shall the Sage, the dragon-wings between,
Bend o'er discordant climes his eye serene,
And call to Hindostan antarctic gales,
Adorn with wreathed ears Kampschatca's brows,
And scatter roses on Zealandic snows,
Earth's wondering Zones the genial seasons share,
And nations hail him “Monarch of the Air.”
X.
1.
Brood the green children of parturient Spring!—
Where in their bursting cells my Embryons rest,
I charge you, guard the vegetable nest;
Count with nice eye the myriad Seeds, that swell
Each vaulted womb of husk, or pod, or shell;
Or hang, inshrined, their little orbs in air.
Hang the bright squadrons of the twinkling Night;
Ten thousand marshall'd stars, a silver zone,
Effuse their blended lustres round her throne;
Suns call to suns, in lucid clouds conspire,
And light exterior skies with golden fire;
Resistless rolls the illimitable sphere,
And one great circle forms the unmeasured year.
—Roll on, ye Stars! exult in youthful prime,
Mark with bright curves the printless steps of Time;
And lessening orbs on lessening orbs encroach;—
Flowers of the sky! ye too to age must yield,
Frail as your silken sisters of the field!
Star after star from Heaven's high arch shall rush,
Suns sink on suns, and systems systems crush,
Headlong, extinct, to one dark centre fall,
And Death and Night and Chaos mingle all!
—Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,
Immortal Nature lifts her changeful form,
Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,
And soars and shines, another and the same.
2.
“Lo! on each Seed within its slender rindLife's golden threads in endless circles wind;
Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd,
And, as they burst, the living flame unfold.
The Oak's vast branches in its milky veins;
Each ravel'd bud, fine film, and fibre-line
Traced with nice pencil on the small design.
The young Narcissus, in its bulb compress'd,
Cradles a second nestling on its breast;
In whose fine arms a younger embryon lies,
Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes;
Grain within grain successive harvests dwell,
And boundless forests slumber in a shell.
—So yon grey precipice, and ivy'd towers,
Long winding meads, and intermingled bowers,
Green files of poplars, o'er the lake that bow,
And glimmering wheel, which rolls and foams below,
In one bright point with nice distinction lie
Plann'd on the moving tablet of the eye.
—So, fold on fold, Earth's wavy plains extend,
And, sphere in sphere, its hidden strata bend;—
Incumbent Spring her beamy plumes expands
O'er restless oceans, and impatient lands,
With genial lustres warms the mighty ball,
And the Great Seed evolves, disclosing All;
And the vast surface kindles, as it rolls!
3.
“Come, ye soft Sylphs! who sport on Latian land,Come, sweet-lip'd Zephyr, and Favonius bland!
Teach the fine Seed, instinct with life, to shoot
On Earth's cold bosom its descending root;
Part the twin Lobes, expand the throbbing Gem;
Clasp in your airy arms the aspiring Plume,
Fan with your balmy breath its kindling bloom,
Each widening scale and bursting film unfold,
Swell the green cup, and tint the flower with gold;
While in bright veins the silvery Sap ascends,
And refluent blood in milky eddies bends;
Or drink the golden quintessence of day.
—So from his shell on Delta's shower-less isle
Bursts into life the Monster of the Nile;
First in translucent lymph with cobweb-threads
The Brain's fine floating tissue swells, and spreads;
Nerve after nerve the glistening spine descends,
The red Heart dances, the Aorta bends;
Through each new gland the purple current glides,
New Veins meandering drink the refluent tides;
And sheaths his slimy skin in silver mail.
—Erewhile, emerging from the brooding sand,
With Tyger-paw He prints the brineless strand,
High on the flood with speckled bosom swims,
Helm'd with broad tail, and oar'd with giant limbs;
Rolls his fierce eye-balls, clasps his iron claws,
And champs with gnashing teeth his massy jaws;
Old Nilus sighs along his cane-crown'd shores,
And swarthy Memphis trembles and adores.
XI.
“Come, ye soft Sylphs! who fan the Paphian groves,And bear on sportive wings the callow Loves;
Call with sweet whisper, in each gale that blows,
The slumbering Snow-drop from her long repose;
Charm the pale Primrose from her clay-cold bed,
Unveil the bashful Violet's tremulous head;
While from her bud the playful Tulip breaks,
And young Carnations peep with blushing cheeks;
Bid the closed Corol from nocturnal cold
Curtain'd with silk the virgin Stigma fold,
And wave in light its iridescent hues.
So shall from high the bursting Anther trust
To the mild breezes the prolific dust;
Or bow his waxen head with graceful pride,
Watch the first blushes of his waking bride,
Give to her hand the honey'd cup, or sip
Celestial nectar from her sweeter lip;
Hang in soft raptures o'er the yielding Fair,
Love out his hour, and leave his life in air.
Warm'd with new life, unfolds his larva-form;
Erewhile aloft in wanton circles moves,
And woos on Hymen-wings his velvet loves.
XII.
1.
“If prouder branches with exuberance rudePoint their green germs, their barren shoots protrude;
Wound them, ye Sylphs! with little knives, or bind
A wiry ringlet round the swelling rind;
Or bend to earth the inhospitable bough.
Delay the leaf-bud, and expand the flower;
The lengthening Wood in circling Stamens bend;
The smoother Rind its soft embroidery spread
In vaulted Petals o'er the gorgeous bed;
Form the green Calyx, fold including fold;
Each widening Bracte expand it's foliage hard,
And hem the bright pavillion, Floral Guard.
—So the cold rill from Cintra's steepy sides,
Headlong, abrupt, in barren channels glides;
Round the rent cliffs the bark-bound Suber spreads,
And lazy monks recline on corky beds;
Till, led by art, the wondering water moves
Through vine hung avenues, and citron groves;
Green slopes the velvet round it's silver source,
And flowers, and fruits, and foliage mark it's course.
At breezy eve, along the irriguous plain
The fair Beckfordia leads her virgin train;
Seeks the cool grot, the shadowy rocks among,
And tunes the mountain-echoes to her song;
Or prints with graceful steps the margin green,
And brighter glories gild the inchanted scene.
2.
Stint the young germ, the tender blossom stain;
Pith press'd to pith, and rind applied to rind,
So shall the trunk with loftier crest ascend,
And wide in air it's happier arms extend;
Nurse the new buds, admire the leaves unknown,
And blushing bend with fruitage not it's own.
And offer'd on the shrine his mystic rod;
New buds emerging widen into leaves;
Fair fruits protrude, enascent flowers expand,
And blush and tremble round the living wand.
XIII.
1.
“Sylphs! on each Oak-bud wound the wormy galls,With pigmy spears, or crush the venom'd balls;
Fright the green Locust from his foamy bed,
Unweave the Caterpillar's gluey thread;
Chase the fierce Earwig, scare the bloated Toad,
Arrest the Snail upon his slimy road;
Arm with sharp thorns the Sweet-brier's tender wood,
And dash the Cynips from her damask bud;
Steep in ambrosial dews the Woodbine's bells,
And drive the Night-moth from her honey'd cells.
So where the Humming-bird in Chili's bowers
On murmuring pinions robs the pendent flowers;
Seeks, where fine pores their dulcet balm distill,
And sucks the treasure with proboscis-bill;
Knits her smooth brow, extinguishes her smile;
Hide her fine form, and mask her blushing charms;
In ambush sly the mimic warrior lies
And on quick wing the panting plunderer flies.
2.
“Shield the young Harvest from devouring blight,The Smut's dark poison and the Mildew white;
Deep-rooted Mould, and Ergot's horn uncouth,
And break the Canker's desolating tooth.
Mines unperceived beneath the shrivel'd rind;
Then climbs the branches with increasing strength,
Spreads as they spread, and lengthens with their length;
—Thus the slight wound ingraved on glass unneal'd
Runs in white lines along the lucid field;
And the frail fabric shivers into dust.
XIV.
1.
“Sylphs! if with morn destructive Eurus springs,O, clasp the Harebel with your velvet wings;
Screen with thick leaves the Jasmine as it blows,
And shake the white rime from the shuddering Rose;
Whilst Amaryllis turns with graceful ease
Her blushing beauties, and eludes the breeze.—
Sylphs! if at noon the Fritillary droops,
With drops nectareous hang her nodding cups;
And hide the vale's chaste Lily from the ray;
Whilst Erythrina o'er her tender flower
Bends all her leaves, and braves the sultry hour;—
Shield, when cold Hesper sheds his dewy light,
Mimosa's soft sensations from the night;
Fold her thin foliage, close her timid flowers,
And with ambrosial slumbers guard her bowers;
O'er each warm wall while Cerea flings her arms,
And wastes on night's dull eye a blaze of charms.
2.
The gadding tendrils of the adventurous Vine;
From arm to arm in gay festoons suspend
Her fragrant flowers, her graceful foliage bend;
Swell with sweet juice her vermil orbs, and feed;
Shrined in transparent pulp her pearly seed;
Hang round the Orange all her silver bells,
And guard her fragrance with Hesperian spells;
Bud after bud her polish'd leaves unfold,
And load her branches with successive gold.
So the learn'd Alchemist exulting sees
Rise in his bright matrass Diana's trees;
The red-fumed acid on Potosi's ores;
With sudden flash the fierce bullitions rise,
And wide in air the gas phlogistic flies;
Slow shoot, at length, in many a brilliant mass
Metallic roots across the netted glass;
Branch after branch extend their silver stems,
Bud into gold, and blossom into gems.
Imperial Kew by Thames's glittering side;
Obedient sails from realms unsurrow'd bring
For her the unnam'd progeny of spring;
And nurse in fostering arms the tender year,
Plant the young bulb, inhume the living seed,
Prop the weak stem, the erring tendril lead;
Or fan in glass-built fanes the stranger flowers
With milder gales, and steep with warmer showers.
Delighted Thames through tropic umbrage glides,
And flowers antarctic, bending o'er his tides;
Drinks the new tints, the sweets unknown inhales,
And calls the sons of science to his vales.
In one bright point admiring Nature eyes
The fruits and foliage of discordant skies,
Twines the gay floret with the fragrant bough,
And bends the wreath round George's royal brow.
—Sometimes retiring, from the public weal
One tranquil hour the Royal Partners steal;
Through glades exotic pass with step sublime,
Or mark the growths of Britain's happier clime;
With beauty blossom'd, and with virtue blaz'd,
Mark the fair Scions, that themselves have rais'd;
Sweet blooms the Rose, the towering Oak expands,
The Grace and Guard of Britain's golden lands.
XV.
Attend the radiant chariot of the morn;
Lead the gay hours along the ethereal hight,
And on each dun meridian shower the light;
Sylphs! who from realms of equatorial day
To climes, that shudder in the polar ray,
From zone to zone pursue on shifting wing,
The bright perennial journey of the spring;
Bring my rich Balms from Mecca's hallow'd glades,
Sweet flowers, that glitter in Arabia's shades;
Fruits, whose fair forms in bright succession glow
Gilding the banks of Arno, or of Po;
Each leaf, whose fragrant steam with ruby lip
Gay China's nymphs from pictur'd vases sip;
Each spicy rind, which sultry India boasts,
Scenting the night-air round her breezy coasts;
Roots, whose bold stems in bleak Siberia blow,
And gem with many a tint the eternal snow;
Barks, whose broad umbrage high in ether waves
O'er Ande's steeps, and hides his golden caves;
—And, where yon oak extends his dusky shoots
Wide o'er the rill, that bubbles from his roots;
A turf-built altar rears it's rustic form;
Sylphs! with religious hands fresh garlands twine,
And deck with lavish pomp Hygeia's shrine.
On floating cloud, wide wave, or bubbling well;
Stamp with charm'd foot, convoke the alarmed Gnomes
From golden beds, and adamantine domes;
Each from her sphere with beckoning arm invite,
Curl'd with red flame the Vestal Forms of light.
Close all your spotted wings, in lucid ranks
Press with your bending knees the crowded banks,
Cross your meek arms, incline your wreathed brows,
And win the Goddess with unwearied vows.
Thy serpent-wand, and mark it for thy own;
Lead round her breezy coasts thy guardian trains,
Her nodding forests, and her waving plains;
Shed o'er her peopled realms thy beamy smile,
And with thy airy temple crown her isle!”
The wandering Zephyrs, joins them to her car;
Mounts with light bound, and graceful, as she bends,
Whirls the long lash, the flexile rein extends;
On whispering wheels the silver axle slides,
Climbs into air, and cleaves the crystal tides;
Burst from it's pearly chains, her amber hair
Streams o'er her ivory shoulders, buoy'd in air;
Swells her white veil, with ruby clasp confined
Round her fair brow, and undulates behind;
The lessening coursers rise in spiral rings,
Pierce the slow-sailing clouds, and stretch their shadowy wings.
The botanic garden, a poem | ||