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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]
Darwin, Erasmus (1731-1802)
  
[epigraph]

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[section]
  
TO THE AUTHOR OF THE POEM ON THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS.
  
TO Dr. DARWIN.
  
TO Dr. DARWIN.
  
TO Dr. DARWIN.
  
Address to the River Derwent, on whose Banks the Author of the Botanic Garden resides.
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THE BOTANIC GARDEN.
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PART I. CONTAINING THE ECONOMY OF VEGETATION
 I. 
CANTO I.
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
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III.
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IV.
 V. 
V.
 VI. 
VI.
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VII.
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2.
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3.
 VIII. 
VIII.
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XI.
 XII. 
XII.
  
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CANTO II.
  
[prologue]
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
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V.
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1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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VI.
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2.
 VII. 
VII.
 VIII. 
VIII.
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XI.
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CANTO III.
  
[prologue]
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
 III. 
III.
 IV. 
IV.
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V.
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1.
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2.
 VI. 
VI.
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VII.
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VIII.
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IX.
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X.
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XI.
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XII.
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XIII.
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XIV.
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CANTO IV.
  
[prologue]
 I. 
I.
 II. 
II.
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III.
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1.
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2.
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IV.
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VIII.
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X.
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XI.
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XII.
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XIII.
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XIV.
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1.
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2.
 XV. 
XV.
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PART II. CONTAINING THE LOVES OF THE PLANTS
 I. 
CANTO I.
 II. 
CANTO II.
 III. 
CANTO III.
 IV. 
CANTO IV.

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II.

1.

“Aquatic Maids! you sway the mighty realms
Of scale and shell, which Ocean overwhelms;
As Night's pale Queen her rising orb reveals,
And climbs the zenith with refulgent wheels,
Carr'd on the foam your glimmering legion rides,
Your little tridents heave the dashing tides,
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Urge on the sounding shores their crystal course,
Restrain their fury, or direct their force.
137

2.

“Nymphs! you adorn, in glossy volutes roll'd,
The gaudy conch with azure, green, and gold.
138

You round Echinus ray his arrowy mail,
Give the keel'd Nautilus his oar and sail;
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Firm to his rock with silver cords suspend
The anchor'd Pinna, and his Cancer-friend;
With worm-like beard his toothless lips array,
And teach the unwieldy Sturgeon to betray.—
Ambush'd in weeds, or sepulchred in sands,
In dread repose He waits the scaly bands,
Waves in red spires the living lures, and draws
The unwary plunderers to his circling jaws,
Eyes with grim joy the twinkling shoals beset,
And clasps the quick inextricable net.
You chase the warrior Shark, and cumberous Whale,
And guard the Mermaid in her briny vale;
Feed the live petals of her insect-flowers,
Her shell-wrack gardens, and her sea-fan bowers;
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With ores and gems adorn her coral cell,
And drop a pearl in every gaping shell.

3.

“Your myriad trains o'er stagnant oceans tow,
Harness'd with gossamer, the loitering prow;
Or with fine films, suspended o'er the deep,
Of oil effusive lull the waves to sleep.
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You stay the flying bark, conceal'd beneath,
Where living rocks of worm-built coral breathe;
Meet fell Teredo, as he mines the keel
With beaked head, and break his lips of steel;
Turn the broad helm, the fluttering canvas urge
From Maelstrome's fierce innavigable surge.
—'Mid the lorn isles of Norway's stormy main,
As sweeps o'er many a league his eddying train,
Vast watery walls in rapid circles spin,
And deep-ingulph'd the Demon dwells within;
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Springs o'er the fear-froze crew with harpy-claws,
Down his deep den the whirling vessel draws;
Churns with his bloody mouth the dread repast,
The booming waters murmuring o'er the mast.
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