The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of VegetationDarwin, Erasmus
History
The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation
Darwin, Erasmus
Natural history; Plants -- Poetry; Portland Vase
"So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone
Fair PSYCHE, kneeling at the ethereal throne;
Won with coy smiles the admiring court of Jove,
50 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;
55 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.--
--Hence plastic Nature, as Oblivion whelms
60 Her fading forms, repeoples all her realms;
Soft Joys disport on purple plumes unfurl'd,
And Love and Beauty rule the willing world.
[_Fair Psyche_. l. 48. Described from an antient gem on a fine onyx in
possession of the Duke of Marlborough, of which there is a beautiful
print in Bryant's Mythol. Vol II. p. 392. And from another antient gem
of Cupid and Psyche embracing, of which there is a print in Spence's
Polymetis. p. 82.]
[_Repeoples all her realms_. l. 60.
Quae mare navigerum et terras frugiferentes
Concelebras; per te quoniam genus omne animantum
Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina folis. Lucret.]
III. 1. "SYLPHS! Your bold myriads on the withering heath
Stay the fell SYROC'S suffocative breath;
65 Arrest SIMOOM in his realms of sand,
The poisoned javelin balanced in his hand;--
Fierce on blue streams he rides the tainted air,
Points his keen eye, and waves his whistling hair;
While, as he turns, the undulating soil
70 Rolls in red waves, and billowy deserts boil.
[_Arrest Simoom_. l. 65. "At eleven o'clock while we were with great
pleasure contemplating the rugged tops of Chiggre, where we expected to
solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out with a loud
voice, "fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom!" I saw from the
S.E. a haze come in colour like the purple part of a rainbow, but not so
compressed or thick; it did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was
about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of a blush upon
the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon
the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its
current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat upon the ground, as if
dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze,
which I saw was indeed passed; but the light air that still blew was of
heat to threaten suffocation. For my part I found distinctly in my
breast, that I had imbibed a part of it; nor was I free of an asthmatic
sensation till I had been some months in Italy." Bruce's Travels. Vol.
IV. p. 557.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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