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 should young SYMPATHY, in female form,
Climb the tall rock, spectatress of the storm;
Life's sinking wrecks with secret sighs deplore,
And bleed for others' woes, Herself on shore;
465 To friendless Virtue, gasping on the strand,
Bare her warm heart, her virgin arms expand,
Charm with kind looks, with tender accents cheer,
And pour the sweet consolatory tear;
Grief's cureless wounds with lenient balms asswage,
470 Or prop with firmer staff the steps of Age;
The lifted arm of mute Despair arrest,
And snatch the dagger pointed to his breast;
Or lull to slumber Envy's haggard mien,
And rob her quiver'd shafts with hand unseen.
475 --Sound, NYMPHS OF HELICON! the trump of Fame,
And teach Hibernian echoes JONES'S name;
Bind round her polish'd brow the civic bay,
And drag the fair Philanthropist to day.--
So from secluded springs, and secret caves,
480 Her Liffy pours his bright meandering waves,
Cools the parch'd vale, the sultry mead divides,
And towns and temples star his shadowy sides.
[_Jones's name_. l. 476. A young lady who devotes a great part of an
ample fortune to well chosen acts of secret charity.]
XIII. "CALL YOUR light legions, tread the swampy heath,
Pierce with sharp spades the tremulous peat beneath;
485 With colters bright the rushy sward bisect,
And in new veins the gushing rills direct;--
So flowers shall rise in purple light array'd,
And blossom'd orchards stretch their silver shade;
Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold,
490 And Labour sleep amid the waving gold.
"Thus when young HERCULES with firm disdain
Braved the soft smiles of Pleasure's harlot train;
To valiant toils his forceful limbs assign'd,
And gave to Virtue all his mighty mind,
495 Fierce ACHELOUS rush'd from mountain-caves,
O'er sad Etolia pour'd his wasteful waves,
O'er lowing vales and bleating pastures roll'd,
Swept her red vineyards, and her glebes of gold,
Mined all her towns, uptore her rooted woods,
500 And Famine danced upon the shining floods.
The youthful Hero seized his curled crest,
And dash'd with lifted club the watery Pest;
With waving arm the billowy tumult quell'd,
And to his course the bellowing Fiend repell'd.
[_Fierce Achelous_. l. 495. The river Achelous deluged Etolia, by one of
its branches or arms, which in the antient languages are called horns,
and produced famine throughout a great tract of country, this was
represented in hieroglyphic emblems by the winding course of a serpent
and the roaring of a bull with large horns. Hercules, or the emblem of
strength, strangled the serpent, and tore off one horn from the bull;
that is, he stopped and turned the course of one arm of the river, and
restored plenty to the country. Whence the antient emblem of the horn of
plenty. Dict. par M. Danet.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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