Opening the text

The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.Darwin, Erasmus

History

The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.

Name: The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.
Author: Darwin, Erasmus

Darwin, Erasmus

Natural history; Plants -- Poetry

Now to the left her ivory neck inclines,
        And leads in Paphian curves its azure lines;
115  Dark waves the fringed lid, the warm cheek glows,
        And the fair ear the parting locks disclose;
        Now to the right with airy sweep she bends,
        Quick join the threads, the dancing spole depends.
        --_Five_ Swains attracted guard the Nymph, by turns
120  Her grace inchants them, and her beauty burns;
        To each She bows with sweet assuasive smile,
        Hears his soft vows, and turns her spole the while.

        So when with light and shade, concordant strife!
        Stern CLOTHO weaves the chequer'd thread of life;
125  Hour after hour the growing line extends,
        The cradle and the coffin bound its ends;


[_Paphian curves._ l. 114. In his ingenious work, entitled, The Analysis
of Beauty, Mr. Hogarth believes that the triangular glass, which was
dedicated to Venus in her temple at Paphos, contained in it a line
bending spirally round a cone with a certain degree of curviture;
and that this pyramidal outline and serpentine curve constitute the
principles of Grace and Beauty.]


       Soft cords of silk the whirling spoles reveal,
        If smiling Fortune turn the giddy wheel;
        But if sweet Love with baby-fingers twines,
130  And wets with dewy lips the lengthening lines,
        Skein after skein celestial tints unfold,
        And all the silken tissue shines with gold.

        Warm with sweet blushes bright GALANTHA glows,
        And prints with frolic step the melting snows;


[_Galanthus._ l. 133. Nivalis. Snowdrop. Six males, one female. The
first flower that appears after the winter solstice. See Stillingfleet's
Calendar of Flora.

Some snowdrop-roots taken up in winter, and boiled, had the insipid
mucilaginous taste of the Orchis, and, if cured in the same manner, would
probably make as good salep. The roots of the Hyacinth, I am informed,
are equally insipid, and might be used as an article of food. Gmelin, in
his History of Siberia, says the Martigon Lily makes a part of the food
of that country, which is of the same natural order as the snowdrop. Some
roots of Crocus, which I boiled, had a disagreeable flavour.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.Darwin, Erasmus

History

The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.

Darwin, Erasmus

Natural history; Plants -- Poetry

Now to the left her ivory neck inclines,
        And leads in Paphian curves its azure lines;
115  Dark waves the fringed lid, the warm cheek glows,
        And the fair ear the parting locks disclose;
        Now to the right with airy sweep she bends,
        Quick join the threads, the dancing spole depends.
        --_Five_ Swains attracted guard the Nymph, by turns
120  Her grace inchants them, and her beauty burns;
        To each She bows with sweet assuasive smile,
        Hears his soft vows, and turns her spole the while.

        So when with light and shade, concordant strife!
        Stern CLOTHO weaves the chequer'd thread of life;
125  Hour after hour the growing line extends,
        The cradle and the coffin bound its ends;


[_Paphian curves._ l. 114. In his ingenious work, entitled, The Analysis
of Beauty, Mr. Hogarth believes that the triangular glass, which was
dedicated to Venus in her temple at Paphos, contained in it a line
bending spirally round a cone with a certain degree of curviture;
and that this pyramidal outline and serpentine curve constitute the
principles of Grace and Beauty.]


       Soft cords of silk the whirling spoles reveal,
        If smiling Fortune turn the giddy wheel;
        But if sweet Love with baby-fingers twines,
130  And wets with dewy lips the lengthening lines,
        Skein after skein celestial tints unfold,
        And all the silken tissue shines with gold.

        Warm with sweet blushes bright GALANTHA glows,
        And prints with frolic step the melting snows;


[_Galanthus._ l. 133. Nivalis. Snowdrop. Six males, one female. The
first flower that appears after the winter solstice. See Stillingfleet's
Calendar of Flora.

Some snowdrop-roots taken up in winter, and boiled, had the insipid
mucilaginous taste of the Orchis, and, if cured in the same manner, would
probably make as good salep. The roots of the Hyacinth, I am informed,
are equally insipid, and might be used as an article of food. Gmelin, in
his History of Siberia, says the Martigon Lily makes a part of the food
of that country, which is of the same natural order as the snowdrop. Some
roots of Crocus, which I boiled, had a disagreeable flavour.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.

The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.

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