Volume Ii Part 13 (1/2)
”And if, like me, some love-lorn maid ”Should sing her sorrows to thy shade, ”Oh, sooth her breast, ye rocks around!
”With softest sympathy of sound.”
95 From ozier bowers the brooding Halcyons peep, The Swans pursuing cleave the gla.s.sy deep, On hovering wings the wondering Reed-larks play, And silent Bitterns listen to the lay.-- _Three_ shepherd-swains beneath the beechen shades 100 Twine rival garlands for the tuneful maids; On each smooth bark the mystic love-knot frame, Or on white sands inscribe the favour'd name.
From Time's remotest dawn where China brings In proud succession all her Patriot-Kings; 105 O'er desert-sands, deep gulfs, and hills sublime, Extends her ma.s.sy wall from clime to clime; With bells and dragons crests her PaG.o.d-bowers, Her silken palaces, and porcelain towers; With long ca.n.a.ls a thousand nations laves; 110 Plants all her wilds, and peoples all her waves; Slow treads fair CANNABIS the breezy strand, The distaff streams dishevell'd in her hand;
[_Cannabis_. l. 111. Chinese Hemp. Two houses. Five males. A new species of hemp, of which an account is given by K. Fitzgerald, Esq. in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, and which is believed to be much superior to the hemp of other countries. A few seeds of this plant were sown in England on the 4th of June, and grew to fourteen feet seven inches in height by the middle of October; they were nearly seven inches in circ.u.mference, and bore many lateral branches, and produced very white and tough fibres. At some parts of the time these plants grew nearly eleven inches in a week. Philos. Trans. Vol. LXXII. p. 46.]
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 a.s.suasive 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, ent.i.tled, The a.n.a.lysis of Beauty, Mr. Hogarth believes that the triangular gla.s.s, 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 const.i.tute 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 s.h.i.+nes 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.
The difficulty of raising the Orchis from seed has, perhaps, been a princ.i.p.al reason of its not being cultivated in this country as an article of food. It is affirmed, by one of the Linnean school, in the Amoenit. Academ. that the seeds of Orchis will ripen, if you destroy the new bulb; and that Lily of the Valley, Convallaria, will produce many more seeds, and ripen them, if the roots be crowded in a garden-pot, so as to prevent them from producing many bulbs. Vol. VI. p. 120. It is probable either of these methods may succeed with these and other bulbous-rooted plants, as snowdrops, and might render their cultivation profitable in this climate. The root of the asphodelus ramosus, branchy asphodel, is used to feed swine in France; and starch is obtained from the alstromeria licta. Memoires d'Agricult.]
135 O'er silent floods, white hills, and glittering meads _Six_ rival swains the playful beauty leads, Chides with her dulcet voice the tardy Spring, Bids slumbering Zephyr stretch his folded wing, Wakes the hoa.r.s.e Cuckoo in his gloomy cave, 140 And calls the wondering Dormouse from his grave, Bids the mute Redbreast cheer the budding grove, And plaintive Ringdove tune her notes to love.
Spring! with thy own sweet smile, and tuneful tongue, Delighted BELLIS calls her infant throng.
145 Each on his reed astride, the Cherub-train Watch her kind looks, and circle o'er the plain; Now with young wonder touch the siding snail, Admire his eye-tipp'd horns, and painted mail; Chase with quick step, and eager arms outspread, 150 The pausing b.u.t.terfly from mead to mead;
[_Bellis prolifera_ l. 144. Hen and chicken Daisy; in this beautiful monster not only the impletion or doubling of the petals takes place, as described in the note on Alcea; but a numerous circlet of less flowers on peduncles, or footstalks, rise from the sides of the calyx, and surround the proliferous parent. The same occurs in Calendula, marigold; in Heracium, hawk-weed; and in Scabiosa, Scabious. Phil. Botan. p. 82.]
Or twine green oziers with the fragrant gale, The azure harebel, and the primrose pale, Join hand in hand, and in procession gay Adorn with votive wreaths the shrine of May.
155 --So moves the G.o.ddess to the Idalian groves, And leads her gold-hair'd family of Loves.
These, from the flaming furnace, strong and bold Pour the red steel into the sandy mould; On tinkling anvils (with Vulcanian art), 160 Turn with hot tongs, and forge the dreadful dart; The barbed head on whirling jaspers grind, And dip the point in poison for the mind; Each polish'd shaft with snow-white plumage wing, Or strain the bow reluctant to its string.
165 Those on light pinion twine with busy hands, Or stretch from bough to bough the flowery bands;
[_The fragrant Gale._ l. 151. The buds of the Myrica Gale possess an agreeable aromatic fragrance, and might be worth attending to as an article of the Materia Medica. Mr. Sparman suspects, that the green wax-like substance, with which at certain times of the year the berries of the Myrica cerifera, or candle-berry Myrtle, are covered, are deposited there by insects. It is used by the inhabitants for making candles, which he says burn rather better than those made of tallow.
_Voyage to the Cape,_ V. I. 345.]