THE MOWER
by: Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
- UXURIOUS
man, to bring his vice in use,
- Did after him the world seduce;
- And from the fields the flow'rs and plants allure,
- Where nature was most plain and pure.
- He first enclos'd within the garden's square
- A dead and standing pool of air;
- And a more luscious earth for them did knead,
- Which stupefied them while it fed.
- The pink grew then as double as his mind;
- The nutriment did change the kind.
- With strange perfumes he did the roses taint,
- And flow'rs themselves were taught to paint.
- The tulip, white, did for complexion seek,
- And learn'd to interline its cheek;
- Its onion root they then so high did hold,
- That one was for a meadow sold.
- Another world was search'd, through oceans new,
- To find the Marvel of Peru.
- And yet these rarities might be allow'd,
- To man, that sov'reign thing and proud;
- Had he not dealt between the bark and tree,
- Forbidden mixtures there to see.
- No plant now knew the stock from which it came,
- He grafts upon the wild the tame;
- That the uncertain and adult'rate fruit
- Might put the palate in dispute.
- His green seraglio has its eunuchs too,
- Lest any tyrant him out-do;
- And in the cherry he does nature vex,
- To procreate without a sex.
- 'Tis all enforc'd, the fountain and the grot,
- While the sweet fields do lie forgot;
- Where willing nature does to all dispense
- A wild and fragrant innocence;
- And fauns and fairies do the meadows till,
- More by their presence than their skill.
- Their statues polish'd by some ancient hand,
- May to adorn the gardens stand;
- But howso'ere the figures do excel,
- The gods themselves with us do dwell.
"The Mower" is reprinted
from Miscellaneous Poems. Andrew Marvell. London: Printed
for Robert Boulter at the Turks-Head in Cornhill, 1681. |
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