27.05.2007, 12:37
To the Goddess of Botany
Of folly weary, shrinking from the view
Of violence and fraud, allowed to take
All peace from humble life, I would forsake
Their haunts for ever, and, sweet nymph! with you
Find shelter; where my tired and tear-swoln eyes,
Among your silent shades of soothing hue,
Your "bells and florets of unnumbered dyes"
Might rest--and learn the bright varieties
That from your lovely hands are fed with dew;
And every veinéd leaf that trembling sighs
In mead or woodland; or in wilds remote;
Or lurk with mosses in the humid caves,
Mantle the cliffs, on dimpling rivers float,
Or stream from coral rocks beneath the ocean waves.
Of folly weary, shrinking from the view
Of violence and fraud, allowed to take
All peace from humble life, I would forsake
Their haunts for ever, and, sweet nymph! with you
Find shelter; where my tired and tear-swoln eyes,
Among your silent shades of soothing hue,
Your "bells and florets of unnumbered dyes"
Might rest--and learn the bright varieties
That from your lovely hands are fed with dew;
And every veinéd leaf that trembling sighs
In mead or woodland; or in wilds remote;
Or lurk with mosses in the humid caves,
Mantle the cliffs, on dimpling rivers float,
Or stream from coral rocks beneath the ocean waves.