---

Andrew Marvell - The Mower Against Gardens
Work rating: Low

Luxurious 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 Gardens square
A dead and standing pool of Air:
And a more luscious Earth for them did knead,
Which stupifi`d 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, though Oceans new,
To find the Marvel Of Peru.
And yet these Rarities might be allow`d,
To Man, that Sov`raign 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-doe.
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 lye forgot:
Where willing Nature does to all dispence
A wild and fragrant Innocence:
And Fauns and Faryes do the Meadows till,
More by their presence then 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.
Source
The script ran 0.002 seconds.