"CT IN PRAISE OF GARDENS U 



These unbought sports, this happy state, 

 I would not fear nor wish my fate, 



But boldly say each night, 

 To-morrow let my sun his beams display, 

 Or, in clouds hide them ; I have liv'd to-day. 



A. COWLEY. 



The Mower Against Gardens 



Luxurious man, to bring his vice in use, 



Did after him the word seduce, 

 And from the fields the flowers and plants allure, 



Where Nature was most plain and pure. 

 He first inclosed within the gardens 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 flowers themselves were taught to paint. 

 The tulip white did for complexion seek, 



And learned to interline its cheek; 

 Its onion root they then so high did hold, 



That one was for a meadow sold: 



[no] 



