THE MOWER AGAINST GARDENS 



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 through 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. 

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