POPPY. 341 



For being round and full at his half-birth, 



It signified the perfect orb of earth ; 



And by his inequalities, when blowne, 



The earth's low vales and higher hills were showne ; 



By multitude of grains it held within 



Of men and beasts the number noted bin ; 



Or cause that seede our elders used to eate, 



With honey mixt (and was their after meate) ; 



Or since her daughter that she loved so well, 



By him that in th' infernal shades does dwell, 



And on the Stygian banks for ever raignes, 



(Troubled with horrid cries and noise of chaines) 



Fairest Proserpina, was rapt away; 



And she in plaints the night, in tears the day, 



Had long time spent : when no high power could give her 



Any redresse, the poppy did relieve her : 



For eating of the seeds, they sleep procured, 



And so beguiled those griefs she long endured." 



W. BROWNE, vol. ii. 97. 



A friend informs me, that there is a pretty fiction in one 

 of the Latin poems of Mr. Landor, in which Ceres is sup- 

 posed to have given rise to the Poppy, to assuage her anguish 

 during the search for her daughter. My friend would 

 have translated it for this work, but he obeys an injunction 

 in the poem, by which the eulogizers of the Poppy are 

 warned how they eulogize it too much. Indeed the 

 most merited praises of this "balm of the gods" cannot 

 be accompanied with too great caution against the abuse 

 of it. 



By the ancients the seeds of the White Poppy were 

 served up in their desserts ; and they are now used by the 

 Germans to sprinkle over cakes: we use them by their 

 German name of maw-seed, as a cooling food for singing 

 birds. 



The statues of Ceres are commonly adorned with Pop- 

 pies, they being ever the faithful companions of corn. 

 Companions, but not friends, the farmer looks with no kind 



