shall we never more
That sweet militia restore,
When gardens only had their towers,
And all the garrisons were flowers.
That sweet militia restore,
When gardens only had their towers,
And all the garrisons were flowers.
Marvell - Poems
though not compare
With breath so sweet, or cheek so fair!
Well shot, ye firemen ! Oh how sweet «»
And round your equal fires do meet.
Whose shrill report no ear can tell,
But echoes to the eye and smell !
See how the flowers, as at parade.
Under their colours stand displayed ; sit
Each regiment in order grows,
That of the tulip, pink, and rose.
But when the vigilant patrol
Of stars walk round about the pole.
Their leaves, which to the stalks are curled, «'»•
Seem to their staves the ensigns furled.
2
Digitized by VjOOQIC
18 THE POLMS
Then in some flower's beloved hut,
Each bee, as sentinel, is shut,
And sleeps so too, but, if once stu-red.
She runs you through, nor asks the word.
Oh thou, that dear and happy isle.
The garden of the world erewhile.
Thou Paradise of the four seas.
Which heaven planted us to please,
But, to exclude the world, did guard
With watery, if not flaming sword, —
What luckless apple did we taste,
To make us mortal, and thee waste ?
Unhappy !
shall we never more
That sweet militia restore,
When gardens only had their towers,
And all the garrisons were flowers.
When roses only arms might bear.
And men did rosy garlands wear ?
Tulips, in several colours barred,
Were then the Switzers of our guard ;
The gardener had the soldier's place.
And his more gentle forts did trace ;
The nui-sery of all things green
Was then the only magazine ;
The winter quarters were the stoves,
Where he the tender plants removes.
But war all this doth overgrow :
We ordnance plant, and powder sow.
And yet there walks one on the sod.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
OF MARVELL. 15
Who, had it pleased him and God,
Might once have made our gardens spring,
Fresh as his own, and flourishing.
But he preferred to the Cinque Ports,
These ^vq imaginary forts, sm
And, in those half-dry trenches, spanned
Power which the ocean might command.
For he did, with his utmost skill.
Ambition weed, but conscience till, —
Conscience, that heaven-nursed plant, 333
Which most our earthly gardens want.
A prickling leaf it bears, and such
As that which shrinks at every touch,
But flowers eternal, and divine,
Which in the crowns of Saints do shine. 3»
The sight does from these bastions ply,
The invisible artillery.
And at proud Cawood Castle seems
To point the battery of its beams,
As if it quarrelled in the seat, xa
The ambition of his prelate great,
But o'er the meads below it plays,
Or innocently seems to gaze.
And now to the abyss I pass
Of that unfathomable grass, 370
Where men like grasshoppers appear,
But grasshoppers are giants there :
They, in their squeaking laugh, contemn
Us as we walk more low than them,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
20 THE POEMS
And from the precipices tall
Of the green spires to us do call.
With breath so sweet, or cheek so fair!
Well shot, ye firemen ! Oh how sweet «»
And round your equal fires do meet.
Whose shrill report no ear can tell,
But echoes to the eye and smell !
See how the flowers, as at parade.
Under their colours stand displayed ; sit
Each regiment in order grows,
That of the tulip, pink, and rose.
But when the vigilant patrol
Of stars walk round about the pole.
Their leaves, which to the stalks are curled, «'»•
Seem to their staves the ensigns furled.
2
Digitized by VjOOQIC
18 THE POLMS
Then in some flower's beloved hut,
Each bee, as sentinel, is shut,
And sleeps so too, but, if once stu-red.
She runs you through, nor asks the word.
Oh thou, that dear and happy isle.
The garden of the world erewhile.
Thou Paradise of the four seas.
Which heaven planted us to please,
But, to exclude the world, did guard
With watery, if not flaming sword, —
What luckless apple did we taste,
To make us mortal, and thee waste ?
Unhappy !
shall we never more
That sweet militia restore,
When gardens only had their towers,
And all the garrisons were flowers.
When roses only arms might bear.
And men did rosy garlands wear ?
Tulips, in several colours barred,
Were then the Switzers of our guard ;
The gardener had the soldier's place.
And his more gentle forts did trace ;
The nui-sery of all things green
Was then the only magazine ;
The winter quarters were the stoves,
Where he the tender plants removes.
But war all this doth overgrow :
We ordnance plant, and powder sow.
And yet there walks one on the sod.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
OF MARVELL. 15
Who, had it pleased him and God,
Might once have made our gardens spring,
Fresh as his own, and flourishing.
But he preferred to the Cinque Ports,
These ^vq imaginary forts, sm
And, in those half-dry trenches, spanned
Power which the ocean might command.
For he did, with his utmost skill.
Ambition weed, but conscience till, —
Conscience, that heaven-nursed plant, 333
Which most our earthly gardens want.
A prickling leaf it bears, and such
As that which shrinks at every touch,
But flowers eternal, and divine,
Which in the crowns of Saints do shine. 3»
The sight does from these bastions ply,
The invisible artillery.
And at proud Cawood Castle seems
To point the battery of its beams,
As if it quarrelled in the seat, xa
The ambition of his prelate great,
But o'er the meads below it plays,
Or innocently seems to gaze.
And now to the abyss I pass
Of that unfathomable grass, 370
Where men like grasshoppers appear,
But grasshoppers are giants there :
They, in their squeaking laugh, contemn
Us as we walk more low than them,
Digitized by VjOOQIC
20 THE POEMS
And from the precipices tall
Of the green spires to us do call.
