Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Andrew Marvell. 16211678359. Thoughts in a Garden
HOW vainly men themselves amaze | |
To win the palm, the oak, or bays, | |
And their uncessant labours see | |
Crown’d from some single herb or tree, | |
Whose short and narrow-vergèd shade | 5 |
Does prudently their toils upbraid; | |
While all the flowers and trees do close | |
To weave the garlands of repose! | |
Fair Quiet, have I found thee here, | |
And Innocence thy sister dear? | 10 |
Mistaken long, I sought you then | |
In busy companies of men: | |
Your sacred plants, if here below, | |
Only among the plants will grow: | |
Society is all but rude | 15 |
To this delicious solitude. | |
No white nor red was ever seen | |
So amorous as this lovely green. | |
Fond lovers, cruel as their flame, | |
Cut in these trees their mistress’ name: | 20 |
Little, alas! they know or heed | |
How far these beauties hers exceed! | |
Fair trees! wheres’e’er your barks I wound, | |
No name shall but your own be found. | |
When we have run our passions’ heat, | 25 |
Love hither makes his best retreat: | |
The gods, that mortal beauty chase, | |
Still in a tree did end their race; | |
Apollo hunted Daphne so | |
Only that she might laurel grow; | 30 |
And Pan did after Syrinx speed | |
Not as a nymph, but for a reed. | |
What wondrous life in this I lead! | |
Ripe apples drop about my head; | |
The luscious clusters of the vine | 35 |
Upon my mouth do crush their wine; | |
The nectarine and curious peach | |
Into my hands themselves do reach; | |
Stumbling on melons, as I pass, | |
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass. | 40 |
Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less | |
Withdraws into its happiness; | |
The mind, that ocean where each kind | |
Does straight its own resemblance find; | |
Yet it creates, transcending these, | 45 |
Far other worlds, and other seas; | |
Annihilating all that ‘s made | |
To a green thought in a green shade. | |
Here at the fountain’s sliding foot, | |
Or at some fruit-tree’s mossy root, | 50 |
Casting the body’s vest aside, | |
My soul into the boughs does glide; | |
There, like a bird, it sits and sings, | |
Then whets and combs its silver wings, | |
And, till prepared for longer flight, | 55 |
Waves in its plumes the various light. | |
Such was that happy Garden-state | |
While man there walk’d without a mate: | |
After a place so pure and sweet, | |
What other help could yet be meet! | 60 |
But ’twas beyond a mortal’s share | |
To wander solitary there: | |
Two paradises ’twere in one, | |
To live in Paradise alone. | |
How well the skilful gard’ner drew | 65 |
Of flowers and herbs this dial new! | |
Where, from above, the milder sun | |
Does through a fragrant zodiac run: | |
And, as it works, th’ industrious bee | |
Computes its time as well as we. | 70 |
How could such sweet and wholesome hours | |
Be reckon’d, but with herbs and flowers! |