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COWLEY THE GARDEN - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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COWLEY

THE GARDEN

  • Fain would my Muse the flow’ry treasures sing,
  • And humble glories of the youthful Spring;
  • Where op’ning roses breathing sweets diffuse,
  • And soft carnations shower their balmy dews;
  • Where lilies smile in virgin robes of white,
  • The thin undress of superficial light;
  • And varied tulips show so dazzling gay,
  • Blushing in bright diversities of day.
  • Each painted flow’ret in the lake below
  • Surveys its beauties, whence its beauties grow;10
  • And pale Narcissus, on the bank in vain
  • Transformëd, gazes on himself again.
  • Here aged trees cathedral walks compose,
  • And mount the hill in venerable rows;
  • There the green infants in their beds are laid,
  • The garden’s hope, and its expected shade.
  • Here orange trees with blooms and pendants shine,
  • And Vernal honours to their Autumn join;
  • Exceed their promise in the ripen’d store,
  • Yet in the rising blossom promise more.20
  • There in bright drops the crystal fountains play,
  • By laurels shielded from the piercing day;
  • Where Daphne, now a tree as once a maid,
  • Still from Apollo vindicates her shade;
  • Still turns her beauties from th’ invading beam,
  • Nor seeks in vain for succour to the stream.
  • The stream at once preserves her virgin leaves,
  • At once a shelter from her boughs receives,
  • Where summer’s beauty midst of winter stays,
  • And winter’s coolness spite of summer’s rays.30