Luxurious Man, to bring his Vice in use, <br />Did after him the World seduce: <br />And from the Fields the Flow'rs and Plants allure, <br />Where Nature was most plain and pure. <br />He first enclos'd within the Gardens square <br />A dead and standing pool of Air: <br />And a more luscious Earth for them did knead, <br />Which stupifi'd them while it fed. <br />The Pink grew then as double as his Mind; <br />The nutriment did change the kind. <br />With strange perfumes he did the Roses taint. <br />And Flow'rs themselves were taught to paint. <br />The Tulip, white, did for complexion seek; <br />And learn'd to interline its cheek: <br />Its Onion root they then so high did hold, <br />That one was for a Meadow sold. <br />Another World was search'd, through Oceans new, <br />To find the Marvel Of Peru. <br />And yet these Rarities might be allow'd, <br />To Man, that Sov'raign thing and proud; <br />Had he not dealt between the Bark and Tree, <br />Forbidden mixtures there to see. <br />No Plant now knew the Stock from which it came; <br />He grafts upon the Wild the Tame: <br />That the uncertain and adult'rate fruit <br />Might put the Palate in dispute. <br />His green Seraglio has its Eunuchs too; <br />Lest any Tyrant him out-doe. <br />And in the Cherry he does Nature vex, <br />To procreate without a Sex. <br />'Tis all enforc'd; the Fountain and the Grot; <br />While the sweet Fields do lye forgot: <br />Where willing Nature does to all dispence <br />A wild and fragrant Innocence: <br />And Fauns and Faryes do the Meadows till, <br />More by their presence then their skill. <br />Their Statues polish'd by some ancient hand, <br />May to adorn the Gardens stand: <br />But howso'ere the Figures do excel, <br />The Gods themselves with us do dwell.<br /><br />Andrew Marvell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-mower-against-gardens/
