SEE how the flowers, as at parade, <br />Under their colours stand display'd: <br />Each regiment in order grows, <br />That of the tulip, pink, and rose. <br />But when the vigilant patrol <br />Of stars walks round about the pole, <br />Their leaves, that to the stalks are curl'd, <br />Seem to their staves the ensigns furl'd. <br />Then in some flower's beloved hut <br />Each bee, as sentinel, is shut, <br />And sleeps so too; but if once stirr'd, <br />She runs you through, nor asks the word. <br />O thou, that dear and happy Isle, <br />The garden of the world erewhile, <br />Thou Paradise of the four seas <br />Which Heaven planted us to please, <br />But, to exclude the world, did guard <br />With wat'ry if not flaming sword; <br />What luckless apple did we taste <br />To make us mortal and thee waste! <br />Unhappy! shall we never more <br />That sweet militia restore, <br />When gardens only had their towers, <br />And all the garrisons were flowers; <br />When roses only arms might bear, <br />And men did rosy garlands wear?<br /><br />Andrew Marvell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-garden-written-after-the-civil-wars/
