- To crush all undergrowth; before the sun,
- The planets thus withdraw their puny fires.
- And tho’ untutor’d, then, thy Canes will shoot:
- Care meliorates their growth. The trenches fill
- With their collateral mold; as in a town [660]
- Which foes have long beleaguer’d, unawares
- A strong detachment sallies from each gate,
-
And levels all the labours of the plain.
- AND now thy Cane’s first blades their verdure lose,
- And hang their idle heads. Be these stript off; [665]
- So shall fresh sportive airs their joints embrace,
- And by their alliance give the sap to rise.
- But, O beware, let no unskilful hand
- The vivid foliage tear: Their channel’d spouts,
- Well-pleas’d, the watery nutriment convey, [670]
- With filial duty, to the thirsty stem;
- And, spreading wide their reverential arms,
- Defend their parent from solstitial skies.
The END of BOOK I.