- In separate parcels, far, the infected fling:
- Of bad Cane-juice the least admixture1 spoils
- The richest, soundest; thus, in pastoral walks,
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One tainted sheep contaminates the fold. [185]
- NOR yet to dung-heaps thou resign the canes,
- Which or the sun hath burnt, or rats have gnaw’d.
- These, to small junks reduc’d, and in huge casks
- Steept, where no cool winds blow; do thou ferment:—.
- Then, when from his entanglements inlarg’d [190]
- Th’ evasive spirit mounts; by Vulcan’s2 aid,
- (Nor Amphitryte3 will her help deny,)
- Do thou through all his winding ways pursue
- The runaway; till in thy sparkling bowl
- Confin’d, he dances; more a friend to life, [195]
- And joy, than that Nepenthe4 fam’d of yore,
- Which Polydamna,5 Thone’s imperial queen,
-
Taught Jove-born Helen6 on the banks of Nile.
- AS on old ocean, when the wind blows high,
- The cautious mariner contracts his sail; [200]
- So here, when squaly bursts the speeding gale,
- If thou from ruin would’st thy points preserve,
- Less-bellying canvass7 to the storm oppose.
VER. 192. Amphitryte] A mixture of sea water, is a real improvement in the distillation of rum.
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The contamination of good cane juice with spoiled juice. ↩︎
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Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. Grainger refers to flame being used in the distillation of rum. ↩︎
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Also Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon and a sea goddess. In his note, Grainger describes the benefit of adding seawater to rum during the distillation process. ↩︎
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From Book 4 of Homer’s Odyssey, Nepenthe was a drug that made Helen forget her sorrow. ↩︎
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Wife of Thone, an Egyptian king. In Homer’s Odyssey, Polydamna gives Helen nepenthe. ↩︎
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Helen was said to be the most beautiful woman in ancient Greece. Paris abducted her from Menelaus, thus leading to the siege of Troy. ↩︎
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A sail designed so that it does not overfill with wind. ↩︎