- Await thy cattle! farcy’s tabid1 form,
- Joint-racking spasms, and cholic’s2 pungent pang,
- Need the muse tell? which, in one luckless moon, [275]
- Thy sheds dispeople; when perhaps thy groves,
- To full perfection shot, by day, by night,
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Indesinent3 demand their vigorous toil.
- THEN happiest he, for whom the Naiads pour,
- From rocky urns, the never-ceasing stream, [280]
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To turn his rollers with unbought dispatch.
- IN Karukera’s4 rich well-water’d isle!
- In Matanina!5 boast of Albion’s arms,
- The brawling Naiads for the planters toil,
- Howe’er unworthy; and, thro’6 solemn scenes, [285]
- Romantic, cool, with rocks and woods between,
- Enchant the senses! but, among thy swains,
- Sweet Liamuiga! who such bliss can boast?
- Yes, Romney,7 thou may’st boast; of British heart,
- Of courtly manners, join’d to antient worth: [290]
- Friend to thy Britain’s every blood-earn’d right,
VER. 282. Karukera] The Indian name of Guadaloupe.
VER. 283. Matanina] The Caribbean name of Martinico. The Havannah8 had not then been taken.
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Farcy is a disease of animals, especially of horses. Tabid (or tabetic) is to be wasted by disease, corrupted. ↩︎
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Colic or painful stomach contractions. ↩︎
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Incessant. ↩︎
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Guadeloupe. In 1759, as part of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), British forces attacked and forced the surrender of the French colony of Guadeloupe. ↩︎
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Martinique. The French colony of Martinique surrendered to British forces in February 1762. ↩︎
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The “Errata” list at the end of The Sugar-Cane indicates that “thro’” should read “through.” ↩︎
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According to Gilmore, refers to Robert Marsham, 2nd Baron Romney (1712-1793), who married Priscilla Pym, the heiress of the St. Kitts planter Charles Pym. ↩︎
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Havana, the capital of Cuba, which the British took in 1762 during the Seven Years’ War. ↩︎