- How would your converse polish my rude lays,1
- With what new, noble images adorn? [520]
- Then should I scarce regret the banks of Thames,
- All as we sat beneath that sand-box shade;2
- Whence the delighted eye expatiates wide
- O’er the fair landscape; where in loveliest forms,
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Green cultivation hath array’d the land. [525]
- SEE! there, what mills, like giants raise their arms,
- To quell the speeding gale! what smoke ascends
- From every boiling house! What structures rise,
- Neat tho’ not lofty, pervious to the breeze;
- With galleries, porches, or piazzas grac’d! [530]
- Nor not delightful are those reed-built huts,3
- On yonder hill, that front the rising sun;
- With plantanes, with banana’s bosom’d-deep,
- That flutter in the wind: where frolick goats,
VER. 522. sand-box] So called, from the pericarpium’s being often made use of for containing sand; when the seeds, which are a violent emetic, are taken out. This is a fine shady tree, especially when young; and its leaves are efficaciously applied in headachs to the temples, which they sweat. It grows fast; but loses much of its beauty by age. Its wood is brittle, and when cut emits a milky juice, which is not caustic. The sand-box thrives best in warm shady places. The sun often splits the pericarpium, which then cracks like a pistol. It is round, flatted both above and below, and divided into a great number of regular compartments, each of which contains one seed flatted ovularly. The botanical name is Hura.
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Unskilled or unrefined poetry. ↩︎
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The sandbox tree (Hura crepitans) gets its name from its seed pods, which, when dried, were used as sandboxes for blotting ink. Apart from being quite tall, the sandbox tree is peculiar for two other reasons: its leaves, bark, and sap are poisonous, and, when ripe, its seed pods open with loud, explosive sounds, flinging their seeds at speeds exceeding 100 mph. Its native range is the tropical Americas. ↩︎
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Dwellings of the enslaved. ↩︎