Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/119


 * To bear the medlar and the pear;
 * He bids the rustic plum to rear
 * A noble trunk, and be a peach.
 * Even Daphne's coyness he does mock,
 * And weds the cherry to her stock,
 * Though she refused Apollo's suit,
 * Even she, that chaste and virgin tree,
 * Now wonders at herself to see

That she's a mother made, and blushes in her fruit.

Methinks I see great Diocletian walk In the Salonian garden's noble shade, Which by his own imperial hands was made: I see him smile, methinks, as he does talk With the ambassadors, who come in vain,
 * To entice him to a throne again.

"If I, my friends," said he, "should to you show All the delights which in these gardens grow; 'Tis likelier much that you should with me stay, Than 'tis that you should carry me away;