The Botanic Garden, Part II: The Loves of the Plants
Linnaean botany in heroic couplets, the poem that made Erasmus Darwin famous and Canning parody him: four cantos on the courtships of the plants, with the philosophical notes.
Measured across the book
Across its 2,047 lines, 96% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 96% to 97%). Alliteration runs at 1.14 times what shuffling the words would give (0.41 observed against 0.36 expected). 4% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
Twelve Males, Dodecandria. Twelve Stamensiambic pentameter · 6 linesClandestine Marriage, Cryptogamiaiambic pentameter · 9 linesCanto Iiambic pentameter · AABB · 470 linesInterludeiambic pentameter · 19 linesCanto IIiambic pentameter · AABB · 480 linesCanto IIIiambic pentameter · AABB · 463 linesInterlude IIIiambic pentameter · 18 linesCanto IViambic pentameter · AABB · 492 linesAdditional Notesiambic pentameter · 11 linesIndex of the Names of the Plantsiambic dimeter · 8 linesBárometz, Béllis, Byssusiambic pentameter · 31 linesFícus, Fúcus, Fraxinéllaiambic pentameter · 11 linesKleinhóviatrochaic dimeter · 14 linesNymphæaiambic pentameter · 10 linesSiléneiambic pentameter · 5 lines
About this text
Public domain. Text from The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem. With Philosophical Notes., Project Gutenberg ebook #10671. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.