Canto I

What fruits they have, and how Heaven smilesUpon these late-discovered isles.

Aid me, Bellona! while the dreadful fightBetwixt a nation and two whales I write.Seas stain'd with gore I sing, advent'rous toil!And how these monsters did disarm an isle.

Bermuda, wall'd with rocks, who does not know?That happy island where huge lemons grow,And orange-trees, which golden fruit do bear,Th' Hesperian garden boasts of none so fair;Where shining pearl, coral, and many a pound,On the rich shore, of ambergris is found.The lofty cedar, which to heaven aspires,The prince of trees! is fuel to their fires;The smoke by which their loaded spits do turn,For incense might on sacred altars burn;Their private roofs on od'rous timber borne,Such as might palaces for kings adorn.The sweet palmettos a new Bacchus yield,With leaves as ample as the broadest shield,Under the shadow of whose friendly boughsThey sit, carousing where their liquor grows.Figs there unplanted through the fields do grow,Such as fierce Cato did the Romans show,With the rare fruit inviting them to spoilCarthage, the mistress of so rich a soil.The naked rocks are not unfruitful there,But, at some constant seasons, every year,Their barren tops with luscious food abound,And with the eggs of various fowls are crown'd.Tobacco is the worst of things, which theyTo English landlords, as their tribute, pay.Such is the mould, that the bless'd tenant feedsOn precious fruits, and pays his rent in weeds.With candied plantains, and the juicy pine,On choicest melons, and sweet grapes, they dine,And with potatoes fat their wanton swine.Nature these cates with such a lavish handPours out among them, that our coarser landTastes of that bounty, and does cloth return,Which not for warmth, but ornament, is worn;For the kind spring, which but salutes us here,Inhabits there, and courts them all the year.Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live;At once they promise what at once they give.So sweet the air, so moderate the clime,None sickly lives, or dies before his time.Heaven sure has kept this spot of earth uncursed,To show how all things were created first.The tardy plants in our cold orchards placed,Reserve their fruit for the next age's taste;There a small grain in some few months will beA firm, a lofty, and a spacious tree.The palma-christi, and the fair papà,Now but a seed (preventing nature's law),In half the circle of the hasty yearProject a shade, and lovely fruits do wear.And as their trees in our dull region set,But faintly grow, and no perfection get,So, in this northern tract, our hoarser throatsUtter unripe and ill-constrained notes,While the supporter of the poets' style,Phoebus, on them eternally does smile.Oh! how I long my careless limbs to layUnder the plantain's shade, and all the dayWith am'rous airs my fancy entertain,Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein!No passion there in my free breast should move,None but the sweet and best of passions, love.

There while I sing, if gentle love be by,That tunes my lute, and winds the string so high,With the sweet sound of Saccharissa's nameI'll make the list'ning savages grow tame.--But while I do these pleasing dreams indite,I am diverted from the promised fight.

'Summer Islands': the Bermudas, which received the name of theSummer Islands, or more properly, Somers' Islands, from Sir GeorgeSomers, who was cast away on the coast early in the seventeenthcentury, and established a colony there.

'Bacchus yield': from the palmetto, a species of palm in the WestIndies, is extracted an intoxicating drink.