Page:The Fleshly school of poetry - Buchanan - 1872.djvu/3

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
fgfgfg
fgfgfg

THE FLESHLY SCHOOL
OF POETRY

AND OTHER PHENOMENA OF THE DAY

BY ROBERT BUCHANAN

Phœbe.—What pretty flowers are these?
I prithee let me smell!
Clown.Smell, an thou wilt!
These be not flowers for maids. This snow-white thing,
Wood-garlic, doth infect the sylvan air,
And sicken the sweet milk of browsing kine;
The other, purple houndstongue, worse than mice
For smelling cleanly chambers; here, again,
A flower less comely, stinking goosefoot, grows,—
An odour dear to dogs!
Phœbe.Faugh! O how foul!
How name ye this, the tallest and most fair?
Clown. Death-nettle, lady. Touch it not!
Phœbe.I am sick—
I swoon—its foetid breathing fills the air,
Like the most rank corruption of a corse.
A Whip for White Wantons, 1651.

STRAHAN & CO., 56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON.