Summary of the poem.
Stanza – I ( Line 1 to 8)
How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays,
And their uncessant labours see
Crown’d from some single herb or tree,
Whose short and narrow verged shade
Does prudently their toils upbraid;
While all flow’rs and all trees do close
To weave the garlands of repose.
Summary : Men in general who do not know the grandeur of
the garden make meaningless attempt to
win the crown of the leaves of palm or oak or bays trees, they try endlessly
for achieving a ‘single herb or tree’. A short and thin shade of a tree justly
mocks their perseverance, while all flowers and trees jointly weave the ‘garlands
of repose’, i.e. they form some pleasant shade that provides people rest and
serenity which are far better than those leafy crown.
Note : Crown of palm leaves was
traditionally awarded to a
distinct warrior, of oak leaves for civic achievement and of laurel leaves to the
great poet.
Stanza – II ( Line 9 to 16)
Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,
And Innocence, thy sister dear!
Mistaken long, I sought you then
In busy companies of men;
Your sacred plants, if here below,
Only among the plants will grow.
Society is all but rude,
To this delicious solitude.
Summary : The poet who has found Fair Quiet and her dear sister Innocence in
the garden, has mistakenly endeavoured to find them amidst the busy human
beings. If their plants grow on the earth, they grow only among the plants of
the garden.(It means that quietness and innocence are adequately found in the
garden.)The solitude of the garden is
delicious and charming , but society is by far rude.
Stanza – III ( Line 17 to 24)
No white nor red was ever seen
So am’rous as this lovely green.
Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,
Cut in these trees their mistress’ name;
Little, alas, they know or heed
How far these beauties hers exceed!
Fair trees! wheres’e’er your barks I
wound,
No name shall but your own be found.
Summary : The lovely green colour(of trees and plants of the
garden) is said to be more amorous than white colour(of lady’s complexion) and
red colour (of the lips of the beloveds).The lovers and their flames of love
are called cruel because the lovers , being excited by the flames of love, try
to immortalize their beloveds’ names cutting the bark of the trees.
Unfortunately, they are not aware and careful of the fact that the beauty of
the garden definitely exceeds the beauty of their sweethearts. In an
apostrophe, the poet says he would crave the name of the trees as his
sweetheart, cutting the bark of the tree, if he at all does it.
Stanza – IV (Line 25 to 32)
When we have run our passion’s heat,
Love hither makes his best retreat.
The gods, that mortal beauty chase,
Still in a tree did end their race:
Apollo hunted Daphne so,
Only that she might laurel grow;
And Pan did after Syrinx speed,
Not as a nymph, but for a reed.
Summary : When one’s passion are exhausted and love runs its course, one takes
rest in the shade of the garden for
refreshment. We know, when the gods chase the fair women on the earth, their chase ends in a tree as
the woman is transformed into a tree. For instance, the nymph ‘Daphne’ is transformed into a laurel tree when Apollo
runs after ‘Daphne’. ‘Syrinx’ is chased by the god Pan and she is transformed
into a reed. Naturally, the Gods have to hold the trees to satisfy their
passion.
Stanza – V (Line 33 to 40)
What wond’rous life in this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Ensnar’d with flow’rs, I fall on grass.
Summary : The poet confirms that he enjoys a pleasant time in
the garden, full of wonder. The ripe apples hang so low that they touch poet’s
head. Bunches of vines come close contact to his mouth and they are, as if, ready to crush the wine into poet’s mouth.
Nectarines and peaches come to poet’s hands of their own accord. The melons are
so plentiful that the poet stumbles on them off
and on. Being tempted by the
beautiful flowers, the poet sinks into the soft bed of green grasses.
Stanza – VI (Line 41 to 48)
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness;
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find,
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that’s made
To a green thought in a green shade.
Summary : Poet’s mind can not be confined in the pleasure of
lesser kind, the pleasure found in the earthly things and for this his mind withdraws itself from the body and sails to a new land of happiness which originates from
the mind itself. The mind is like an ocean , an aquatic sphere, where each
creature living on land has a counterpart. But this new created ocean and lands in mind are different from the land and ocean of reality, minds
creation surpasses the real ones. Mind annihilates the lesser ones and creates
green thoughts in the shade of the garden.
Stanza – VII (Line 49 to 56)
Here at the fountain’s sliding foot,
Or at some fruit tree’s mossy root,
Casting the body’s vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide;
There like a bird it sits and sings,
Then whets, and combs its silver wings;
And, till prepar’d for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light.
Summary : Near the slithery fountain or close to a tree the
lower part of which is covered with moss, poet’s soul discards poet’s body
,goes on the branches of the tree, sits like a bird and starts singing merrily.
Here like a bird, poet’s soul whets and combs the wings preparing for a longer flight and weaving
various lights.
Stanza – VIII (Line 57 to 64)
Such was that happy garden-state,
While man there walk’d without a mate;
After a place so pure and sweet,
What other help could yet be meet!
But ’twas beyond a mortal’s share
To wander solitary there:
Two paradises ’twere in one
To live in paradise alone.
Summary : This pleasant state of the garden is like that of
the Eden, the garden of paradise where the first man Adam walked happily when he was without a mate or companion. In such a pure and sweet place no mate or friend
could be fit or appropriate. But the mortal being is not allowed to roam
happily is the garden of paradise. If allowed the poet would have enjoyed the
happiness of two paradises : first, the paradise having celestial light and the
second is the paradise of being alone.
Stanza – IX (Line 65 to 72)
How well the skillful gard’ner drew
Of flow’rs and herbs this dial new,
Where from above the milder sun
Does through a fragrant zodiac run;
And as it works, th’ industrious bee
Computes its time as well as we.
How could such sweet and wholesome hours
Be reckon’d but with herbs and flow’rs!
Summary : Skillful is the gardener who grows flowers and plants in a particular manner
which collectively serves as a new ‘sun-dial’. The rays of the sun falls on the
‘sun-dial’ through the green leaves of big trees and it may be compared to the ‘Zodiac’. The busy and industrious
bees calculate the time like human beings by consulting this ‘sun-dial’. A
fortunate person who passes the sweet
and refreshing hours in the garden, has no equipment to calculate time except
the ‘sun-dial’ formed by both plants and flowers.
