Revolution is the Pod 1
Systems rattle from
When the Winds of Will are stirred
Excellent is Bloom
But except its Russet Base 5
Every Summer be
The Entomber of itself,
So of Liberty－
Left inactive on the Stalk 9
All its Purple fled
Revolution shakes it for
Test if it be dead.
Systems rattle from
When the Winds of Will are stirred
Excellent is Bloom
But except its Russet Base 5
Every Summer be
The Entomber of itself,
So of Liberty－
Left inactive on the Stalk 9
All its Purple fled
Revolution shakes it for
Test if it be dead.
(F.1044/J.1082)
[1, 2] Pod, rattle:: a hint on rattle-pod, also called rattle wort, crotalaria.
[4] Excellent is Bloom:: they are usually ornamental plants.
[7] entomber:: the pod with seeds.
[10] Purple:: the pod's color.
[12] Test, dead:: the pod will make rattleing sound.
The crotalarias verrucosa and retusa, the rattle-wort, must be uncommonly endurable plants, to thrive on these hot dry sands but there they grow throwing out their racemes of handsome blue and yellow flowers amid the desert rubble, like lupins in a summer garden. They greatly resemble the lupin. In the rush of the sea-breeze they may be heard rattling their hard inflated pods, wakening up the pretty pink moths that slumber through the day among their palmated leaves. I confess that a flower that will grow in such a place as this burning shore, would have to me a high recommendation, even if it had no beauty, but the crotalaria, is a very ornamental flower, only too common to attract notice. ─ A Week at Port Royal (1855)
THE PURPLE CROTALARIA. A small shrub, growing very erect, and generally producing very few branches. Though this species is called the Purple Crotalaria, its flowers are of a fine crimson. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, whence it was introduced in 1709. It flowers early in the spring, and continues producing a succession of blossoms all the summer. ─ Ladies' Flower-garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants (1848)