Though it grows in soil perverse,
Heaven hath been its jealous nurse,
And a flower of snowy mark
Springs from root and sheathing dark;
Kingly safeguard, only herb
That can brutish passion curb!
Some do think its name should be
Shield-heart, White Integrity.

Traveller, pluck a stem of moly,
If thou touch at Circe's isle,--
Hermes' moly, growing solely
To undo enchanter's wile!


NOTES

=Chapman's Homer=:--George Chapman (1559?-1634) was an English poet. He
translated Homer from the Greek into English verse.

=moly=:--An herb with a black root and a white flower, which Hermes gave
to Odysseus in order to help him withstand the spell of the witch Circe.

=Circe=:--A witch who charmed her victims with a drink that she prepared
for them, and then changed them into the animals they in character most
resembled.

=Hermes=:--The messenger of the other Greek gods; he was crafty and
eloquent.