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THE SUGAR-CANE: CRESCENDO by JAMES GRAINGER

First Line: AND PITY THE POOR PLANTER WHEN THE BLAST
Last Line: BUGS OF UNCOMMON SHAPE.
Subject(s): FIELDS; INSECTS; NATURE; PLAGUE; PLANTATION LIFE; PASTURES; MEADOWS; LEAS; BUGS;

AND pity the poor planter, when the blast,
Fell plague of Heaven! perdition of the isles!
Attacks his waving gold. Though well-manur'd;
A richness though thy fields from Nature boast;
Though seasons pour; this pestilence invades:
Too oft it seizes the glad infant throng,
Nor pities their green nonage: their broad blades,
Of which the graceful wood-nymphs erst compos'd
The greenest garlands to adorn their brows,
First pallid, sickly, dry, and wither'd show;
Unseemly stains succeed; which, nearer view'd
By microscopic arts, small eggs appear,
Dire fraught with reptile life; alas, too soon
They burst their filmy gaol, and crawl abroad,
Bugs of uncommon shape.



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