When inch-high billows vex the watery world.

There, fed by food they love, to rankest size,

Around the dwellings docks and wormwood rise;

Here the strong mallow strikes her slimy root,

Here the dull nightshade hangs her deadly fruit:

On hills of dust the henbane’s faded green,

And pencil’d flower of sickly scent is seen;

At the wall’s base the fiery nettle springs,

With fruit globose and fierce with poison’d stings;

Above (the growth of many a year) is spread