See Dryden's "Alexander's Feast," third stanza, page [160].
[6.] Compare with Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Act ii, sc. i:
"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine."
[7.] darkling. In the dark. The word is very rarely used.
[8.] requiem. A dirge, or funeral song. "So called from the first word in the Catholic mass for the dead, Requiem æternum dona iis Domine (Give eternal rest to them, O Lord)."—Brand.
become a sod. Compare with Ecclesiastes, xii, 7: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was."
[9.] alien corn. See Ruth, ii. Why alien corn? Longfellow, in his poem on "Flowers," says:
"Everywhere about us they are glowing—
Some like stars, to tell us Spring is born;
Others, their blue eyes with tears o'erflowing,
Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn."