This fruit more sweet than virgin honey found,
Serv’d both alike for physic and for food:
It cured diseases, heal’d the bleeding wound,
And hunger’s rage for three long days withstood,
And precious things are purchas’d still with pain,
And thousands try’d to pluck it, but in vain.
For at the root of this delightful tree,
A venomous and awful dragon lay,
With watchful eyes, all horrible to see.
Who drove th’ affrighted passengers away;