Spring 2020 - Bacchus Prefers Twillpants Poem by Douglas Scotney

In 2020's summer's front
I first looked into Chapman's 'Repentance',
and second, into his 'Corinna Bathes',
in which I counted a 16 line sentence
accounting the 20 types of flowers
on the bank of her 'bath'.

'What's melanthy, ' I wondered,
'and can it be as great in bees' account
as my backyard poppy?
What is a venus's navel?
What's rumex, sya, jessamine, meliphill,
crown-imperial, aphrodill?
What are Diana's arrow and Cupid's (crimson)shield?
What's amareus,
and how smells the balm that its flower doth yield? '

In 'Repentance',
Chapman tells the origin of why a red morning,
of a 'foul, black day', is a warning.

Back to flowers:
Bacchus likes growing cup-like twillpants(?)
in his bowers.