THE ROSICRUCIANS,

Will know how to scatter the roses of PermessusA river in Boeotia, Greece, sacred to the Muses. To "scatter the roses of Permessus" means to write inspired, graceful poetry..
No lessons; we are taught enough and too much,
For us, flowers are worth more than fruits.
Here are flowers—that is to say, women,
Flowers of pleasure and even of reason.
If the Frenchman still deserves this name,
He loves, honors, and shall sing of the ladies.
O indulgent sex, for you my new verse
Exhumes the cradle of the RosicruciansA mystical secret society (the Order of the Rose Cross) that claimed to possess secret wisdom passed down from antiquity. The author is here proposing a poetic origin for the group..

    Over the English reigned the wise Elfride.
Daughter of Edgar, whose swift valor
Thrice conquered Scotland and the Welsh,
Crowned wife of ChérébertLikely referring to Charibert I (c. 517–567), a Merovingian King of Paris. The poet is blending historical periods, as Edgar the Peaceful lived in the 10th century.,
And brought in triumph into Paris,
She shone within the palace of kings.
Soon a mother, France with love
Watched the childhood of her daughters grow.
But Chérébert, but Edgar and his son,
In twenty battles followed by twenty more,
Seeking, finding, exhausting victory,
Bloodied a phantom of glory:
They have fallen; no tears for them.