Watermelon 1597 – A Poem

The original phrases in the poem here date back to 1597 and John Gerard’s The Herball or, Generall historie of plantes. The Herball was revised in a later publication of 1633¹ which is my main source document. You can see the exact page (page 914) of the 1633 edition here.

While I kind of liked reading “f” as “s”, I ran the words through an Early Modern English (1500–1700ish AD) translator. Even so, I took a few liberties while turning it into both a found poem and a sonnet.

Interesting to note that Gerard doesn’t speak about the red, sweet flesh of watermelon, and there’s a bit more discussion on why here (cold English climate, different species of fruit most likely). More discussion on the watermelon’s history, and some lovely pictures of watermelons in art here.

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about John Gerard. I first encountered him talking about the sweet potato as aphrodisiac here; and that rhubarb “purgeth foorth cholericke and naughtie humours” here. More of my ekphrastic poems here.

Watermelon 1597

Long, tender stalks trailing upon the ground
branched like vine. Large leaves jagged, deeply cut.
Fruit, streaked and ribbed with furrows, somewhat round.
Come forth long clasping tendrils! Footstalks jut.
Green in colour, flowers yellow golden,
the outer skin is very smooth. The flesh
is more like pumpkin than the musk melon.
Seed is flat, shell blackish, sometimes reddish.
The citrull does not rot so easily:
the flesh eaten raw, more commonly boiled;
prospers in hot regions like Sicily;
yields little nourishment, watery blood.
Come forth! Mitigate heat, inner parts wrung.
Quench thirst. Take away roughness of the tongue!

©elsp 2026

1. Gerard, John, et al. The herball: or, Generall historie of plantes
   . London, Printed by Adam Islip, Joice Norton and Richard Whitakers, anno, 1633. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/44028884/>. ↩︎