In woods of welcome where the sailors run
what will a smile or English nail not buy
as Venus passes slowly through the sun.
How soon the tricky commerce is begun,
how easily a hand will find a thigh
in woods of welcome where the sailors run;
where eyes alight on telescope or gun
what will a hand in innocence not try
as Venus passes slowly through the sun?
Laughter and theft! A musket snatched in fun!
How quick a man is shot and left to die
in woods of welcome where the sailors run,
and days of tact so instantly undone.
But Man has come to pierce the perfect sky
where Venus passes slowly through the sun,
and calculate how far the earth has spun
upon its ancient voyage from that eye.
In woods of welcome where the sailors run
Venus passes slowly through the sun.
Captain James Cook had been commissioned to sail to Tahiti to view the phenomenon of the transit of Venus across the sun.
This happens every 243 years.