Classic and Contemporary Poetry
GARDEN, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: O painter of the fruits and flowers Last Line: The beautiful is good. Variant Title(s): Hymn;laborers Together With God Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening; Religion; Theology | ||||||||
O PAINTER of the fruits and flowers, We own Thy wise design, Whereby these human hands of ours May share the work of Thine! Apart from Thee we plant in vain The root and sow the seed; Thy early and Thy later rain, Thy sun and dew we need. Our toil is sweet with thankfulness, Our burden is our boon; The curse of Earth's gray morning is The blessing of its noon. Why search the wide world everywhere For Eden's unknown ground? That garden of the primal pair May nevermore be found. But, blest by Thee, our patient toil May right the ancient wrong, And give to every clime and soil The beauty lost so long. Our homestead flowers and fruited trees May Eden's orchard shame; We taste the tempting sweets of these Like Eve, without her blame. And, North and South and East and West, The pride of every zone, The fairest, rarest, and the best May all be made our own. Its earliest shrines the young world sought In hill-groves and in bowers, The fittest offerings thither brought Were Thy own fruits and flowers. And still with reverent hands we call Thy gifts each year renewed; The good is always beautiful, The beautiful is good. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MYSTIC BOUNCE by TERRANCE HAYES MATHEMATICS CONSIDERED AS A VICE by ANTHONY HECHT UNHOLY SONNET 11 by MARK JARMAN SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE COMING OF THE PLAGUE by WELDON KEES A LITHUANIAN ELEGY by ROBERT KELLY AMY WENTWORTH; FOR WILLIAM BRADFORD by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |
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