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Garden Poetry
 

Who loves a garden,
Still his Eden keeps
Perennial pleasures plants,
And wholesome harvests reap.
Amos Bronson Alcott

 
I meant to do my work today--
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.
And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand--
So what could I do but laugh and go?
~ Richard Le Gallienne
 

“(In winter) there is time to note the beauty of leafless trees, and the lovely handwriting of their twigs against the sky.”
L. B. Wilder, 1937

A Soft Day

A soft day, thank God!
A wind from the south
With a honeyed mouth;
A scent of drenching leaves,
Brier and beech and lime, White elder-flower and thyme.
Winifred Mary Letts
 
 

…Ere I descend to the grave
May I a small house and large garden have!
And a few friends, and many books, both true,
Both wise and delightful too!
Abraham Cowley
 

…Seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,
If it’s only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.
Rudyard Kipling
 

A bird came down the walk
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,—
They looked like frightened beads, I thought
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

Emily Dickenson

 

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