 | Poems of home and country |  |
37
TWO GARDENS,
THE HEAVENLY AND THE EARTHLY.
Two gardens, flourishing and bright,
Kept by one gardener's care,
Smiled in the sweet and sunny light,
And breathed with perfumed air.
Kept by one gardener's care,
Smiled in the sweet and sunny light,
And breathed with perfumed air.
One stood, all bathed in heavenly joy,
As if in early spring
An angel, clad in rainbow dyes,
Shook beauty from his wing.
As if in early spring
An angel, clad in rainbow dyes,
Shook beauty from his wing.
No frost the unfolding petals knew,
No blight on bud or bloom;
No lowering cloud, no chilling dew,
No emblem of the tomb.
No blight on bud or bloom;
No lowering cloud, no chilling dew,
No emblem of the tomb.
And one, o'er every fragrant bed
A chastened sadness lay,
As when the evening shadows close
Around a summer's day.
A chastened sadness lay,
As when the evening shadows close
Around a summer's day.
Lily and rose and violet smiled,
Fair as a glorious gem;
But rose and lily, doomed to fade,
Sat on a fragile stem.
Fair as a glorious gem;
But rose and lily, doomed to fade,
Sat on a fragile stem.
In one, a plant of beauty blessed
A sweet sequestered bower,
Breathed fragrance where its bloom was nursed,
And grew, a matchless flower.
A sweet sequestered bower,
Breathed fragrance where its bloom was nursed,
And grew, a matchless flower.
38
The gardener saw its peerless charms,
And chose a flower so rare
To grace his other garden-bed
And so removed it there.
And chose a flower so rare
To grace his other garden-bed
And so removed it there.
And now where angels walk in white,
A land of cloudless skies,
The gathered lily fitly blooms,—
A flower of Paradise.
A land of cloudless skies,
The gathered lily fitly blooms,—
A flower of Paradise.
| Poems of home and country | |