The new minnesinger and other poems By Arran Leigh [i.e. K. H. Bradley and E. E. Cooper] |
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THE LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
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 | The new minnesinger and other poems |  |
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THE LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
The lily who can choose but greet?
The cowslip-scent is ever sweet,
But dearer joy to me
It is in their old haunts to find
Those wayside flowers of humbler kind
That few would care to see.
The cowslip-scent is ever sweet,
But dearer joy to me
It is in their old haunts to find
Those wayside flowers of humbler kind
That few would care to see.
'Tis hard to sing of them in verse,
The Basil Thyme, the Shepherd's Purse,
The Poor Man's Weatherglass;
Yet the rough-christen'd names they bear
(Untutor'd fancy's rude compare)
Give pleasure as I pass.
The Basil Thyme, the Shepherd's Purse,
The Poor Man's Weatherglass;
Yet the rough-christen'd names they bear
(Untutor'd fancy's rude compare)
Give pleasure as I pass.
162
And oh, meseemeth every year
More marvellous it doth appear
How they their place maintain.
They break not into gloried hues,
When the soft heaven beseeching woos;
They chalice not the rain;
More marvellous it doth appear
How they their place maintain.
They break not into gloried hues,
When the soft heaven beseeching woos;
They chalice not the rain;
They have scant beauty to desire,
Yet the great God doth never tire
Of these poor wayside weeds.
A little waft of homely scent,
Breathing to Him their deep content,
Is all the praise He needs.
Yet the great God doth never tire
Of these poor wayside weeds.
A little waft of homely scent,
Breathing to Him their deep content,
Is all the praise He needs.
And if He wearieth not of these,
If such dim-flowering things can please,
The hope our spirit cheers
That our poor lives, obscure and dim,
May quietly bloom on to Him
Through the eternal years.
If such dim-flowering things can please,
The hope our spirit cheers
That our poor lives, obscure and dim,
May quietly bloom on to Him
Through the eternal years.
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