Chapter I: Foreword (1)

How many of us are conscious of the subtle melodies, "through which the myriad lispings of the earth find perfect speech"?

Our poets are listeners; their ears are tuned to the magic call of secret voices that we who are not singers may never hear. They capture the "Melody" in chalices of song, and their message is: that whosoever will bend his ear to earth, may hear from field and furrow, from the many-bladed grass and the soft-petalled flowers--in the soughing of the pine tree or the rustle of leaves--an immortal music that revivifies the soul.

In the quiet tilled spots of earth, from time immemorial, men have sown rare seeds of poetic thought that have flowered into song. Amiel wrote in his _Journal_: "All seed-sowing is a mysterious thing whether the seed fall into earth or into souls; man is a husbandman, and his work rightly understood is to develop life, to sow it everywhere." The poets are our seed-sowers, and _their_ work is to develop life and to enrich it. They are never happier than when writing about gardens and the growing things of earth--at once their symbol and their solace. In turn gardens have in the poets their happiest interpreters.

Here I have culled and gathered together songs and poems that reflect the melody and harmony of Nature's forces. In these days of the world's travail, let us seek inspiration and content within the delightful confines of these Gardens of Poetry.

GERTRUDE MOORE RICHARDS

_March_, 1918

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Mrs. Richards tenders her sincere thanks to the publishers and poets who have so generously accorded their permission to use copyrighted poems:

To the American Tract Society for "Seeds" and "The Philosopher's Garden," John Oxenham, from _Bees in Amber_.

To Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. for "The Mocking-Bird," Frank L. Stanton, from _Songs of the Soil_.

To the Baker & Taylor Co. for "June Rapture" and "The Rose," Angela Morgan, from _The Hour has Struck, and Other Poems_ and _Utterance, and Other Poems_.

To The Biddle Press for "The Old-fashioned Garden" and "Poppies," John Russell Hayes, from _Collected Poems_.

To the Bobbs-Merrill Company for "Thoughts fer the Discuraged Farmer," James Whitcomb Riley, from _Complete Works_.

To Edmund A. Brooks, Minneapolis, for "Daffodils" and "From a Car-Window," Ruth Guthrie Harding, from _The Lark went Singing, and Other Poems_.

To Messrs. Burns & Oates and to Alice Meynell (Mrs. Wilfrid Meynell) for "To a Daisy" and "The Garden" from _Collected Poems_; for "Rosa Mystica," Katharine Tynan (Mrs. Henry Albert Hinkson), from _The Flower of Peace_.

To The Century Co. for "Larkspur," James Oppenheim, from _War and Laughter_; for "The Tilling," Cale Young Rice, from _Trails Sunward_; for "The Haunted Garden," Louis Untermeyer, from _Challenge_.

To Messrs. Constable & Co. for "For These," Edward Thomas (Edward Eastaway), from _An Annual of New Poetry_.

To _Country Life_ (London) and to Mrs. Gurney personally for "The Lord God planted a Garden" and "A Garden in Venice," by Dorothy Frances Gurney, from _Poems_.

To Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell Company for "Love planted a Rose," Katharine Lee Bates, from _America, and Other Poems_; for "An Exile's Garden," Sophie Jewett, from _Collected Poems_.

To Messrs. J. M. Dent & Sons for "The Spring Beauties," Helen Gray Cone, from _The Chant of Love, and Other Poems_.

To Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co. for "In a Garden," Livingston L. Biddle, from _The Understanding Hills_.

To Messrs. George H. Doran Company for "The Cricket in the Path," "Herb of Grace," and "Rain in the Night," Amelia Josephine Burr, from _In Deep Places_ and _Life and Living_; for "A Song in a Garden," "Shade," and "The Poplars," Theodosia Garrison, from _The Dreamers, and Other Poems_; for "Trees," Joyce Kilmer, from _Trees, and Other Poems_; for "June," Douglas Malloch, from _The Woods_; for "Where Love is Life," Duncan Campbell Scott, from "The Three Songs" in _Lundy's Lane, and Other Poems_.

To Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co. for "A Prayer," "The Butterfly," and "Before Mary of Magdala came," Edwin Markham, from _The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems_ and _The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems_.

To Messrs. Duffield & Co. for "The sweet caresses that I gave to you," Elsa Barker, from _The Book of Love_; for "What heart but fears a fragrance?" ("Zauber Duft"), Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi, from _Gabrielle, and Other Poems_; for "Spring," Francis Ledwidge, from _Songs of the Fields_; for "The White Peacock," William Sharp, from _Songs and Poems_.

To Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co. for "The South Wind," Siegfried Sassoon, from _The Old Huntsman, and Other Poems_; for "The Tree," Evelyn Underhill, from _Theophanies_.

To Messrs. H. W. Fisher & Co. for "A Dream," "The Autumn Rose," "Fireflies," and "An Evening in Old Japan," Antoinette De Coursey Patterson, from _Sonnets and Quatrains_ and _The Son of Merope, and Other Poems_.

To Messrs. Harper & Brothers for "Roses in the Subway," Dana Burnet, from _Poems_; for "The Wild Rose," and "If I were a Fairy," Charles Buxton Going, from _Star-Glow and Song_; for "The Cardinal-Bird," Arthur Guiterman, from _The Laughing Muse_; for "Wild Gardens," Ada Foster Murray, from _Flowers of the Grass_; for "The Message," Helen Hay Whitney, from _Sonnets and Songs_.

To Hearst's International Library Company for "Stairways and Gardens" and "My Flower-Room," Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from _World Voices_.

To Mr. William Heinemann for "The Cactus," Laurence Hope, from _Stars of the Desert_; for "The July Garden," R. E. Vernede, from _War Poems, and Other Verses_; for "A Garden-Piece," Edmund Gosse, from _Collected Poems_.

To Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. for "The Cloister Garden at Certosa," Richard Burton, from _Poems of Earth's Meaning_; for "The Furrow," Padraic Colum, from _Wild Earth, and Other Poems_; for "The Three Cherry Trees," Walter de la Mare, from _The Listeners, and Other Poems_; for "A Late Walk," "Asking for Roses," "The Pasture," and "Putting in the Seed," Robert Frost, from _A Boy's Will_, _North of Boston_, and _A Mountain Interval_; for "Joe-Pyeweed," Louis Untermeyer, from _These Times_.

To Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company for "The Blooming of the Rose" and the selection from "Under the Trees," Anna Hempstead Branch, from _The Heart of the Road_ and _The Shoes that Danced, and Other Poems_; for "Spring Patchwork" and "The Flowerphone," Abbie Farwell Brown, from _A Pocketful of Posies_ and _Songs of Sixpence_; for "The Morning-Glory" and "Jewel-Weed," Florence Earle Coates, from _Collected Poems_; for "Nightingales" and "A Breath of Mint," Grace Hazard Conkling, from _Afternoons of April_; for "The Golden-Rod," Margaret Deland, from _The Old Garden, and Other Verses_; for "A Roman Garden," Florence Wilkinson Evans, from _The Ride Home_; for "Cobwebs," Louise Imogen Guiney, from _Happy Ending_; for "Planting," Robert Livingston, from _Murrer and Me_; for "Primavera," George Cabot Lodge, from _Poems and Dramas_; for "Ever the Same," "Charm: To be said in the Sun," and "But we did walk in Eden," Josephine Preston Peabody, from _The Singing Leaves_ and _The Singing Man_; for "At Isola Bella" ("A White Peacock"), Jessie B. Rittenhouse, from _The Door of Dreams_; for "The Goldfinch," Odell Shepard, from _A Lonely Flute_; for "Daisies" and "Witchery," Frank Dempster Sherman, from _Poems_; for "Grandmother's Gathering Boneset," Edith M. Thomas, from _In Sunshine Land_.

To Mr. B. W. Huebsch for "Song from 'April,'" Irene Rutherford McLeod, from _Songs to Save a Soul_.

To Messrs. George W. Jacobs & Co. for "Vestured and veiled with twilight," Rosamund Marriott Watson, from _The Heart of a Garden_.

To Mr. R. U. Johnson (publisher) for "Como in April," Robert Underwood Johnson, from _Collected Poems_.

To Mr. Mitchell Kennerley for "A Song to Belinda," Theodosia Garrison, from _Earth Cry_; for "In a Garden," Horace Holley, from _Divinations and Creations_; for "Afternoon on a Hill," "The End of Summer," and "A Little Ghost," Edna St. Vincent Millay, from _Renascence, and Other Poems_; for "Welcome," John Curtis Underwood, from _Processionals_; for "AEre Perennius," Charles Hanson Towne, from _A Quiet Singer_.

To Mr. Alfred A. Knopf for "The Rain" and "The Ways of Time," William H. Davies, from _Collected Poems_.

To The John Lane Company (New York) for "Loveliest of Trees," A. E. Housman, from _A Shropshire Lad_; for "May is building her House," and "I meant to do my work to-day," Richard Le Gallienne, from _The Lonely Dancer_; for "The Joy of the Springtime," and "The Time of Roses," Sarojini Naidu, from _The Bird of Time_ and _The Broken Wing_; for "Heart's Garden," Norreys Jephson O'Conor, from _Celtic Memories_; for "Serenade," Marjorie L. C. Pickthall, from _The Lamp of Poor Souls_; for "There is Strength in the Soil," Arthur Stringer, from _Open Water_; for "Midsummer blooms within our quiet garden ways," "It was June in the garden," and "Within the garden there is healthfulness," Emile Verhaeren, from _The Sunlit Hours_ and _Afternoon_; for "In a Garden of Granada," Thomas Walsh, from _Gardens Overseas_; for "The Garden of Mnemosyne," Rosamund Marriott Watson, from _Collected Poems_; for "Eden-Hunger," William Watson, from _Retrogression, and Other Poems_; for "Spring Planting," Helen Hay Whitney, from _Herbs and Apples_.

To Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. for "To a Weed," Gertrude Hall, from _The Age of Fairy Gold_; for "The Green o' the Spring," Denis A. McCarthy, from _Voices from Erin_; for "The Baby's Valentine," Laura E. Richards, from _In my Nursery_.

To Messrs. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company for "God's Garden," Richard Burton, from _Dumb in June_.

To Mr. David McKay for "The Blossomy Barrow" and "Da Thief," Thomas Augustine Daly, from _Madrigali_; for "A Soft Day," W. M. Letts, from _Songs from Leinster_.

To The Macmillan Company for "Old Homes," Madison Cawein, from _Poems_; for "Up a Hill and a Hill," Fannie Stearns Davis, from _Myself and I_; for "In the Womb," A. E. (George William Russell), from _Collected Poems_; for "To the Sweetwilliam," Norman Gale, from _Collected Poems_; for "Roses," Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, from _Battle, and Other Poems_; for "Rest at Noon" and "The Hummingbird," Hermann Hagedorn, from _Poems and Ballads_; for "The Mystery," Ralph Hodgson, from _Poems_; for "The Dandelion" and "With a Rose, to Brunhilde," Vachel Lindsay, from _General William Booth enters into Heaven, and Other Poems_ and _A Handy Guide for Beggars_; for "A Tulip Garden," "Fringed Gentians," and "The Fruit Garden Path," Amy Lowell, from _Sword Blades and Poppy Seed_ and _The Dome of Many-coloured Glass_; for "It may be so: but let the unknown be" and "Drop me the Seed," John Masefield, from _Lollingdon Downs, and Other Poems_; for "Samuel Gardner," Edgar Lee Masters, from _The Spoon River Anthology_; for "Go down to Kew in lilac-time" (selection from "The Barrel-Organ"), Alfred Noyes, from _Poems_; for "The Messenger," James Stephens, from _Songs from the Clay_; for "The Champa Flower" and "The Flower-School," Rabindranath Tagore, from _The Crescent Moon_; for "Indian Summer," "Alchemy," "The Fountain," "Barter," and "Wood Song," Sara Teasdale, from _Rivers to the Sea_ and _Love Songs_; for "The Message," George Edward Woodberry, from _Poems_; for "The Song of Wandering Aengus," W. B. Yeats, from _Poems_.

To Mr. Elkin Mathews and to Mr. Rowland Thirlmere personally for "A Shower," from _Polyclitus, and Other Poems_.

To the Manas Press, Rochester, N.Y., for "November Night" and "Arbutus," Adelaide Crapsey, from _Verses_.

To Messrs. John P. Morton & Co., Louisville, Ky., for "Conscience," Margaret Steele Anderson, from _The Flame in the Wind_.

To Mr. Thomas Bird Mosher for "Beyond," "As in a Rose-Jar," and "My soul is like a garden-close," Thomas S. Jones, Jr., from _The Voice in the Silence_ and _The Rose-Jar_; for "A Seller of Herbs," "The Garden at Bemerton," and "April Weather," Lizette Woodworth Reese, from _A Handful of Lavender_; for "Frost To-night," Edith M. Thomas, from _The Flower from the Ashes_; for "In an Oxford Garden" and "Old Gardens," Arthur Upson, from _Octaves in an Oxford Garden_ and _Collected Poems_.

To Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons for "In an Old Garden," Madison Cawein, from _Moods and Melodies_; for "If I could dig like a Rabbit," Rose Strong Hubbell, from _If I could Fly_; for "The Anxious Farmer," Burges Johnson, from _Rhymes of Home_; for "In an August Garden," "Amiel's Garden," and "The Garden," Gertrude Huntington McGiffert, from _A Florentine Cycle_.

To The Reilly & Britton Co. for "Results and Roses," Edgar A. Guest, from _Heap o' Livin'_.

To Mr. Grant Richards for "Loveliest of Trees," A. E. Housman, from _A Shropshire Lad_.

To Mr. A. M. Robertson (San Francisco) for "How many flowers are gently met," George Sterling, from _The Testimony of the Sun, and Other Poems_.

To Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for "Miracle," L. H. Bailey, from _Wind and Weather_; for "Four O'Clocks" and "Homesick," Julia C. R. Dorr, from _Poems and Last Poems_; for "Tell-Tale," Oliver Herford, from _Overheard in a Garden_; for "In the Garden" and "The Deserted Garden," Pai Ta-Shun (Frederick Peterson), from _Chinese Lyrics_ (Kelly & Walsh, Hongkong); for "The Child in the Garden," Henry van Dyke, from _Collected Poems_.

To Messrs. Sherman, French & Co. for "The Trees," Samuel Valentine Cole, from _The Great Gray King, and Other Poems_; for "Her Garden," Eldredge Denison, from _Ballads and Lyrics_; for "Moth-Flowers," Jeanne Robert Foster, from _Wild Apples_; for "The Little God," Katharine Howard, from _The Little God, and Other Poems_; for "Cloud and Flower," Agnes Lee, from _The Sharing, and Other Poems_; for "The Dials" and "The Secret," Arthur Wallace Peach, from _The Hill Trails_; for "A Garden Prayer" and "In Memory's Garden," Thomas Walsh, from _The Prison Ships, and Other Poems_; for "Prayer" and "With memories and odors," John Hall Wheelock, from _Love and Liberation_.

To Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson for "A Song of Fairies," by Elizabeth Kirby, from _The Bridegroom_.

To Messrs. Small, Maynard & Co. for "Trees," "The Garden of Dreams," and "An April Morning," Bliss Carman, from _April Airs_; for "The Whisper of Earth," Edward J. O'Brien, from _White Fountains_; for "The Dews" and "Clover," John Banister Tabb, from _Lyrics_.

To Messrs. Stewart & Kidd Company, Cincinnati, for "The Golden Bowl," Mary McMillan, from _The Little Golden Fountain, and Other Poems_.

To Messrs. Frederick A. Stokes Company for "A Mocking-Bird" and "The Early Gods," Witter Bynner, from _Grenstone Poems_; for "The Proud Vegetables" and "Iris Flowers," Mary McNeil Fenollosa, from _Blossoms from a Japanese Garden_.

To Mr. T. Fisher Unwin for "Autumnal," Richard Middleton, from _Poems and Songs_.

To Messrs. James T. White & Co. for "Flowers of June," James Terry White, from _A Garden of Remembrance_; for "Song of the Weary Traveller," Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff, from _Narcissus, and Other Poems_.

To the _Atlantic Monthly_ for "April Rain," Conrad Aiken; for "Yellow Warblers," Katharine Lee Bates; for "Safe," Robert Haven Schauffler; for "The Lilies," George Edward Woodberry.

To the _Century Magazine_ for "Order," Paul Scott Mowrer.

To the _Christian Science Monitor_ for "Family Trees," Douglas Malloch.

To the _Churchman_ for "The Faithless Flowers," Margaret Widdemer.

To _Contemporary Verse_ for "The Road to the Pool," Grace Hazard Conkling; for "The Night-Moth," Marion Couthouy Smith.

To the _Craftsman_ for "The Scissors-Man," Grace Hazard Conkling.

To the _Delineator_ for "In my Mother's Garden," Margaret Widdemer.

To _Everybody's Magazine_ for "Years Afterward," Nancy Byrd Turner.

To _Harper's Monthly Magazine_ for "Progress," Charlotte Becker; for "Oh, tell me how my garden grows," Mildred Howells; for "A Song for Winter," Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.

To the _Independent_ for "Blind," Harry Kemp; for "The Dusty Hour-Glass," Amy Lowell; for "A Midsummer Garden," Clinton Scollard.

To the _Los Angeles Graphic_ for "A White Iris," Pauline B. Barrington.

To _Lyric_ for "July Midnight," Amy Lowell.

To _Munsey's Magazine_ for "A Puritan Lady's Garden," Sarah N. Cleghorn; for "Spring Song," William Griffith; for "The Fountain," Harry Kemp.

To _Mushrooms_, published by The John Marshall Company, for "Idealists," Alfred Kreymborg.

To _Others: A Magazine of New Verse_ for "Reflections" ("Chinoiseries"), Amy Lowell; for "Lord, I ask a Garden," R. Arevalo Martinez.

To the _New York Sun_ for "A Colonial Garden," James B. Kenyon.

To the _New York Times_ for "Grace for Gardens," Louise Driscoll; for "The Welcome," Arthur Powell.

To _Poetry: A Magazine of Verse_ for "Spring Song," Hilda Conkling; for "A Lady of the Snows," Harriet Monroe; for "The Magnolia," Jose Santos Chocano, translated by John Pierrepont Rice.

To _Punch_ for "Lavender," W. W. Blair Fish.

To _St. Nicholas_ for "Velvets," Hilda Conkling; for "When Swallows Build," Catherine Parmenter.

To _Scribner's Magazine_ for "Her Garden," Louis Dodge; for "The Path that leads to Nowhere," Corinne Roosevelt Robinson.

To the _Touchstone_ for "Dawn in my Garden," Marguerite Wilkinson.

To the _Yale Review_ and to Mr. Brian Hooker personally for "Ballade of the Dreamland Rose" from _Poems_; also to the _Yale Review_ for the selection from "Earth," John Hall Wheelock.

* * * * *

Personal acknowledgment is also made to the following poets and individual owners of copyrights:--

To Miss Zoe Akins for "The Snow-Gardens."

To Mr. William Stanley Braithwaite and to Mr. Fletcher personally for "Spring," John Gould Fletcher, printed in the _Poetry Review_.

To M. G. Brereton for "The Old Brocade" from _A Celtic Christmas_.

To Miss Abbie Farwell Brown for "The Wall" in manuscript.

To Mrs. Grace Hazard Conkling for "The Rose" in manuscript.

To Mr. Miles M. Dawson for "The Thistle" from _Songs of the New Time_.

To Violet Fane (Lady Curie) for "To a New Sun-Dial" from _Collected Poems_.

To Mrs. Mary McNeil Fenollosa for "Birth of the Flowers."

To Mr. Arthur Guiterman for "Tulips" and "Columbines" in manuscript.

To Miss Mary R. Jewett for "Flowers in the Dark," Sarah Orne Jewett, from _Verses_ (privately printed).

To Rev. Arthur Ketchum for "The Spirit of the Birch" in manuscript.

To Miss Hannah Parker Kimball for "Sun, Cardinal, and Corn Flowers" from _Soul and Sense_.

To Mr. William Lindsey for "Two Roses" from _Apples of Istakhar_.

To Catherine Markham (Mrs. Edwin Markham) for "A Garden Friend."

To Mr. Lloyd Mifflin for "Draw closer, O ye Trees" from _The Flying Nymph, and Other Verse_.

To Miss Angela Morgan for "The Awakening" in manuscript.

To E. Nesbit (Mrs. Hubert Bland) for "Baby Seed Song."

To Mr. Shaemas O Sheel for "While April Rain went by" from _The Light Feet of Goats_ (The Franklin Press).

To Mr. Clinton Scollard for "The Crocus Flame," and "Sunflowers," from _Ballads Patriotic and Romantic_; for "In the Garden-Close at Mezra" and "In an Egyptian Garden" from _The Lutes of Morn_.

To Mrs. Emily Selinger for "Over the Garden Wall."

To Mrs. May Riley Smith for "Sorrow in a Garden" in manuscript.

To the estate of Frank L. Stanton for "Sweetheart-Lady."

To Mr. Charles Wharton Stork for "Boulders" in manuscript, and for "Color Notes," printed in _Lippincott's Magazine_.

To Mr. Charles Hanson Towne for "A White Rose."

To Katharine Tynan (Mrs. Henry Albert Hinkson) for "The Choice," published by Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson in _The Poems of To-day_, an anthology.

To Mr. Frederic A. Whiting for his own poems "A Rose Lover" and "A Wonder Garden" in manuscript and for "Kinfolk" by Kate Whiting Patch.

To Mr. Clement Wood for "Rose-Geranium" from _Glad of Earth_.

To Mr. Henry A. Wise Wood for "The Joy of a Summer Day."

NOTE

With very few exceptions only the poets who are writing to-day, or who have written within a period of ten years, are represented in this collection; and certain favorite poems peculiarly suited to the spirit of this book which chanced to be included in _High Tide_ may be missed here. G. M. R.

CONTENTS

WITHIN GARDEN WALLS

Earth _John Hall Wheelock_ 2

The Furrow _Padraic Colum_ 3

"There is strength in the soil" _Arthur Stringer_ 4

In the Womb "_A. E._" 4

Putting in the Seed _Robert Frost_ 5

The Whisper of Earth _Edward J. O'Brien_ 6

"Within the garden there is healthfulness" _Emile Verhaeren_ 6

In a Garden _Horace Holley_ 7

A Shower _Rowland Thirlmere_ 8

The Rain _William H. Davies_ 9

The Dews _John B. Tabb_ 9

Sonnet _John Masefield_ 10

Charm: To be said in the Sun _Josephine Preston Peabody_ 11

The Dials _Arthur Wallace Peach_ 12

To a New Sundial _Violet Fane_ 13

The Fountain _Harry Kemp_ 14

THE PAGEANTRY OF GARDENS

The Birth of the Flowers _Mary McNeil Fenollosa_ 18

The Welcome _Arthur Powell_ 19

The Joy of the Springtime _Sarojini Naidu_ 20

Spring _John Gould Fletcher_ 20

Primavera _George Cabot Lodge_ 21

The Green o' the Spring _Denis A. McCarthy_ 22

An April Morning _Bliss Carman_ 23

"With memories and odors" _John Hall Wheelock_ 24

April Rain _Conrad Aiken_ 25

While April Rain went by _Shaemas O Sheel_ 25

Spring _Francis Ledwidge_ 26

April Weather _Lizette Woodworth Reese_ 27

Daffodils _Ruth Guthrie Harding_ 28

The Crocus Flame _Clinton Scollard_ 28

The Early Gods _Witter Bynner_ 30

A Tulip Garden _Amy Lowell_ 30

Tulips _Arthur Guiterman_ 31

A White Iris _Pauline B. Barrington_ 32

May is building her House _Richard Le Gallienne_ 33

The Magnolia _Jose Santos Chocano_ 34

"Go down to Kew in lilac-time" _Alfred Noyes_ 35

Beyond _Thomas S. Jones, Jr._ 36

June _Douglas Malloch_ 36

June Rapture _Angela Morgan_ 37

Columbines _Arthur Guiterman_ 39

The Morning-Glory _Florence Earle Coates_ 40

The Blossomy Barrow _T. A. Daly_ 40

Larkspur _James Oppenheim_ 42

The July Garden _Robert Ernest Vernede_ 43

"Mid-summer blooms within our quiet garden-ways"
_Emile Verhaeren_ 44

Poppies _John Russell Hayes_ 45

The Garden in August _Gertrude Huntington McGiffert_ 46

Sun, Cardinal, and Corn Flowers _Hannah Parker Kimball_ 48

Sunflowers _Clinton Scollard_ 48

The End of Summer _Edna St. Vincent Millay_ 49

A Late Walk _Robert Frost_ 50

Color Notes _Charles Wharton Stork_ 50

The Golden Bowl _Mary McMillan_ 51

The Autumn Rose _Antoinette De Coursey Patterson_ 52

Indian Summer _Sara Teasdale_ 53

"Frost to-night" _Edith M. Thomas_ 54

November Night _Adelaide Crapsey_ 55

The Snow-Gardens _Zoe Akins_ 55

A Song for Winter _Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer_ 57

WINGS AND SONG

"I meant to do my work to-day" _Richard Le Gallienne_ 60

The Hummingbird _Hermann Hagedorn_ 61

Spring Song _William Griffith_ 62

Nightingales _Grace Hazard Conkling_ 63

The Goldfinch _Odell Shepard_ 63

Kinfolk _Kate Whiting Patch_ 65

A Mocking-Bird _Witter Bynner_ 65

The Cardinal-Bird _Arthur Guiterman_ 66

Yellow Warblers _Katharine Lee Bates_ 67

Witchery _Frank Dempster Sherman_ 68

The Spring Beauties _Helen Gray Cone_ 68

The Mocking-Bird _Frank L. Stanton_ 69

The Messenger _James Stephens_ 71

Fireflies _Antoinette De Coursey Patterson_ 72

July Midnight _Amy Lowell_ 72

The Cricket in the Path _Amelia Josephine Burr_ 73

Rest at Noon _Hermann Hagedorn_ 74

Order _Paul Scott Mowrer_ 75

The Night-Moth _Marion Couthouy Smith_ 75

The Butterfly _Edwin Markham_ 76

The Secret _Arthur Wallace Peach_ 77

THE GARDENS OF YESTERDAY

The Garden _Gertrude Huntington McGiffert_ 80

Old Homes _Madison Cawein_ 81

A Puritan Lady's Garden _Sarah N. Cleghorn_ 82

The Old-fashioned Garden _John Russell Hayes_ 83

A Colonial Garden _James B. Kenyon_ 86

In my Mother's Garden _Margaret Widdemer_ 87

To the Sweetwilliam _Norman Gale_ 88

Rose-Geranium _Clement Wood_ 90

Four O'Clocks _Julia C. R. Dorr_ 91

Asking for Roses _Robert Frost_ 92

The Old Brocade _M. G. Brereton_ 93

Stairways and Gardens _Ella Wheeler Wilcox_ 94

Old Mothers _Charles Ross_ 95

PASTURES AND HILLSIDES

Song from "April" _Irene Rutherford McLeod_ 98

The Road to the Pool _Grace Hazard Conkling_ 99

The Wild Rose _Charles Buxton Going_ 99

Up a Hill and a Hill _Fannie Stearns Davis_ 100

The Joys of a Summer Morning _Henry A. Wise Wood_ 101

South Wind _Siegfried Sassoon_ 102

To a Weed _Gertrude Hall_ 102

The Pasture _Robert Frost_ 104

The Thistle _Miles M. Dawson_ 104

Clover _John B. Tabb_ 105

Wild Gardens _Ada Foster Murray_ 106

The Dandelion _Vachel Lindsay_ 107

Joe-Pyeweed _Louis Untermeyer_ 108

To a Daisy _Alice Meynell_ 109

A Soft Day _W. M. Letts_ 110

Arbutus _Adelaide Crapsey_ 111

Jewel-Weed _Florence Earle Coates_ 111

The Wall _Abbie Farwell Brown_ 112

Boulders _Charles Wharton Stork_ 114

Afternoon on a Hill _Edna St. Vincent Millay_ 115

The Golden-Rod _Margaret Deland_ 116

The Path that leads to Nowhere _Corinne Roosevelt Robinson_ 117

LOVERS AND ROSES

The Message _George Edward Woodberry_ 120

"Where love is life" _Duncan Campbell Scott_ 121

The Time of Roses _Sarojini Naidu_ 122

Love planted a Rose _Katharine Lee Bates_ 123

The Garden _Alice Meynell_ 123

Cloud and Flower _Agnes Lee_ 124

Progress _Charlotte Becker_ 125

"But we did walk in Eden" _Josephine Preston Peabody_ 125

A Garden-Piece _Edmund Gosse_ 126

"How many flowers are gently met" _George Sterling_ 127

With a Rose, to Brunhilde _Vachel Lindsay_ 127

"My soul is like a garden-close" _Thomas S. Jones, Jr._ 128

A Dream _Antoinette De Coursey Patterson_ 129

The Rose _Grace Hazard Conkling_ 130

Prayer _John Hall Wheelock_ 130

In a Garden _Livingston L. Biddle_ 131

A Song of Fairies _Elizabeth Kirby_ 131

A Song to Belinda _Theodosia Garrison_ 132

Sweetheart-Lady _Frank L. Stanton_ 133

Heart's Garden _Norreys Jephson O'Conor_ 133

A Rose Lover _Frederic A. Whiting_ 134

Sonnet _Elsa Barker_ 135

A Song in a Garden _Theodosia Garrison_ 135

"It was June in the garden" _Emile Verhaeren_ 136

Two Roses _William Lindsey_ 138

Roses _Wilfrid Wilson Gibson_ 138

Her Garden _Louis Dodge_ 139

AEre Perennius _Charles Hanson Towne_ 139

Ever the Same _Josephine Preston Peabody_ 140

The Message _Helen Hay Whitney_ 141

Tell-Tale _Oliver Herford_ 142

Da Thief _T. A. Daly_ 143

Results and Roses _Edgar A. Guest_ 145

UNDERNEATH THE BOUGH

Miracle _L. H. Bailey_ 148

The Awakening _Angela Morgan_ 149

Shade _Theodosia Garrison_ 150

Selection from "Under the Trees" _Anna Hempstead Branch_ 151

A Garden Friend _Catherine Markham_ (_Mrs. Edwin Markham_) 152

A Lady of the Snows _Harriet Monroe_ 153

The Tree _Evelyn Underhill_ 153

"Loveliest of trees" _A. E. Housman_ 155

The Spirit of the Birch _Arthur Ketchum_ 156

Family Trees _Douglas Malloch_ 156

Idealists _Alfred Kreymborg_ 158

"Draw closer, O ye trees" _Lloyd Mifflin_ 159

Trees _Bliss Carman_ 160

The Trees _Samuel Valentine Cole_ 162

The Poplars _Theodosia Garrison_ 164

Trees _Joyce Kilmer_ 165

THE LOST GARDENS OF THE HEART

As in a Rose-Jar _Thomas S. Jones, Jr._ 168

In an Old Garden _Madison Cawein_ 169

The Garden of Dreams _Bliss Carman_ 169

Homesick _Julia C. R. Dorr_ 170

The Ways of Time _William H. Davies_ 172

A Midsummer Garden _Clinton Scollard_ 172

The White Rose _Charles Hanson Towne_ 173

A Haunted Garden _Louis Untermeyer_ 174

The Dusty Hour-Glass _Amy Lowell_ 176

The Song of Wandering Aengus _W. B. Yeats_ 177

The Three Cherry Trees _Walter de la Mare_ 178

Old Gardens _Arthur Upson_ 179

The Blooming of the Rose _Anna Hempstead Branch_ 179

The Garden of Mnemosyne _Rosamund Marriott Watson_ 181

Ballade of the Dreamland Rose _Brian Hooker_ 181

The Flowers of June _James Terry White_ 183

In Memory's Garden _Thomas Walsh_ 183

Serenade _Marjorie L. C. Pickthall_ 184

"What heart but fears a fragrance?" _Martha Gilbert
Dickinson Bianchi_ 185

Years Afterward _Nancy Byrd Turner_ 186

Autumnal _Richard Middleton_ 186

"Oh, tell me how my garden grows" _Mildred Howells_ 188

Her Garden _Eldredge Denison_ 189

The Little Ghost _Edna St. Vincent Millay_ 190

Roses in the Subway _Dana Burnet_ 191

THE GARDEN OVER-SEAS

A Garden Prayer _Thomas Walsh_ 194

In the Garden-Close at Mezra _Clinton Scollard_ 195

The Cactus _Laurence Hope_ 195

The White Peacock _William Sharp_ 196

At Isola Bella _Jessie B. Rittenhouse_ 198

The Fountain _Sara Teasdale_ 199

The Champa Flower _Rabindranath Tagore_ 200

In an Egyptian Garden _Clinton Scollard_ 201

Evening in Old Japan _Antoinette De Coursey Patterson_ 202

Reflections _Amy Lowell_ 203

In the Garden _Pai Ta-Shun_ 204

The Deserted Garden _Pai Ta-Shun_ 204

A Roman Garden _Florence Wilkinson Evans_ 205

Como in April _Robert Underwood Johnson_ 207

An Exile's Garden _Sophie Jewett_ 207

The Cloister Garden at Certosa _Richard Burton_ 208

A Garden in Venice _Dorothy Frances Gurney_ 209

In a Garden of Granada _Thomas Walsh_ 210

Amiel's Garden _Gertrude Huntington McGiffert_ 211

Eden-Hunger _William Watson_ 212

The Garden at Bemerton _Lizette Woodworth Reese_ 212

In an Oxford Garden _Arthur Upson_ 213

THE HOMELY GARDEN

"Grandmother's gathering boneset" _Edith M. Thomas_ 216

A Breath of Mint _Grace Hazard Conkling_ 217

A Seller of Herbs _Lizette Woodworth Reese_ 218

Lavender _W. W. Blair Fish_ 219

Dawn in my Garden _Marguerite Wilkinson_ 221

The Proud Vegetables _Mary McNeil Fenollosa_ 221

The Choice _Katharine Tynan_ 223

Thoughts fer the Discuraged Farmer _James Whitcomb Riley_ 225

Grace for Gardens _Louise Driscoll_ 226

SILVER BELLS AND COCKLE SHELLS

Planting _Robert Livingston_ 230

Spring Patchwork _Abbie Farwell Brown_ 231

Baby's Valentine _Laura E. Richards_ 232

Baby Seed Song _E. Nesbit_ 234

Rain in the Night _Amelia Josephine Burr_ 235

A Little Girl's Songs--I, Spring Song; II, Velvets (By a
Bed of Pansies) _Hilda Conkling_ (_six years old_) 236

When Swallows Build _Catherine Parmenter_ (_eleven years
old_) 238

Spring Planting _Helen Hay Whitney_ 239

If I could dig like a Rabbit _Rose Strong Hubbell_ 239

The Little God _Katharine Howard_ 240

Daisies _Frank Dempster Sherman_ 241

The Anxious Farmer _Burges Johnson_ 242

Over the Garden Wall _Emily Selinger_ 243

The Flowerphone _Abbie Farwell Brown_ 244

The Faithless Flowers _Margaret Widdemer_ 245

The Flower-School _Rabindranath Tagore_ 246

Iris Flowers _Mary McNeil Fenollosa_ 247

If I were a Fairy _Charles Buxton Going_ 249

Fringed Gentians _Amy Lowell_ 250

The Scissors-Man _Grace Hazard Conkling_ 250

THE GARDEN OF LIFE

God's Garden _Richard Burton_ 254

"The Lord God planted a garden" _Dorothy Frances Gurney_ 255

The Lilies _George E. Woodberry_ 255

Barter _Sara Teasdale_ 256

Sonnet _John Masefield_ 257

The Tilling _Cale Young Rice_ 258

Safe _Robert Haven Schauffler_ 259

Sorrow in a Garden _May Riley Smith_ 260

Moth-Flowers _Jeanne Robert Foster_ 262

Alchemy _Sara Teasdale_ 262

Flowers in the Dark _Sarah Orne Jewett_ 263

Welcome _John Curtis Underwood_ 264

The Child in the Garden _Henry van Dyke_ 265

A Wonder Garden _Frederic A. Whiting_ 266

From a Car-Window _Ruth Guthrie Harding_ 267

Song of the Weary Traveller _Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff_ 267

Cobwebs _Louise Imogen Guiney_ 268

Blind _Harry Kemp_ 269

Herb of Grace _Amelia Josephine Burr_ 270

Before Mary of Magdala came _Edwin Markham_ 270

Conscience _Margaret Steele Anderson_ 273

Rosa Mystica _Katharine Tynan_ 273

The Mystery _Ralph Hodgson_ 275

The Rose _Angela Morgan_ 275

For These _Edward Thomas_ (_Edward Eastaway_) 276

Samuel Gardner _Edgar Lee Masters_ 277

Seeds _John Oxenham_ 278

"Lord, I ask a Garden" _R. Arevalo Martinez_ 279

My Flower-Room _Ella Wheeler Wilcox_ 280

"Vestured and veiled with twilight" _Rosamund Marriott
Watson_ 282

The Fruit Garden Path _Amy Lowell_ 283

Wood Song _Sara Teasdale_ 284

A Prayer _Edwin Markham_ 284

The Philosopher's Garden _John Oxenham_ 285

Index of Titles 287

Index of Authors 297

* * * * *

WITHIN GARDEN WALLS

EARTH

_Grasshopper, your fairy song
And my poem alike belong
To the deep and silent earth
From which all poetry has birth;
All we say and all we sing
Is but as the murmuring
Of that drowsy heart of hers
When from her deep dream she stirs:
If we sorrow, or rejoice,
You and I are but her voice._

_Deftly does the dust express
In mind her hidden loveliness,
And from her cool silence stream
The cricket's cry and Dante's dream:
For the earth that breeds the trees
Breeds cities too, and symphonies,
Equally her beauty flows
Into a savior or a rose._

* * * * *

_Even as the growing grass
Up from the soil religions pass,
And the field that bears the rye
Bears parables and prophecy.
Out of the earth the poem grows
Like the lily, or the rose;
And all that man is or yet may be,
Is but herself in agony
Toiling up the steep ascent
Towards the complete accomplishment
When all dust shall be, the whole
Universe, one conscious soul._

* * * * *

_Yea, and this my poem, too,
Is part of her as dust and dew,
Wherein herself she doth declare
Through my lips, and say her prayer._

JOHN HALL WHEELOCK

THE FURROW

Stride the hill, sower,
Up to the sky-ridge,
Flinging the seed,
Scattering, exultant!
Mouthing great rhythms
To the long sea beats
On the wide shore, behind
The ridge of the hillside.

Below in the darkness--
The slumber of mothers--
The cradles at rest--
The fire-seed sleeping
Deep in white ashes!

Give to darkness and sleep:
O sower, O seer!
Give me to the Earth.
With the seed I would enter.
O! the growth thro' the silence
From strength to new strength;
Then the strong bursting forth
Against primal forces,
To laugh in the sunshine,
To gladden the world!

PADRAIC COLUM

"THERE IS STRENGTH IN THE SOIL"

There is strength in the soil;
In the earth there is laughter and youth.
There is solace and hope in the upturned loam.
And lo, I shall plant my soul in it here like a seed!
And forth it shall come to me as a flower of song;
For I know it is good to get back to the earth
That is orderly, placid, all-patient!
It is good to know how quiet
And noncommittal it breathes,
This ample and opulent bosom
That must some day nurse us all!

ARTHUR STRINGER

IN THE WOMB

Still rests the heavy share on the dark soil:
Upon the black mould thick the dew-damp lies:
The horse waits patient: from his lowly toil
The ploughboy to the morning lifts his eyes.

The unbudding hedgerows dark against day's fires
Glitter with gold-lit crystals: on the rim
Over the unregarding city's spires
The lonely beauty shines alone for him.

And day by day the dawn or dark unfolds
And feeds with beauty eyes that cannot see
How in her womb the mighty mother moulds
The infant spirit for eternity.

"A. E."
(GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL)

PUTTING IN THE SEED

You come to fetch me from my work to-night
When supper's on the table, and we'll see
If I can leave off burying the white
Soft petals fallen from the apple tree.

(Soft petals, yes, but not so barren quite,
Mingled with these, smooth bean and wrinkled pea;)
And go along with you ere you lose sight
Of what you came for and become like me,

Slave to a springtime passion for the earth.
How Love burns through the Putting in the Seed
On through the watching for that early birth
When, just as the soil tarnishes with weed,

The sturdy seedling with arched body comes
Shouldering its way and shedding the earth crumbs.

ROBERT FROST

THE WHISPER OF EARTH

In the misty hollow, shyly greening branches
Soften to the south wind, bending to the rain.
From the moistened earthland flutter little whispers,
Breathing hidden beauty, innocent of stain.

Little plucking fingers tremble through the grasses,
Little silent voices sigh the dawn of spring,
Little burning earth-flames break the awful stillness,
Little crying wind-sounds come before the King.

Powers, dominations urge the budding of the crocus,
Cherubim are singing in the moist cool stone,
Seraphim are calling through the channels of the lily,
God has heard the earth-cry and journeys to His throne.

EDWARD J. O'BRIEN

"WITHIN THE GARDEN THERE IS HEALTHFULNESS"

Within the garden there is healthfulness.

Lavishly it gives it us
In light that cleaves
To every movement of its thousand hands
Of palms and leaves.

And the good shade where it accepts,
After long journeyings,
Our steps,
Pours on the weary limb
A force of life and sweetness like
Its mosses dim.

When the lake is playing with the wind and sun.
It seems a crimson heart
Within, all ardent, has begun
To throb with the moving wave;
The gladiolus and the fervent rose,
Which in their splendor move unshadowed,
Upon their vital stems expose
Their cups of gold and red.

Within the garden there is healthfulness.

EMILE VERHAEREN

IN A GARDEN

I stood within a Garden during rain
Uncovering to the drops my lifted brow:
O joyous fancy, to imagine now
I slip, with trees and clouds, the social chain,
Alone with nature, naught to lose or gain
Nor even to become; no, just to be
A moment's personal essence, wholly free
From needs that mold the heart to forms of pain.
Arise, I cried, and celebrate the hour!
Acclaim serener gladness; if it fail,
New courage, nobler vision, will survive
That I have known my kinship to the flower,
My brotherhood with rain, and in this vale
Have been a moment's friend to all alive.

HORACE HOLLEY

A SHOWER

You may have seen, when winds were high,
That hesitant buds would not unfold
In garden-borders chill and dry,
Bright with the Easter-lilies' gold.

Then, suddenly, would come a shower--
The big breeze veering to the west--
And happier music filled the bower
Above the thrush's hidden nest:

The elm-tree's inconspicuous bloom
Vanished amidst her little leaves;
In box and bay a fragrant gloom
Inspired the wren's recitatives:

The woods assumed their delicate green
And spoke in songs that brought you bliss:
Ay, and your withered heart has been
Quickened on such a day as this!

ROWLAND THIRLMERE

THE RAIN

I hear leaves drinking Rain;
I hear rich leaves on top
Giving the poor beneath
Drop after drop;
'Tis a sweet noise to hear
These green leaves drinking near.

And when the Sun comes out,
After this Rain shall stop,
A wondrous Light will fill
Each dark, round drop;
I hope the Sun shines bright;
'Twill be a lovely sight.

WILLIAM H. DAVIES

THE DEWS

We come and go, as the breezes blow,
But whence or where
Hath ne'er been told in the legends old
By the dreaming seer.
The welcome rain to the parching plain
And the languid leaves,
The rattling hail on the burnished mail
Of the serried sheaves,
The silent snow on the wintry brow
Of the aged year,
Wends each his way in the track of day
From a clouded sphere:
But still as the fog in the dismal bog
Where the shifting sheen
Of the spectral lamp lights the marshes damp,
With a flash unseen
We drip through the night from the starlids bright,
On the sleeping flowers,
And deep in their breast is our perfumed rest
Through the darkened hours:
But again with the day we are up and away
With our stolen dyes,
To paint all the shrouds of the drifting clouds
In the eastern skies.

JOHN B. TABB

SONNET

It may be so; but let the unknown be.
We, on this earth, are servants of the sun.
Out of the sun comes all the quick in me,
His golden touch is life to everyone.

His power it is that makes us spin through space,
His youth is April and his manhood bread,
Beauty is but a looking on his face,
He clears the mind, he makes the roses red.

What he may be, who knows? But we are his,
We roll through nothing round him, year by year,
The withering leaves upon a tree which is
Each with his greed, his little power, his fear.

What we may be, who knows? But everyone
Is dust on dust a servant of the sun.

JOHN MASEFIELD

CHARM: TO BE SAID IN THE SUN

I reach my arms up, to the sky,
And golden vine on vine
Of sunlight showered wild and high,
Around my brows I twine.

I wreathe, I wind it everywhere,
The burning radiancy
Of brightness that no eye may dare,
To be the strength of me.

Come, redness of the crystalline,
Come green, come hither blue
And violet--all alive within,
For I have need of you.

Come honey-hue and flush of gold,
And through the pallor run,
With pulse on pulse of manifold
New largess of the Sun!

O steep the silence till it sing!
O glories from the height,
Come down, where I am garlanding
With light, a child of light!

JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY

THE DIALS

With fingers softer than the touch of death
The sundial writes the passing of the day,
The hours unfolding slow to twilight gray,
The gleaming moments vanish in a breath.

But sunny hours alone the sundial names;
All unrecorded are the midnight spans
And vain within the dusk the watcher scans
The marble face; thereon no record flames.

So on eternal dials that God may hold,
And those more humble in the human heart,
No bitter deeds their passing hours impart;
Kind deeds alone are marked in fadeless gold!

ARTHUR WALLACE PEACH

TO A NEW SUNDIAL

Oh, Sundial, you should not be young,
Or fresh and fair, or spick and span!
None should remember when began
Your tenure here, nor whence you sprung!

Like ancient cromlech notch'd and scarr'd,
I would have had you sadly tow'r
Above this world of leaf and flower
All ivy-tress'd and lichen-starr'd;

Ambassador of Time and Fate,
In contrast stern to bud and bloom,
Seeming half temple and half tomb,
And wholly solemn and sedate;

Till, one with God's own works on earth,
The lake, the vale, the mountain-brow,
We might have come to count you now
Whose home was here before our birth.

But lo! a priggish, upstart thing--
Set here to tell so old a truth--
How fleeting are our days of youth--
_You_, that were only made last spring!

Go to!... What sermon can you preach,
Oh, mushroom--mentor pert and new?
We are too old to learn of you
What you are all too young to teach!

Yet, Sundial, you and I may swear
Eternal friendship, none the less,
For I'll respect your youthfulness
If you'll forgive my silver hair!

VIOLET FANE

THE FOUNTAIN

I thought my garden finished. I beheld
Each bush bee-visited; a green charm quelled
The louder winds to music; soft boughs made
Patches of silver dusk and purple shade--
And yet I felt a lack of something still.

There was a little, sleepy-footed rill
That lapsed among sun-burnished stones, where slept
Fish, rainbow-scaled, while dragon-flies, adept,
Balanced on bending grass.

All perfect? No.
My garden lacked a fountain's upward flow.
I coaxed the brook's young Naiad to resign
Her meadow wildness, building her a shrine
Of worship, where each ravished waif of air
Might wanton in the brightness of her hair.

So here my fountain flows, loved of the wind,
To every vagrant, aimless gust inclined,
Yet constant ever to its source. It greets
The face of morning, wavering windy sheets
Of woven silver; sheer it climbs the noon,
A shaft of bronze; and underneath the moon
It sleeps in pearl and opal. In the storm
It streams far out, a wild, gray, blowing form;
While on calm days it heaps above the lake,--
Pelting the dreaming lilies half awake,
And pattering jewels on each wide, green frond,--
Recurrent pyramids of diamond!

HARRY KEMP

THE PAGEANTRY OF GARDENS

THE BIRTH OF THE FLOWERS

_God spoke! and from the arid scene
Sprang rich and verdant bowers,
Till all the earth was soft with green,--
He smiled; and there were flowers._

MARY MCNEIL FENOLLOSA

THE WELCOME

God spreads a carpet soft and green
O'er which we pass;
A thick-piled mat of jeweled sheen--
And that is Grass.

Delightful music woos the ear;
The grass is stirred
Down to the heart of every spear--
Ah, that's a Bird.

Clouds roll before a blue immense
That stretches high
And lends the soul exalted sense--
That scroll's a Sky.

Green rollers flaunt their sparkling crests;
Their jubilee
Extols brave Captains and their quests--
And that is Sea.

New-leaping grass, the feathery flute,
The sapphire ring,
The sea's full-voiced, profound salute,--
Ah, this is Spring!

ARTHUR POWELL

THE JOY OF THE SPRINGTIME

Springtime, O Springtime, what is your essence,
The lilt of a bulbul, the laugh of a rose,
The dance of the dew on the wings of a moonbeam,
The voice of the zephyr that sings as he goes,
The hope of a bride or the dream of a maiden
Watching the petals of gladness unclose?

Springtime, O Springtime, what is your secret,
The bliss at the core of your magical mirth,
That quickens the pulse of the morning to wonder
And hastens the seeds of all beauty to birth,
That captures the heavens and conquers to blossom
The roots of delight in the heart of the earth?

SAROJINI NAIDU

SPRING

At the first hour, it was as if one said, "Arise."
At the second hour, it was as if one said, "Go forth."
And the winter constellations that are like patient ox-eyes
Sank below the white horizon at the north.

At the third hour, it was as if one said, "I thirst;"
At the fourth hour, all the earth was still:
Then the clouds suddenly swung over, stooped, and burst;
And the rain flooded valley, plain and hill.

At the fifth hour, darkness took the throne;
At the sixth hour, the earth shook and the wind cried;
At the seventh hour, the hidden seed was sown,
At the eighth hour, it gave up the ghost and died.

At the ninth hour, they sealed up the tomb;
And the earth was then silent for the space of three hours.
But at the twelfth hour, a single lily from the gloom
Shot forth, and was followed by a whole host of flowers.

JOHN GOULD FLETCHER

PRIMAVERA

Spirit immortal of mortality,
Imperishable faith, calm miracle
Of resurrection, truth no tongue can tell,
No brain conceive,--now witnessed utterly
In this new testament of earth and sea,--
To us thy gospel! Where the acorn fell
The oak-tree springs: no seed is infidel!
Once more, O Wonder, flower and field and tree
Reveal thy secret and significance!
And we, who share unutterable things
And feel the foretaste of eternity,
Haply shall learn thy meaning and perchance
Set free the soul to lift immortal wings
And cross the frontiers of infinity.

GEORGE CABOT LODGE

THE GREEN O' THE SPRING

Sure, afther all the winther,
An' afther all the snow,
'Tis fine to see the sunshine,
'Tis fine to feel its glow;
'Tis fine to see the buds break
On boughs that bare have been--
But best of all to Irish eyes
'Tis grand to see the green!

Sure, afther all the winther,
An' afther all the snow,
'Tis fine to hear the brooks sing
As on their way they go;
'Tis fine to hear at mornin'
The voice of robineen,
But best of all to Irish eyes
'Tis grand to see the green!

Sure, here in grim New England
The spring is always slow,
An' every bit o' green grass
Is kilt wid frost and snow;
Ah, many a heart is weary
The winther days, I ween
But oh, the joy when springtime comes
An' brings the blessed green!

DENIS A. MCCARTHY

AN APRIL MORNING

Once more in misted April
The world is growing green.
Along the winding river
The plumey willows lean.

Beyond the sweeping meadows
The looming mountains rise,
Like battlements of dreamland
Against the brooding skies.

In every wooded valley
The buds are breaking through,
As though the heart of all things
No languor ever knew.

The golden-wings and bluebirds
Call to their heavenly choirs.
The pines are blued and drifted
With smoke of brushwood fires.

And in my sister's garden
Where little breezes run,
The golden daffodillies
Are blowing in the sun.

BLISS CARMAN

"WITH MEMORIES AND ODORS"

With memories and odors
The wind is warm and mild;
The earth is like a mother
Where leaps the unborn child.

The grackles flock returning
Like rain-clouds from the south.
And all the world lies yearning
Toward summer, mouth to mouth.

How soft the hills and hazy
Seen through the open door!--
The crocus shines, a virgin,
White from the grassy floor.

The children whirl around in a ring,
And laugh and sing, and dance and sing:
But the blackbird whistles clear,
O clear,
"The Spring, the Spring!"

JOHN HALL WHEELOCK

APRIL RAIN

Fall, rain! You are the blood of coming blossom,
You shall be music in the young birds' throats,
You shall be breaking, soon, in silver notes;
A virgin laughter in the young earth's bosom.
Oh, that I could with you reenter earth,
Pass through her heart and come again to sun,
Out of her fertile dark to sing and run
In loveliness and fragrance of new mirth!
Fall, rain! Into the dust I go with you,
Pierce the remaining snows with subtle fire,
Warming the frozen roots with soft desire,
Dreams of ascending leaves and flowers new.
I am no longer body,--I am blood
Seeking for some new loveliness of shape;
Dark loveliness that dreams of new escape,
The sun-surrender of unclosing bud.
Take me, O Earth! and make me what you will;
I feel my heart with mingled music fill.

CONRAD AIKEN

WHILE APRIL RAIN WENT BY

Under a budding hedge I hid
While April rain went by,
But little drops came slipping through,
Fresh from a laughing sky:

A-many little scurrying drops,
Laughing the song they sing,
Soon found me where I sought to hide,
And pelted me with Spring.

And I lay back and let them pelt,
And dreamt deliciously
Of lusty leaves and lady-blossoms
And baby-buds I'd see

When April rain had laughed the land
Out of its wintry way,
And coaxed all growing things to greet
With gracious garb the May.

SHAEMAS O SHEEL

SPRING

The dews drip roses on the meadows
Where the meek daisies dot the sward.
And AEolus whispers through the shadows,
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord!"
The golden news the skylark waketh
And 'thwart the heavens his flight is curled;
Attend ye as the first note breaketh
And chrism droppeth on the world.

The velvet dusk still haunts the stream
Where Pan makes music light and gay.
The mountain mist hath caught a beam
And slowly weeps itself away.
The young leaf bursts its chrysalis
And gem-like hangs upon the bough,
Where the mad throstle sings in bliss
O'er earth's rejuvenated brow.

ENVOI

Slowly fall, O golden sands,
Slowly fall and let me sing,
Wrapt in the ecstasy of youth,
The wild delights of Spring.

FRANCIS LEDWIDGE

APRIL WEATHER

Oh, hush, my heart, and take thine ease,
For here is April weather!
The daffodils beneath the trees
Are all a-row together.

The thrush is back with his old note;
The scarlet tulip blowing;
And white--ay, white as my love's throat--
The dogwood boughs are glowing.

The lilac bush is sweet again;
Down every wind that passes,
Fly flakes from hedgerow and from lane;
The bees are in the grasses.

And Grief goes out, and Joy comes in,
And Care is but a feather;
And every lad his love can win,
For here is April weather.

LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE

DAFFODILS

There flames the first gay daffodil
Where winter-long the snows have lain:
Who buried Love, all spent and still?
There flames the first gay daffodil.
Go, Love's alive on yonder hill,
And yours for asking, joy and pain,
There flames the first gay daffodil
Where winter-long the snows have lain!

RUTH GUTHRIE HARDING

THE CROCUS FLAME

The Easter sunrise flung a bar of gold
O'er the awakening wold.
What was thine answer, O thou brooding earth,
What token of re-birth,
Of tender vernal mirth,
Thou the long-prisoned in the bonds of cold?

Under the kindling panoply which God
Spreads over tree and clod,
I looked far abroad.
Umber the sodden reaches seemed and seer
As when the dying year,
With rime-white sandals shod,
Faltered and fell upon its frozen bier.
Of some rathe quickening, some divine
Renascence not a sign!

And yet, and yet,
With touch of viol-chord, with mellow fret,
The lyric South amid the bough-tops stirred,
And one lone bird
An unexpected jet
Of song projected through the morning blue,
As though some wondrous hidden thing it knew.

And so I gathered heart, and cried again:
"O earth, make plain,
At this matutinal hour,
The triumph and the power
Of life eternal over death and pain,
Although it be but by some simple flower!"

And then, with sudden light,
Was dowered my veiled sight,
And I beheld in a sequestered place
A slender crocus show its sun-bright face.
O miracle of Grace,
Earth's Easter answer came,
The revelation of transfiguring Might,
In that small crocus flame!

CLINTON SCOLLARD

THE EARLY GODS

It is the time of violets.
It is the very day
When in the shadow of the wood
Spring shall have her say,
Remembering how the early gods
Came up the violet way.
Are there not violets
And gods--
To-day?

WITTER BYNNER

A TULIP GARDEN

Guarded within the old red wall's embrace,
Marshalled like soldiers in gay company,
The tulips stand arrayed. Here infantry
Wheels out into the sunlight. What bold grace
Sets off their tunics, white with crimson lace!
Here are platoons of gold-frocked cavalry,
With scarlet sabres tossing in the eye
Of purple batteries, every gun in place.
Forward they come, with flaunting colors spread,
With torches burning, stepping out in time
To some quick, unheard march. Our ears are dead,
We cannot catch the tune. In pantomime
Parades the army. With our utmost powers
We hear the wind stream through a bed of flowers.

AMY LOWELL

TULIPS

Brave little fellows in crimsons and yellows,
Coming while breezes of April are cold,
Winter can't freeze you, he flies when he sees you
Thrusting your spears through the redolent mold.

Jolly Dutch flowers, rejoicing in showers,
Drink! ere the pageant of Spring passes by!
Hold your carousals to Robin's espousals,
Lifting rich cups for the wine of the sky!

Dignified urbans in glossy silk turbans,
Burgherlike blossoms of gardens and squares,
Nodding so solemn by fountain and column,
What is the talk of your weighty affairs?

Pollen and honey (for such is your money),--
Gossip and freight of the chaffering bee,--
Prospects of growing,--what colors are showing,--
News of rare tulips from over the sea?

Loitering near you, how often I hear you,
Just ere your petals at twilight are furled,
Laugh through the grasses while Evelyn passes,
"There goes the loveliest flower in the world!"

ARTHUR GUITERMAN

A WHITE IRIS

Tall and clothed in samite,
Chaste and pure,
In smooth armor,--
Your head held high
In its helmet
Of silver:
Jean D'Arc riding
Among the sword blades!

Has Spring for you
Wrought visions,
As it did for her
In a garden?

PAULINE B. BARRINGTON

MAY IS BUILDING HER HOUSE