Poems (Tynan)/The Gardener

by Katharine Tynan

For works with similar titles, see The Gardener.

THE GARDENER

For the light heart or heavy heart
Medicine. Set thou a time apart,
And to thy garden thee betake
With hoe and spade and pot and rake.

Mark thou thy garden,—and not spare
Thyself as honest labourer.
Break thou the earth and turn withal,
So the live airs thereon shall fall.

Then set thy little seeds in rows,
With the kind earth for swaddling clothes;
And these shall presently awake,
And into life and praise shall break.

Hoe, thin, and water then, that these
May spread their growing limbs at ease;
And prune the vaulting boughs lest they
Should dwindle for the warmth of day.

Soon shall the sweet Spring trumpets ring,
And all the world sing songs for Spring;
Then from the wormy bed shall rise
Creatures that wear the peacock's eyes.

No man shall childless go who hath
Raised these sweet babies out of death.
O peachy cheeks and goldilocks,
And maids in rose and scarlet frocks!

Here shall resort the butterfly,
The birds set up their loves hereby.
The mealy-mouthed bee shall come
For honey for his queen at home.

Brown shall the man grow, being wooed
With the sun's kisses, brave and good,
Shall be an-hungered, and, being fed,
Shall find his bed a golden bed.

Squirrels and hares and gamesome things,
And all sweet folk that go on wings,
Shall sit with him when he shall eat,
And ask a blessing on his meat.

The wonders of the skies for him
Shall open, nor his eyes be dim;
And seeing the first leaf unfold,
He shall praise God an hundredfold.

Yea, he shall learn from his employ
How God turns mourning into joy,
And from earth's graves calls up at last
His flowers when all the Winter 's past.