Classic Poem

GREEN things, green things of Earth!
Bless the Lord evermore;
Him praise who gave you birth,
And magnify His goodness o'er and o'er;
The bounties undeserv'd,
Which He from age to age upon your race doth pour.

Green things, green things of Earth!
Brief is your span
In this our latter time;
Unlike that earlier state,
When first in Paradise your life began
In nature's happy prime!
For Adam's sake the world a curse doth wear,
And in his fall ye share.
O, partners in one doom!
Betwixt your race and ours let friendship be;
Give us of your bright blooms
To deck our tombs,
And we in your short lives will honour ye.

All honour to all flowers
Of every hue!
Thou, Heav'n! give showers;
And thou, O Earth! give dew;
Thou, Sun! give heat; thou, Light, thyself distil,
Till every tint hath drunk of thee its fill!
While I, beneath the sylvan shade
Of some deep umbrageous glade,
Sitting on the grassy ground,
Sing to the Angels all around;
Praising the meadows green,
With rills that run between,
And cowslips' heads just seen:—
Praising the primrose sweet,
And purple violet,
And gorse of golden hue,
And hyacinthian blue,
Beneath the forest high,
Spread like a mimic sky;—
Praising their great Creator Lord,
Who made them what they are,
Whose Love the Heav'ns outpour'd,
And of the smallest daisy hath a care.

And ofttimes on His word divine
Meditating, line by line,
And in the bud's unfolding flower
Tracing His eternal power,
I praise the rod, which, dead before,
Its blooming tufts of almond bore;—
I praise the hyssop on the wall;
I praise the cedar's branching hall;
I praise the lily's fair attire
Which Jesus bids me to admire,
Setting such a lowly thing
Above the pomp of Israel's King!
Anon before my fancy lie
Branches green of palm and bay,
Scatter'd thick along the way
Where Christ is passing by;
And, presently, methinks I see,
All in moonlight shadows rise,
The garden of Gethsemane,
Slowly before my tearful eyes;
O, place most mystical and dread!
From whence the Lord to death was led;
O, place unlike to Eden's bowers,
Where life was lost to us and ours!

Straightway, O Eden, at thy name
My heart is in a flame,
And fires with thirst of thine abyss of shade,—
Long cloister'd alleys green,
Cascades half seen,
Flower-woven paths for feet immortal made!
O, for that day of days,
When all again shall happy Eden be!
When earth shall one triumphant pæan raise;
When Paradise shall stretch far as the land and sea!
For this, O Lord, creation groans to Thee!
O, quickly come to save the people of Thy choice!
Then shall the grass be glad, and all the trees rejoice.