Flowers

O poet! above all men blest,

Take heed that thus thou store them;

Love, Hope, and Faith shall ever rest,

Sweet birds (upon how sweet a nest!)

Watchfully brooding o'er them.

And from those flowers of Paradise

Scatter thou many a blessed seed,

Wherefrom an offspring may arise

To cheer the hearts and light the eyes

Of after-voyagers in their need.

They shall not fall on stony ground,

But, yielding all their hundred-fold,

Shall shed a peacefulness around,

Whose strengthening joy may not be told!

So shall thy name be blest of all,

And thy remembrance never die;

For of that seed shall surely fall

In the fair garden of Eternity,

Exult then m the nobleness

Of this thy work so holy,

Yet be not thou one jot the less

Humble and meek and lowly,

But let throe exultation be

The reverence of a bended knee;

And by thy life a poem write,

Built strongly day by day—

on the rock of Truth and Right

Its deep foundations lay.