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