66 
POETEY OE FLOWEES. 
THE USE OF FLOWERS. 
God might have made the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small, 
The oak-tree, and the cedar-tree. 
Without a flower at all. 
He might have made enough, enough. 
For every want of ours. 
For luxury, medicine, and toil. 
And yet have made no flowers. 
The ore within the mountain-mine 
Kequireth none to grow. 
Nor doth it need the lotus-flower 
To make the river flow. 
The clouds might give abundant rain. 
The nightly dews might fall. 
And the herb that keepeth life in man, 
Might yet have drank them all. 
Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, 
All dyed with rainbow light. 
All fashioned with supremest grace, 
Upspringing day and night. 
