THE USE OF FLOWERS. 
God might have bade the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small. 
The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, 
Without a flower at all. 
We might have had enough, enough 
For every want of ours, / 
For luxury, medicine and toil, 
And yet have had no flowers. 
The ore within the mountain mine 
Requireth 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 drunk them all. 
