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.
Then, wherefore, wherefore were they made,
All dyed with rainbow light,
All fashioned with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night,
Springing in valleys green and low,
And on the mountain high,
And in the silent wilderness,
Where no man passes by ?
Our outward life requires them not ;
Then wherefore had they birth?
To minister delight to man,
To beautify the earth,
To comfort man, to whisper hope
Whene'er his faith is dun ;
For whoso careth for the flowers
Will also care for him.
