quote · Words worth keeping
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. Our outward life requires them not, Then wherefore had they birth? To minister delight to man— To beautify the earth; To whisper hope, to comfort man, Whene’er his faith is dim; For whoso careth for the flowers, Will care much more for him.
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. Our outward life requires them not, Then wherefore had they birth? To minister delight to man— To beautify the earth; To whisper hope, to comfort man, Whene’er his faith is dim; For whoso careth for the flowers, Will care much more for him.
Approximate author period: c. 1846 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Mary Howitt
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1846 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1804–1888)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 229 · printed citation: Mary Howitt · subject: FLOWERS
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