To A Gardener - Robert Louis Stevenson

[Lawrence Robinson]

To A Gardener

Friend, in my mountain-side demesne
My plain-beholding, rosy, green 
And linnet-haunted garden-ground,
Let still the esculents abound.
Let first the onion flourish there,
Rose among roots, the maiden-fair,
Wine-scented and poetic soul
Of the capacious salad bowl.
Let thyme the mountaineer - to dress
The tinier birds - and wading cress,
The lover of the shallow brook,
From all my plots and borders look.

Nor crisp and ruddy radish, nor
Pease-cods for the child's pinafore
Be lacking; nor of salad clan
The last and least that ever ran
About great nature's garden-beds.
Nor thence be missed the spear heads
Of artichoke; nor thence the bean
That gathered innocent and green 
Outsavors the belated pea.

These tend, I prithee; and for me,
Thy most long-suffering master, bring 
In April, when the linnets sing
And the days lengthen more and more
At sundown to the garden door,
And I, being provided thus,
Shall, with superb asparagus,
A book, a taper, and a cup
Of country wine, divinely sup.

	- Robert Louis Stevenson 

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