Poem by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

Second Series. 7. His heart was in his garden; but his brain

His heart was in his garden; but his brain
Wandered at will among the fiery stars:
Bards, heroes, prophets, Homers, Hamilcars,
With many angels, stood, his eye to gain;
The devils, too, were his familiars.
And yet the cunning florist held his eyes
Close to the ground,--a tulip-bulb his prize,--
And talked of tan and bone-dust, cutworms, grubs,
As though all Nature held no higher strain;
Or, if he spoke of Art, he made the theme
Flow through box-borders, turf, and flower-tubs;
Or, like a garden-engine's, steered the stream,--
Now spouted rainbows to the silent skies;
Now kept it flat, and raked the walks and shrubs.

1. First Series. 7. Dank fens of cedar, hemlock branches gray
2. First Series. 26. For Nature daily through her grand design
3. Third Series. 10. Sometimes I walk where the deep water dips
4. First Series. 6. Not sometimes, but to him that heeds the whole
5. First Series. 27. So to the mind long brooding but on it

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