Project Canterbury

"Songs by the Way"
The Poetical Writings of the Right Rev. George Washington Doane, D.D., LL.D.

Arranged and Edited by His Son, William Croswell Doane

New York: D. Appleton, 1860.

THE GERANIUM LEAF.

"It grew and blew, in my little room, and I pressed it in my Bible."

TEN thousand thanks, my dearest, for this precious little leaf,
Henceforth, to bear me company, in pleasure and in grief;
Still breathing to my heart, its fragrant memories of thee,
And consecrating all the past, with natural piety.

I gaze upon its greenness, and I think of where it blew,
Till all that charmed atmosphere grows radiant to my view,
And I felt it was a happy lot, to live, and grow, and bloom,
Beneath thy light of loveliness, in that enchanted room.

Be ever thus, my gentle one, the Bible at thy side,
And every joy and every grief, shall thus be sanctified;
Nor trust the love, that only drinks at fountains of the earth,
To satisfy the longings, of a soul of heavenly birth.

1838.

Project Canterbury