Oklahoma Arbor and Bird Day, Friday, March Twelfth, 1909/Part One: Arbor Day/Blessing for the Tree Planter

For other versions of this work, see Garden (Whittier).

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BLESSING FOR THE TREE PLANTER.

O painter of the fruits and flowers
We thank Thee for they wise design,
Whereby these human hands of ours
In nature's garden work with Thine.

Give fools their gold and knaves their power;
Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall;
Who sows a field or trains a flower
Or plants a tree is more than all.

For he who blesses most is blest;
And God and man shall own his worth
Who toils to leave as his bequest
And added beauty to the earth.

And, soon or late, to all who sow,
The time of harvest shall be given;
The flower shall bloom, the fruit shall grow,
If not on earth, at least in heaven.

—Whittier.