Plaque from the website Life With Tess
(The flower growing by the bark is a Star Jasmine, or a Confederate Jasmine)
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
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God's Garden
By Dorothy Francis Gurney
The Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light enfurled.
So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.
And I dream that these garden-closes
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease.
About Dorothy Francis Gurney:
Dorothy Frances Gurney (October 4, 1858 – June 15, 1932) was an English poet and hymn writer. Though both her father and husband were Anglican priests, Mrs. Gurney became a Roman Catholic (as did her husband) in 1919. The second to last verse of her best-known poem, "God's Garden" is seen everywhere on signs, plaques and other garden ornaments, but few people know its author.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“[God's Garden was] originally written in Lord Ronald Gower’s visitor’s book. It was inspired by his exquisite garden at Hammerfield Penshurst.”
From a copy handwritten in England on an envelope circa 1925, and found in a book on the Church of England’s Liberal Evangelicals in 2010. [Source: Wikiquote]
Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat