When skies are blue and days are bright <br />A kitchen-garden's my delight, <br />Set round with rows of decent box <br />And blowsy girls of hollyhocks. <br /> <br />Before the lark his Lauds hath done <br />And ere the corncrake's southward gone; <br />Before the thrush good-night hath said <br />And the young Summer's put to bed. <br /> <br />The currant-bushes' spicy smell, <br />Homely and honest, likes me well, <br />The while on strawberries I feast, <br />And raspberries the sun hath kissed. <br /> <br />Beans all a-blowing by a row. <br />Of hives that great with honey go, <br />With mignonette and heaths to yield <br />The plundering bee his honey-field. <br /> <br />Sweet herbs in plenty, blue borage <br />And the delicious mint and sage, <br />Rosemary, marjoram, and rue, <br />And thyme to scent the winter through. <br /> <br />Here are small apples growing round, <br />And apricots all golden-gowned, <br />And plums that presently will flush <br />And show their bush a Burning Bush. <br /> <br />Cherries in nets against the wall, <br />Where Master Thrush his madrigal <br />Sings, and makes oath a churl is he <br />Who grudges cherries for a fee. <br /> <br />Lavender, sweet-briar, orris. Here <br />Shall Beauty make her pomander, <br />Her sweet-balls for to lay in clothes <br />That wrap her as the leaves the rose. <br /> <br />Take roses red and lilies white, <br />A kitchen garden's my delight; <br />Its gillyflowers and phlox and cloves, <br />And its tall cote of irised doves.<br /><br />Katharine Tynan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-choice-40/
