Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VI. Human Experience

The Seed Growing Secretly

Henry Vaughan (1621–1695)

DEAR, secret greenness! nurst below

Tempests and winds and winter nights!

Vex not, that but One sees thee grow;

That One made all these lesser lights.

What needs a conscience calm and bright

Within itself, an outward test?

Who breaks his glass, to take more light,

Makes way for storms into his rest.

Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch

At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb;

Keep clean, bear fruit, earn life, and watch

Till the white-winged reapers come!