A Little Dutch Garden. Harriet Whitney Durbin. Poems of Home: II. For Children. Bliss Carman, et al., eds. 1904. The World's Best Poetry. I. Of Home: of Friendship

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904.

Poems of Home: II. For Children

A Little Dutch Garden

Harriet Whitney Durbin


I PASSED by a garden, a little Dutch garden,
Where useful and pretty things grew,—
Heart’s-ease and tomatoes, and pinks and potatoes,
And lilies and onions and rue.

I saw in that garden, that little Dutch garden,	5
A chubby Dutch man with a spade,
And a rosy Dutch frau with a shoe like a scow,
And a flaxen-haired little Dutch maid.

There grew in that garden, that little Dutch garden,
Blue flag flowers lovely and tall,	10
And early blush roses, and little pink posies,
But Gretchen was fairer than all.

My heart ’s in that garden, that little Dutch garden,—
It tumbled right in as I passed,
Mid wildering mazes of spinach and daisies,	15
And Gretchen is holding it fast.