Make Your Home Beautiful.
By Eliza Cook
MAKE your home beautiful—bring to it flowers,
Plant them around you to bud and to bloom;
Let them give life to your loneliest hours;
Let them bring light to enliven your gloom;
Make your own world—one that never has sorrowed,
Of music and sunshine, and gold summer air;
A home-world whose forehead care never has furrowed
And whose cheek of bright beauty shall ever be fair. Make your home beautiful—weave round its portals
Wreaths of the jasmin, and delicate sprays
Of red-fruited woodbine, with joyful immortals,
That blesses and brightens wherever it strays:
Gather the blossoms, too—one little flower—
Varied verbenas, or sweet mignonette,
Still may bring bloom to your desolate bower,
Still may be something to love and to pet. Make your home beautiful—gather the roses
That hoard up the sunshine with exquisite art;
Perchance they may pour, as your dread darkness closes
That soft summer sunshine down into your heart!
If you can do so, oh, make it an Eden
Of beauty and gladness—remember 'tis wise;
'Twill teach you to long for that home you are needing,
The Heaven of beauty beyond the blue skies. Make your home beautiful—sure 'tis a duty—
Call up your little ones; teach them to walk
Hand-in-hand with the wandering angel of beauty;
Encourage their spirits with nature to talk,
Gather them round you, and let them be learning
Of the bird and the butterfly—ever returning
To Him who has made all these beautiful things. Make home a hive; where all beautiful feelings
Cluster like bees, and their honey dew bring;
Make it a temple of holy revealings,
And love its bright angel, with "shadowy wing."
Then shall it be when afar on life's billow,
Wherever your tempest-tost children are flung,
They will long for the shades of the home weeping-
willow,
And sing the sweet song which their mother had
sung.—Eliza Cook.