THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Abraham Lincoln

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

GLADIOLUS: STRENGTH OF CHARACTER
Emily Dickinson

We never know how high we are until we are asked to rise then if we are true to plan our statures touch the skies -- The heroism we recite would be a common thing Did not ourselves the cubits warp for fear to be a king.

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HALLELUJAH ANGEL
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"At the performing of Handel's Messiah I heard some delicious strains and understood very little of all that was told me. My ear received but a little thereof. But as the master overpowered the littleness and incapableness of the performers, and made them conductors of his electricity, so it was easy to see what efforts nature was making through so many hoarse, wooden and imperfect persons to produce beautiful voices, fluid and soulguided men and women. The genius of nature could well be discerned.'

Ralph Waldo Emerson, December 25, 1843.

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HAMLET
William Shakespeare

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts...There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb of grace... IV, 5.

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and opposing end them...To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause... III, 1

This above all: to thine own self be true... I, 3.

O rose of May!...Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine, it senses some precious instance of itself after the thing it loves. IV, 5.

...A violet in the youth of primy nature, forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute; no more. I, 3.

There is a willow grows aslant a brook...There with fantastic garlands did she come of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples...IV, 7.

Do not...show me the steep and thorney way to heaven, whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine...the primrose path of dalliance treads...I, 3.

HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE
Mother Goose

Hey! Diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon; the little dog laughed to see such craft, and the dish ran away with the spoon.

HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS
Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and
sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all, and
sweetest in the gale is heard; and sore must be the storm
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land, and on the strangest sea;
yet, never in extremity, it asked a crumb of me.

HOPS
Thomas Jefferson

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest a continued one through the year.

Thomas Jefferson, letter, August 20, 1811, Poplar Forest

HOUSE PRAYER
Louis Untermeyer

"May nothing evil cross this door, and may ill-fortune never pry about these windows; may the roar and rains go by. Strengthened by faith, the rafters will withstand the battering of the storm. This hearth, though all the world grow chill will keep you warm. Peace shall walk softly through these rooms, touching your lips with holy wine, till every casual corner blooms into a shrine. Laughter shall drown the raucous shout and, though the sheltering walls are thin, may they be strong to keep hate out and hold love in."

HOW DO I LOVE THEE?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

IF
Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream– and not make dreams your master; if you can think– and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with Kings– nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it. "If,"

INFANT JOY
William Blake

I have no name. I am but two days old. What shall I call thee?
I happy am ­ joy is my name. Sweet joy befall thee!

Pretty joy! Sweet joy, but two days old. Sweet joy I call thee:
Thou dost smile. I sing the while. Sweet joy befall thee.

IRIS: MESSAGE
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thou art the Iris, fair among the fairest,
Who, armed with golden rod
And winged with the celestial azure, bearest
The Message of some God.

Thou art the Muse, who far from crowed cities
Hauntest the sylvan streams,
Playing on pipes of reed the artless ditties
That come to us as dreams.

O flower-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river
Linger to kiss thy feet!
O flower of song, bloom on, and make for ever
The world more fair and sweet.

IRISH BLESSING
Traditional

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rains fall gently upon your fields.
And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Go n-éiri an bóther leat.
Go raibh an ghaoth go brách ag do chúl.
Go lonrai an ghrian go te ar d'aghaidh.
Go dtite an bhtháisteach go min ar do phtháirceanna.
Agus go mbuailimid le chthéile aris, go gcoinni Dia i mbos A ltháimhe thú.

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IVY: FRIENDSHIP
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

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LADYSLIPPER: CAPRICIOUS BEAUTY
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things--
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced-- fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him. "Pied Beauty."

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THE LAKE AT INNISFREE
William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

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LANGUAGE OF GARDEN FLOWERS
Ralph Waldo Emerson

These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied and it satisfies nature in all moments alike.

LANGUAGE OF WILD FLOWERS
Henry David Thoreau

The scenery, when it is truly seen, reacts on the life of the seer. How to live. How to get the most of life.... How to extract its honey from the flower of the world. - September 7, 1851, The Journal of Henry David Thoreau. Where the most beautiful wild-flowers grow, there one's spirit is fed, and poets grow. - June 15, 1852, Journal. In Wildness is the preservation of the World.... Nature has a place for the wild clematis as well as for the cabbage. "Walking" - essay.

LARKSPUR
Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass

"Singing my days, singing the great achievements of the present, ... I see the plentiful larkspur."

LEMON GERANIUM
The Serenity Prayer attributed to Reinhold Neibuhr

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

"LIGHT OF THE WORLD"
Matthew 5:14

"You are the light of the world."

LILY OF THE VALLEY: RETURN OF HAPPINESS
Psalms 118: 24

This is the day that the lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

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"THE LORD IS MY LIGHT"
Psalms 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear

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THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name¹s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and they staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

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LOVE IS PATIENT...
1 Corinthians 13

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends...So faith , hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

LOVE NEVER ENDS...
1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends...

MAGNOLIA: LOVE OF NATURE
John Burroughs

If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature; and the greatest of these, at least the most constant and always at hand is nature. Nature we have always with us, an inexhaustible storehouse of that which moves the heart, appeals to the mind, and fires the imagination, - health to the body, a stimulus to the intellect, and joy to the soul.

THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS
William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth¹s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love¹s not Time¹s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle¹s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM
William Shakespeare

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose. ~ Act II

I must seek some dewdrops here, and hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. ~ Act II

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows. ~ Act II

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle gently entwist; the female ivy so enrings. ~ Act IV

Through the house give shimmering light and each and every chamber bless-through this palace, with sweet peace, ever shall in safety rest, and the owner of it blest. ~ Act V

MISTLETOE CHRISTMAS CARD
Washington Irving

"It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling – the season for kindling not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart. The Yule clog [sic], and Christmas candle, were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe, with its white berries, hung up,...and a profusion of wooden horses, penny trumpets, and tattered dolls about the floor, showed traces of a troop of little fairy beings, who, having frolicked through a happy day, had been carried off to slumber through a peaceful night."

MORNING GLORIES
Sanskrit Salutation of the Dawn

Look to this day for it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence: the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of beauty. For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

MONDAY'S CHILD!
Mother Goose

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works for its living,
and a child that's born on the Sabbath
day is fair and wise and good and gay.

MOTHER'S JOYS!
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass from "A Song of Joys"

O the joy of that vast elemental sympathy which only the human soul is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless floods. O the mother's joys! The watching, the endurance, the precious love, the anguish, the patiently yielded life. O the joy of increase, growth, recuperation, the joy of soothing and pacifying, the joy of concord and harmony.

MY BELOVED IS MINE
Song of Songs 2:16

My beloved is mine, and I am his, that feedeth among the lilies.

MY SYMPHONY
William Henry Channing

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common : this is to be my symphony."