A farewell among the flowers: William Barnes’s garden elegy
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
February 22, 1801
Dearest reader,
On this day, we honor the birth of William Barnes, an English polymath whose life was a splendid tapestry woven with words, inventions, and a love for languages—over seventy, to be exact!
His creative spirit flourished in poetry, penning more than 800 verses, and his mind was a veritable garden of erudition. Imagine, dear reader, conversing in tongues from across the globe, with the same ease as walking through one’s own cherished garden paths.
What marvels must have blossomed in his brilliant mind!
William Barnes was so admired that literary giants Thomas Hardy and Edmund Gosse visited him on his deathbed. Gosse, in particular, painted a striking picture of those final moments:
“We found him in bed in his study, his face turned to the window, where the light came streaming in through flowering plants, his brown books on all sides of him save one, the wall behind him being hung with old green tapestry.”
Doesn’t that conjure an image of serene dignity, a man cradled by nature and knowledge in perfect harmony?
Any gardener who loves their sanctuary must have pondered that poignant farewell day. Barnes captured the ache of departure in his delicate poem To a Garden—On Leaving It:
Sweet garden! peaceful spot! no more in thee
Shall I ever while away the sunny hour.
Farewell each blooming shrub, and lofty tree;
Farewell, the mossy path and nodding flower:
I shall not hear again from yonder bower
The song of birds, or humming of the bee,
Nor listen to the waterfall, nor see
The clouds float on behind the lofty tower.
My eyes no more may see, this peaceful scene.
But still, sweet spot, wherever I may be,
My love-led soul will wander back to thee.
Does it not speak to the gardener’s heart—the bittersweet truth that, while seasons change and time marches on, the soul’s attachment to the garden remains eternal?
Have you ever felt such a profound connection, where a flower or leaf could summon you back, even when far away?
William’s words invite us to cherish our own gardens as realms of peace and sacred memory, where love and nature intertwine.
