Explore "The Flower-Angels" by George MacDonald on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Of old, with goodwill from the skies -- / God's message to them given -- / The angels came, a glad surprise, / And went again to heaven.
But now the angels are grown rare, / Needed no more as then; / Far lowlier messengers can bear / God's goodwill unto men.
Each year, the snowdrops' pallid dawn / Breaks from the earth below; / Light spreads, till, from the dark updrawn, / The noontide roses glow.
The snowdrops first -- the dawning gray; / Then out the roses burn! / They speak their word, grow dim -- away / To holy dust return.
Of oracles were little dearth, / Should heaven continue dumb; / From lowliest corners of the earth / God's messages will come.
In thy face his we see, O Lord, / And are no longer blind; / Need not so much his rarer word, / In flowers even read his mind.