Explore "The Useful Weed" by James McIntyre on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Do not despise the humble weed, / For the Lord He first sowed the seed, / Perhaps it bears most precious fruit, / And useful leaves and potent root.
Though it seems now a useless weed, / Countless millions it yet may feed, / Or future ages it may prize, / Finding in it beauteous dyes.
Or a valued healing balm, / Will make the heated pulse beat calm, / And the future men of science, / May place on it strong reliance.
And it may play important part, / In advancing skill and art, / And no person now doth know / How useful are the weeds that grow.
Weeds we now look on with loathing, / They may yet be used for clothing, / Producing silken glossy coat, / Or paper fine for the bank note.
But you at present must take heed, / And do not grow the cumbrous weed, / Either in garden or in field, / Where plants with profit now do yield.