The speaker looks at a garden that stands for the life she had carefully made. It was shaped by pain—furrows ploughed by pain—but it had grown into something lovely: bending trees, shade, sunny spaces, bees, and grassy paths. Now lightning and earthquake have destroyed it. Even the trees she trusted could not stand. What remains is a barren, desolate land open to the bitter winds. The speaker feels deep grief mixed with exhaustion. She is not just mourning a ruined place; she is mourning the loss of the world she built and tended. The opening line, “all to be done over again,” suggests weariness at the thought of beginning from nothing. And since only God can know what will come of it, the poem ends in uncertainty and quiet despair. The mood is bleak, fragile, and sorrowful.
The Garden — Summary
And now it is all to be done over again, And what will come of it only God can know. What has become of the furrows ploughed by pain, And the plants set row on row ?
Where are the lines of beautiful bending trees, The gracious springs, the depths of delicate shade, The sunny spaces loud with the humming of bees, And the grassy paths in the garden my life had made?
Lightning and earthquake now have blasted and riven ; Even the trees that I trusted could not stand: Now it lies here to the bitter winds of heaven, A barren and a desolated land.