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I SAW GOD WASH THE WORLD
I saw God wash the world last night
With His sweet showers on high;
And then when morning came
I saw him hang it out to dry.
He washed each slender blade of grass
And every trembling tree;
He flung his showers against the hills
And swept the rolling sea.
The white rose is a deeper white;
The red, a richer red
Since Gold washed every fragrant face
And put them all to bed.
There's not a bird, there's not a bee
That wings along the way,
But is a cleaner bird and bee
Than it was yesterday.
I saw God wash the world last night;
Ah, would He had washed me
As clean of all my dust and dirt
As that old white birch tree!
[Title poem of Bill's first book of collected verses, I Saw God Wash The World, dedicated to his daughter Betty on her graduation from Smith College in 1934. This was Bill Stidger's most celebrated poem.]
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