Will --
Lovely!
RETURN AGAIN is awesome.
I am a fan of these texts and the garden theme, and you're right about changing understandings of 'plantation' (and about Newton's remarkable personal journey).
(cf. early [still?] full name "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations", leaning into the sense of "settlement in new country or region", without the modern meaning suggesting antebellum South and Caribbean chattel slavery institutions. Although, Newport especially in Rhode Island, New London in SE Connecticut, and other southern New England ports and the region were importantly connected with the colonies <==> Caribbean leg of the Atlantic triangle slave trade; also surprisingly Moses Brown, founder of Brown U in Providence and a "Quaker" / member of Religious Society of Friends... got a substantial bit of his early money for the educational endeavor from that same trade.)
An additional scripture quote / allusion from the GARDEN HYMN text:
"...and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as a rose." is found in Isaiah 35:1,
where verse 2 continues nicely for shape noters: "It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing..."
LA!
-- A. Gabriel Kastelle --