Ralph Waldo Emerson
In May, when sea winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the redbird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! If the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on earth and sky,
Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is it�s own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew:
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose
The self-same Power that brought me here brought you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a pioneer for a type of literature known now as trancendentalism. He lived for many years as a hermit and wrote poetry and prose full of his ideas, which transcended current thought in the 1800�s.
Return to Poems
