Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | V. Trees: Flowers: Plants | | The Rhodora | | Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) |
| | Lines on Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower?
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 | 5 |
| Made the black waters with their beauty gay,— | |
| Here might the red-bird 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 the marsh and sky, | 10 |
| Dear, tell them, that if eyes were made for seeing, | |
| Then beauty is its 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 | 15 |
| The self-same Power that brought me there brought you. | | | | |
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