Friday, May 2, 2014

THE RHODORA by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have been reading poetry again. Found this poem by Emerson (1803-1882). He was an essayist and poet. I read that he was a leader in the Transcendental movt. ( I did not know that...interesting) They believed that we were all one big happy family ( so to speak), and that certain ideas such as freedom and nature and the soul to be as one.  "Peace man".
 "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 ,
 here might the red bird come his plumes to cool,
 And court the flower that cheapens his array.
 Rhodora! if the sages ask they why....
 This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
 Teel them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
 Then Beauty is its own excuse for being,
 Why thou were 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 there brought you."

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