• 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 red-bird come his plumes to cool,
    And court the flower that...

  • 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
      Made the black waters with their beauty gay,—
    Here might the red-bird come his...