The Rhodora | Poem

This Study Guide consists of approximately 30 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Rhodora.
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The Rhodora | Poem

This Study Guide consists of approximately 30 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Rhodora.
This section contains 140 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy The Rhodora Study Guide
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 water 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 earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, 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
The self-same Power that brought me there brought
you.

















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This section contains 140 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy The Rhodora Study Guide
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Gale
The Rhodora from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.