The Rhodora: 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 whyThis 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, supposeThe self-same Power that brought me there brought you.
Words in this poem
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower? is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower?, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/the-rhodora-on-being-asked-whence-is-the-flower.html, id L07394.
Form and metre
The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower? is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 --AABCBCDDEEFGFG solitudes · woods · nookA · brookA · poolB · gayC · coolB · arrayC · whyD · skyD · seeingE · beingE · roseF · knewG · supposeF · youG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, | 10 | ······//˘· |
| I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, | 10 | ·········· |
| Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| To please the desert and the sluggish brook. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The purple petals, fallen in the pool, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Made the black water with their beauty gay; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool. | 10 | ·········· |
| And court the flower that cheapens his array. | 10 | ···/·/˘·˘/ |
| Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, | 10 | ·········/ |
| Then Beauty is its own excuse for being: | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·/ |
| Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I never thought to ask, I never knew: | 8 | ·/····/· |
| But, in my simple ignorance, suppose | 9 | ···/˘/˘˘/ |
| The self-same Power that brought me there brought you. | 10 | ···/······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.