"The Rhodora, On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower", or simply "The Rhodora", is an 1834

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

by American writer

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, a 19th century philosopher. The poem is about the

rhodora ''Rhododendron canadense'', the rhodora or Canada rosebay, is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America. Classification Today's botanists consider the rhodora to be a distant relative of the other North America ...

, a common flowering shrub, and the beauty of this shrub in its natural setting.

Composition and structure

Emerson had begun a new journal with his poetic jottings in 1834, the earliest of which was "The Rhodora", written in May.Richardson, Robert D. Jr. ''Emerson: The Mind on Fire''. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1995: 177. . A month earlier, he had visited Mount Auburn Cemetery in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, and experienced a deeply spiritual communion with the natural setting there. Emerson's poem is 16 lines long, which he may have intended as a slightly longer version of a sonnet. "The Rhodora" uses a sophisticated form of purposeful symmetry combining octaves, quatrains, and

heroic couplet A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the ''Legend of ...

s.Von Frank, Albert J. ''Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Major Poetry''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015: 32. The poem is clearly divided in half: The first eight lines present the situation and implies the question in the subtitle while the following eight lines present an answer. "The Rhodora" was included in Emerson's 1847 collection ''Poems''.

Analysis

"The Rhodora" expresses a spiritual connection with a primitive, deified nature and that man can share a kindred relationship with God through Nature. The rhodora is presented as a flower as beautiful as the rose, but which remains humble and does not seek broader fame. The narrator relates to the flower by equally embracing humility as a Christian virtue. "The Rhodora" shows the beginnings of Emerson's thoughts on humanity's connection with the natural world which would be greater expressed in his essay "

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

" in 1836. Emerson describes the titular rhodora mostly through the sense of sight by focusing on color, particularly its vibrancy in contrast with the dark pool, though he ignores other senses like smell and sound. Literary scholar

Elisa New Elisa New (born 1958) is an American academic who is the Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard University. Early life and education She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Maryland. New's father was an engi ...

compares the poem to other "American mutability poems" like

Philip Freneau Philip Morin Freneau (January 2, 1752 – December 18, 1832) was an American poet, nationalist, polemicist, sea captain and early American newspaper editor, sometimes called the "Poet of the American Revolution". Through his newspaper, th ...

's "Wild Honeysuckle" and

William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the ''New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poetry ...

's "To a Fringed Gentian". Scholar Allan Burns adds to that list other American poems focused on symbolic use of flowers, including Bryant's "The Yellow Violet" and

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ...

's "To the Dandelion".Burns, Allan. ''Thematic Guide to American Poetry''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002: 3.

References

External links

The Rhodora full text
* 1834 poems Poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson {{poem-stub