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to ellen at the south. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 9 (Poems) [1909]

Edition used:

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. Fireside Edition (Boston and New York, 1909).

Part of: The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. (Fireside Edition).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


to ellen
at the south.

    • The green grass is bowing,
    • The morning wind is in it;
    • 'T is a tune worth thy knowing,
    • Though it change every minute.
    • 'T is a tune of the Spring;
    • Every year plays it over
    • To the robin on the wing,
    • And to the pausing lover.
    • O'er ten thousand, thousand acres,
    • Goes light the nimble zephyr;
    • The Flowers—tiny sect of Shakers—
    • Worship him ever.
    • Hark to the winning sound!
    • They summon thee, dearest,—
    • Saying, ‘We have dressed for thee the ground,
    • Nor yet thou appearest.
    • ‘O hasten;’ 't is our time,
    • Ere yet the red Summer
    • Scorch our delicate prime,
    • Loved of bee,—the tawny hummer.
    • ‘O pride of thy race!
    • Sad, in sooth, it were to ours,
    • If our brief tribe miss thy face,
    • We poor New England flowers.
    • ‘Fairest, choose the fairest members
    • Of our lithe society;
    • June's glories and September's
    • Show our love and piety.
    • 'Thou shalt command us all,—
    • April's cowslip, summer's clover,
    • To the gentian in the fall,
    • Blue-eyed pet of blue-eyed lover.
    • ‘O come, then, quickly come!
    • We are budding, we are blowing;
    • And the wind that we perfume
    • Sings a tune that's worth the knowing.’