Decomposing the Rhodora

A Literary Analysis of
Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Rhodora"

Presented to Simoun Omar Dylan Padilla

As a Midterm Requirement for the Subject

Language of Literary Text (ELS 210)

College of Arts and Sciences

West Visayas State University

La Paz, Iloilo City

By

Michael Lorenz V. Oquendo

AB ELS 2-A

March 17, 2023

 The Rhodora (on being, asked whence is the flower?) is a poem written in 1834 by

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a 19th-century American poet, essayist, and philosopher.

Ralph Waldo Emerson or Waldo as he was called. He was born on May 25, 1803, in

Boston, Massachusetts. An American essayist, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who was a

leading figure of Transcendentalism (a movement of writers and philosophers that centers

around the belief in the inherent goodness of people and nature) of the mid-19th century. Since

Emerson was a Transcendentalist, most works were formed from his beliefs therefore it would

be rational to assume he looks at nature as representative of the divine. This is evident in this

poem as the poem talks about the Rhodora, a flowering shrub that commonly grows in bogs or

swampy regions in Northeastern America, as well as appreciation and respect for the beauty of

nature as a connection with the divine.

The poem’s subtitle “On being asked, whence is the flower?” gives insight into its

contents. The subtitle entails that the poem is written as a reply to this particular question,

where did the flower come from, which is the Rhodora?

Emerson wrote the poem in two parts. First, he presents a situation and then proposes

questions and answers. In the first eight lines of the poem, the speaker celebrates the

appearance of the Rhodora in nature, how the flower brings vibrance to its dull surroundings.

While in the remaining eight lines, the speaker discusses the reason for the existence of the

Rhodora and that it is the divine’s will that it exists like how humans do, showing the connection

we have with nature and God.

The poem starts with the speaker revealing the mood and setting, stating that it was

May (middle of summer) and that they were feeling alone or lonely when they found the

Rhodora flower blooming in a slow creek at the corner of woodland near the sea in the daytime.

Seeing the beautiful flower fills the speaker with awe as it gives vibrance to its dull surroundings

as its purple petals fall in a dark pool of water that even the red bird (Northern Cardinal) which

came to rest looks less beautiful than it, thus concluding the first part of the poem.

In the latter half of the poem, the speaker switches from narrating about the Rhodora to

speaking to it while using a reverend and appreciative tone while talking to the flower. The

speaker exclaims the flower’s name and suggests to it that if wise people (philosophers,
scholars, etc.) were to ask why such a beautiful flower is beautiful but not useful for us humans,

the Rhodora should answer that beauty of nature does not need an excuse to exist, that

nothing says beauty has to be of use but instead be of value for what it brings. Then, the

speaker proceeds to ask why the Rhodora was there in the forest, not expecting that they

needed to see it. The speaker then reprimands themself saying that it was their ignorance that

made them not think that the same power that made them go to the place where the Rhodora

was, also brought the flower there for them to see and appreciate.

The Rhodora by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

Lexical and semantic creativity can be observed in the poem. It can be considered an

extended sonnet since it follows the characteristics of a sonnet (Iambic Pentameter, Conflict
solution) except that it has 16 lines instead of 14. The poem also uses the words Thee, Thou,

Wert (2nd person singular, past tense), which are early modern English words, and gay, whose

meaning during Emerson’s time meant carefree, cheerful, or bright and showy, in the case of

the poem, the third meaning is used. Another feature is in the first line of the poem the speaker

referred to themselves as “our” instead of “I” as in the rest of the poem signifying that the

speaker doesn’t only represent one person but people who share the same experience as the

persona.

The poem also exhibits metaphorical creativity with the phrase “self-same power” which

refers to a higher power or God and with the phrase “O rival of the rose!” the speaker compares

the rhodora’s beauty to that of a rose’s, which was considered to be the most beautiful flower.

The use of personification is also evident throughout the first part of the poem. The speaker

personifies nature in these lines:

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.

There too is the use of apostrophe in the whole latter half of the poem, the speaker

starts to talk to the Rhodora:

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.
 The poem consists the sixteen lines within eight stanzas and is told in a first-person
(reliable) point-of-view. It is written with an Iambic Pentameter rhythm structure (a rhythm
structure, used most commonly in poetry, that combines unstressed syllables and stressed
syllables in groups of five or usually 10 syllables per line) and uses an aabb-cdcd-eeff-ghgh
end rhyme scheme with the words:

Solitudes and woods, nook and brook, pool and cool, gay and array, why and sky,
seeing and being, rose and suppose, knew and you.

The Rhodora by Ralph Waldo Emerson

On being asked, whence is the flower? 11

10

In May |, when sea | -winds pier | ced our | solitudes, 10

I found | the fresh | Rhodo|ra in | the woods, 10

Spreading | its leaf | less blooms | in a | damp nook, 10

To please | the de | sert and | the slug | gish brook. 10

The pur | ple pe | tals fall | en in | the pool 11

Made the | black wa | ter with | their beau | ty gay; 11

Here might | the red | -bird come | his plumes | to cool, 10

And court | the flo | wer that | cheapens | his array. 10

Rhodo| ra! If | the sa | ges ask | thee why 11

This charm | is was | ted on | the earth | and sky, 11

Tell them |, dear, that |, if eyes | were made | for seeing, 10

Then beau | ty is | its own | excuse | for Being; 10

Why thou | wert there |, O ri | val of | the rose! 10

I ne | ver thought | to ask |; I ne | ver knew; 11

But in | my sim | ple ig | norance | suppose

The self | -same power | that brought | me there |, brought you.