MAY 



19 



I must not forget to mention that delicate and 

 lovely flower of May, the fringed polygala. It is 

 rather a shy flower, and is not found in every 

 wood. One day we went up and down through 

 the woods looking for it, woods of mingled oak, 

 chestnut, pine, and hemlock, and were about 

 giving it up when suddenly we came upon a gay 

 company of them beside an old wood-road. It was 

 as if a flock of small rose-purple butterflies had 

 alighted there on the ground before us. The whole 

 plant has a singularly fresh and tender aspect. Its 

 foliage is of a slightly purple tinge, and of very 

 delicate texture. 



BURROUGHS: Riverby. 



2O 



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. 



EMERSON: The Rhodora. 



