The Rhodora (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- First Published: 1839
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
The Poem
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The Rhodora” consists of sixteen lines, the basic rhythm of which is iambic pentameter. Some critics call the poem an “extended sonnet,” in part because of its meter, in part because it is a kind of song in praise of the shrub named in the title, and in part because of its having sixteen rather than the fourteen lines of the traditional sonnet.
The rhodora is a shrub found in eastern North America; it has purple or rose-purple flowers that often bloom before the leaves appear. In the poem, Emerson accordingly writes of its...
[The entire page is 1475 words long]
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