THE FRANKNESS OF NATURE

To go with this picture of a flower I took in the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, here is a beautiful poem by James Russell Lowell called “The Frankness of Nature.”  This poem is from the book The Poets of Transcendentalism published in 1903.  It is a sweet poem that I think all nature lovers can appreciate.

THE FRANKNESS OF NATURE

When in a book I find a pleasant thought

Which some small flower in the woods to me

Had told, as if in straitest secrecy,

That I might speak it in sweet verses wrought.

With what best feelings is such meeting fraught!

It shows how nature's life will never be

Shut up from speaking out full clear and free

Her wonders to the soul that will be taught.

And what though I have but this single chance

Of saying that which every gentle soul

Shall answer with a glad, uplifting glance?

Nature is frank to him whose spirit whole

Doth love Truth more than praise, and in good

                    time,

My flower will tell me sweeter things to rhyme.