Nature's great law, and law of all men's minds?--
To its own impulse every creature stirs;
Live read more

Nature's great law, and law of all men's minds?--
To its own impulse every creature stirs;
Live by thy light, and earth will live by hers!

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! read more

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!

Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of read more

Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation's tears in shoulder blades.

Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.

Of all things visible, the highest is the heaven of the fixed stars.

How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

The search for truth is in one way hard and in another way easy, for it is evident that no read more

The search for truth is in one way hard and in another way easy, for it is evident that no one can master it fully or miss it wholly. But each adds a little to our knowledge of nature, and from all the facts assembled there arises a certain grandeur.

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.

Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower;
Spreads the fresh verdure read more

Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower;
Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads
The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads.

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; read more

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.