Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TRAILING ARBUTUS, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TRAILING ARBUTUS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I wandered lonely where the pine-trees made
Last Line: And make the sad earth happier for their bloom.
Subject(s): Arbutus; Mayflowers


I WANDERED lonely where the pine-trees made
Against the bitter East their barricade,
And, guided by its sweet
Perfume, I found, within a narrow dell,
The trailing spring flower tinted like a shell
Amid dry leaves and mosses at my feet.

From under dead boughs, for whose loss the pines
Moaned ceaseless overhead, the blossoming vines
Lifted their glad surprise,
While yet the bluebird smoothed in leafless trees
His feathers ruffled by the chill seabreeze,
And snow-drifts lingered under April skies.

As, pausing, o'er the lonely flower I bent,
I thought of lives thus lowly, clogged and pent,
Which yet find room,
Through care and cumber, coldness and decay,
To lend a sweetness to the ungenial day,
And make the sad earth happier for their bloom.





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