To Ellen, at the South

The green grass is growing,

The morning wind is in it, 

'Tis a tune worth the knowing, 

Though it change every minute. '

Tis a tune of the spring, 

Every year plays it over, 

To the robin on the wing, 

To the pausing lover. 

O'er ten thousand thousand acres 

Goes light the nimble zephyr, 

The flowers, tiny feet of shakers, 

Worship him ever. 

Hark to the winning sound! 

They summon thee, dearest, 

Saying; "We have drest for thee the ground, 

Nor yet thou appearest. 

"O hasten, 'tis our time, 

Ere yet the red summer 

Scorch our delicate prime, 

Loved of bee, the tawny hummer. 

"O pride of thy race! 

Sad in sooth it were to ours, 

If our brief tribe miss thy face,— 

We pour New England flowers. 

 "Fairest! choose the fairest members 

Of our lithe society; 

June's glories and September's 

Show our love and piety. 

 "Thou shalt command us all, 

April's cowslip, summer's clover 

To the gentian in the fall, 

Blue-eyed pet of blue-eyed lover. 

 "O come, then, quickly come, 

We are budding, we are blowing, 

And the wind which we perfume 

Sings a tune that's worth thy knowing."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, preacher, and member of the Transcendentalists