American poetry Archives

The Patience of Spring: Lessons from Emerson’s May Day

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 1, 1867 On this day, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord, inscribed a copy of his book, May Day, to Sophie Thoreau, the devoted sister of Henry David Thoreau. This gesture,…

The Highest Peach: James Whitcomb Riley’s Sweet Ode to Unreachable Love

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 14, 1849 On this day, dear readers and fellow admirers of nature’s sweet bounty, we celebrate the birth of James Whitcomb Riley, an American writer and poet whose words, like the ripest…

Whitman’s Wild Garden: A Poet’s Ode to Nature’s Bounty

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 31, 1819 On this day, dear readers, we celebrate the birth of that most American of poets, Walt Whitman. A humanist and wordsmith extraordinaire, Whitman’s free verse has long been the soundtrack…