We have had
two peerless summer days
after all our cold winds and rains.
I have weeded corn and strawberries,
intent on being fat,
and have foreborne study.
The Maryland yellow-throat
pipes to me all day long,
seeming to say
Ecstacy! Ecstacy!
and the Bob-o'-Lincoln
files and sings.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1837, age 34)

Excerpted from Emphatically Emerson, edited by Frank Crocitto, and published with permission from Candle Power.
Photo: ArtToday.
Backgrounds: Word of Mouth Graphics.