Goldenrods

Welcome, dear Goldenrod, once more,
Thou mimic, flowering elm!
I always think that Summer's store
Hangs from thy laden stem.

Graceful, tossing plume of glowing gold,
Waving lonely on the rocky ledge;
Leaning seaward, lovely to behold,
Clinging to the high cliff's ragged edge.

Goldenrods (Solidago) is a genus of about 100 to 120 species of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in open areas such as meadows, prairies, and savannas. They are mostly native to North America, including Mexico; a few species are native to South America and Eurasia. Some American species have also been introduced into Europe and other parts of the world.

Quotes

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 326.

• Still the Goldenrod of the roadside clod
  Is of all, the best!
  • Simeon Tucker Clark, Goldenrod.

• I lie amid the Goldenrod,
  I love to see it lean and nod;
  I love to feel the grassy sod
  Whose kindly breast will hold me last,
  Whose patient arms will fold me fast!—
  Fold me from sunshine and from song,
  Fold me from sorrow and from wrong:
  Through gleaming gates of Goldenrod
  I'll pass into the rest of God.
  • Mary Clemmer, Goldenrod, last stanza.

• Nature lies disheveled, pale,
  With her feverish lips apart,—
  Day by day the pulses fail,
  Nearer to her bounding heart;
  Yet that slackened grasp doth hold
  Store of pure and genuine gold;
  Quick thou comest, strong and free,
  Type of all the wealth to be,—
  Goldenrod!
  • Elaine Goodale Eastman, Goldenrod.

• I know the lands are lit
  With all the autumn blaze of Goldenrod.
  • Helen Hunt Jackson, Asters and Goldenrod.

• Because its myriad glimmering plumes
  Like a great army's stir and wave;
  Because its golden billows blooms,
  The poor man's barren walks to lave:
  Because its sun-shaped blossoms show
  How souls receive the light of God,
  And unto earth give back that glow—
  I thank him for the Goldenrod.
  • Lucy Larcom, Goldenrod.

• Welcome, dear Goldenrod, once more,
  Thou mimic, flowering elm!
  I always think that Summer's store
  Hangs from thy laden stem.
  • Horace H. Scudder, To the Goldenrod at Midsummer.

• And in the evening, everywhere
  Along the roadside, up and down,
  I see the golden torches flare
  Like lighted street-lamps in the town.
  • Frank Demster Sherman, Golden-Rod.

• The hollows are heavy and dank
  With the steam of the Goldenrods.
  • Bayard Taylor, The Guests of Night.

• Graceful, tossing plume of glowing gold,
  Waving lonely on the rocky ledge;
  Leaning seaward, lovely to behold,
  Clinging to the high cliff's ragged edge.
  • Celia Thaxter, Seaside Goldenrod.