These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays: First Series, Self-Reliance (1841)
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Self-Reliance, published in Emerson's first series of essays in 1841.
- Why
- Emerson is contrasting people, who live in memory and expectation, with the rose, which simply is.
What it means
The rose does not compare itself with last year's roses. It is complete at every moment of its life.
Emerson offers it as a model for a person who stops postponing their life to the past or the future.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Essays: First Series, 1841
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