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My Garden

A poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was an American essayist, poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement, which held that truth and divinity could be known through nature and intuition rather than doctrine alone. 'My Garden' was first published in the mid-nineteenth century. In it, Emerson describes not a flower garden but a wild forest—his true garden—where the gods once gathered and still speak in wind, water and leaf. The poem asks whether human language can ever capture the wisdom the natural world offers, and whether we are willing to listen. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. It is worth a young reader's time because it challenges us to consider what we gain and what we lose when we choose the city over the wild, and whether the deepest truths can be written down at all.

Band

Blue · Independent readers, confidentTypical starting range: ages 12–14

Length

long · about 962 words in 4 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Poems, Ralph Waldo Emerson

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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