I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
The blue-eyed grass is
one of the most beautiful of flowers . . .
It will bear to be praised by poets.
Flowers were made to be seen,
not overlooked. Their bright colors
imply eyes, spectators.
June 15, 1852
Blue patches began to appear,
answering to the blue sky.
June 17. 1853
May 27. Blue-eyed grass out. May 27, 1859
May 29. Barberry in bloom, wild pinks, and blue-eyed grass May 29, 1852
May 29. That exceedingly neat and interesting little flower blue-eyed grass now claims our attention. May 29, 1853
May 29. Blue-eyed grass, probably to-morrow. May 29, 1856
May 31. Blue-eyed grass, apparently in pretty good season. May 31, 1854
June 6. Blue-eyed grass maybe several days in some places. June 6, 1855
June 12. The blue-eyed grass is one of the most beautiful of flowers. It might have been famous from Proserpine down. It will bear to be praised by poets. June 12, 1852
June 15. The blue-eyed grass, well named, looks up to heaven. June 15, 1851
June 15. The fields are blued with blue-eyed grass, — a slaty blue. June 15, 1852
June 15. Blue-eyed grass at height. June 15, 1859
June 17. The dense fields of blue-eyed grass now blue the meadows, as if, in this fair season of the year, the clouds that envelop the earth were dispersing, and blue patches began to appear, answering to the blue sky. The eyes pass from these blue patches into the surrounding green as from the patches of clear sky into the clouds. June 17. 1853
June 19. I see large patches of blue-eyed grass in the meadow across the river from my window. June 19, 1853
June 20. The blue-eyed grass is shut up. When does it open? June 20, 1852
June 26. The blue-eyed grass, now in its prime, occupies the drier and harder parts of the meadow, where I can walk dry-shod, but where the coarser sedge grows and it is lower and wetter there is none of it. I keep dry by following this blue guide, and the grass is not very high about it. You cross the meadows dry-shod by following the winding lead of the blue-eyed grass, which grows only on the firmer, more elevated, and drier parts. June 26, 1860
July 3. I noticed the other day, I think the 30th, a large patch of Agrostis scabrain E. Hosmer's meadow, — the firmer ridges, — a very interesting purple with its fine waving top, mixed with blue-eyed grass. July 3, 1859
July 6. Blue-eyed grass is now rarely seen. July 6, 1851
August 13. Some of the little cranberries at Gowing's Swamp appear to have been frost-bitten. Also the blue-eyed grass, which is now black-topped. August 13, 1860
August 25. Blue-eyed grass still. August 25, 1851
August 30. Blue-eyed grass still. August 30, 1854
September 11. Blue-eyed grass still. September 11, 1851
September 23. So live that only the most beautiful wild-flowers will spring up where you have dwelt, – harebells, violets, and blue-eyed grass. September 23, 1859
See also Northern Woodlands, The Blue-eyed Grasses
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Blue-eyed Grass
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2026
