The Barberry Bush
The Barberry Bush - meaning Summary
Sweetness After Frost
Emerson uses the barberry bush as a simple, natural image to argue that what seems bitter in youth can mature into sweetness. The speaker recalls plucking tart berries in boyhood and naming them true, then reflects that people and relationships also have sour phases. With time and the metaphorical frost of experience, those same things can ripen into something pleasing. The poem urges patience and trust in gradual, seasonal change.
Read Complete AnalysesThe bush that has most briers and bitter fruit, Wait till the frost has turned its green leaves red, Its sweetened berries will thy palate suit, And thou may'st find e'en there a homely bread. Upon the hills of Salem scattered wide, Their yellow blossoms gain the eye in Spring; And straggling e'en upon the turnpike's side, Their ripened branches to your hand they bring, I 've plucked them oft in boyhood's early hour, That then I gave such name, and thought it true; But now I know that other fruit as sour Grows on what now thou callest Me and You; Yet, wilt thou wait the autumn that I see, Will sweeter taste than these red berries be.
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