if everything happens that can't be done Man vs. the Natural World Quotes

Here, we see the speaker's preference for nature. Flower buds not only grow, they know better than books. Well we're not sure what we've ever learned about math and physics from flower buds, but they sure can teach just as well as a book about the beauty of this world.

The speaker uses images from nature to demonstrate his ideas of oneness. The world can be summed up in just one leaf, or a tree in a single bough. Of course, this isn't really true, but it shows us that the speaker feels as if the whole world is together, is one.

These are the lines that most nature lovers would probably choose to quote from this poem. But we at Shmoop think, why not go outside and listen to the birds sing while you're reading a book? Birds might sing sweeter, but books are still pretty cool too. You can get the best of both worlds.