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Poems
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)
1.
I POEMS
2.
II MAY-DAY AND OTHER PIECES
3.
III ELEMENTS AND MOTTOES
4.
IV QUATRAINS AND TRANSLATIONS
5.
V APPENDIX
THE POET
FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT
[There are beggars in Iran and Araby]
[Pale genius roves alone]
[I grieve that better souls than mine]
[For thought, and not praise]
[For Fancy's gift]
[Try the might the Muse affords]
[But over all his crowning grace]
[By thoughts I lead]
[And as the light divides the dark]
[I framed his tongue to music]
[For every God]
[For art, for music over-thrilled]
[Hold of the Maker, not the Made]
[That book is good]
[Like vaulters in a circus round]
[For Genius made his cabin wide]
[The atom displaces all atoms beside]
[To transmute crime to wisdom, so to stem]
[He could condense cerulean ether]
[Forbore the ant-hill, shunned to tread,]
[I have no brothers and no peers]
[The brook sings on, but sings in vain]
[He planted where the deluge ploughed]
[For what need I of book or priest]
[Coin the day-dawn into lines]
[Ah, not to me those dreams belong]
[The Muse's hill by Fear is guarded]
[His instant thought a poet spoke]
[If bright the sun, he tarries]
[The Asmodean feat is mine]
[Slighted Minerva's learnéd tongue]
FRAGMENTS ON NATURE AND LIFE
THE BOHEMIAN HYMN
GRACE
INSIGHT
PAN
MONADNOC FROM AFAR
SEPTEMBER
EROS
OCTOBER
PETER'S FIELD
MUSIC
THE WALK
COSMOS
THE MIRACLE
THE WATERFALL
WALDEN
THE ENCHANTER
WRITTEN IN A VOLUME OF GOETHE
RICHES
PHILOSOPHER
INTELLECT
LIMITS
INSCRIPTION FOR A WELL IN MEMORY OF THE MARTYRS OF THE WAR
THE EXILE
[I have an arrow that will find its mark]
6.
VI POEMS OF YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD 1823–1834
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Poems
[I framed his tongue to music]
I framed
his tongue to music,
I armed his hand with skill,
I moulded his face to beauty
And his heart the throne of Will.
Poems
