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University of Virginia Library

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

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2.

II MAY-DAY AND OTHER PIECES

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III ELEMENTS AND MOTTOES

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IV QUATRAINS AND TRANSLATIONS

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5.

FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT

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FRAGMENTS ON NATURE AND LIFE

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[The patient Pan]

[Come search the wood for flowers]

[Where the fungus broad and red]

[For Nature, true and like in every place]

[What all the books of ages paint, I have]

[But never yet the man was found]

[Atom from atom yawns as far]

[When all their blooms the meadows flaunt]

[The sun athwart the cloud thought it no sin]

[For joy and beauty planted it]

[What central flowing forces, say]

[Day by day for her darlings to her much she added more]

[She paints with white and red the moors]

[A score of airy miles will smooth]

[Parks and ponds are good by day]

[In Walden wood the chickadee]

[The low December vault in June be lifted high]

[Solar insect on the wing]

WATER

[He lives not who can refuse me]

[Seems, though the soft sheen all enchants]

[Put in, drive home the sightless wedges]

[Illusions like the tints of pearl]

[The cold gray down upon the quinces lieth]

[Samson stark, at Dagon's knee]

[But Nature whistled with all her winds]

THE BOHEMIAN HYMN

MONADNOC FROM AFAR

WRITTEN IN A VOLUME OF GOETHE

INSCRIPTION FOR A WELL IN MEMORY OF THE MARTYRS OF THE WAR

[I have an arrow that will find its mark]

6.

VI POEMS OF YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD 1823–1834

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WATER

The water understands
Civilization well;
It wets my foot, but prettily
It chills my life, but wittily,
It is not disconcerted,
It is not broken-hearted:
Well used, it decketh joy,
Adorneth, doubleth joy:
Ill used, it will destroy,
In perfect time and measure
With a face of golden pleasure
Elegantly destroy.