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University of Virginia Library

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

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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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FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT

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FRAGMENTS ON NATURE AND LIFE

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[A train of gay and clouded days]

[No fate, save by the victim's fault, is low]

[Around the man who seeks a noble end]

[From high to higher forces]

[This shining moment is an edifice]

[Roomy Eternity]

[The beggar begs by God's command]

[In the chamber, on the stairs]

[Such another peerless queen]

[Easy to match what others do]

[Of all wit's uses the main one]

[The tongue is prone to lose the way]

[She walked in flowers around my field]

[Friends to me are frozen wine]

[You shall not love me for what daily spends]

[To and fro the Genius flies]

[The brave Empedocles, defying fools]

[Tell men what they knew before]

[Him strong Genius urged to roam]

[That each should in his house abide]

[Thou shalt make thy house]

[The archangel Hope]

[As the drop feeds its fated flower]

[Ever the Rock of Ages melts]

[Go if thou wilt, ambrosial flower]

[Yes, sometimes to the sorrow-stricken]

[But if thou do thy best]

[Ascending thorough just degrees]

[From the stores of eldest matter]

[The bard and mystic held me for their own]

[With the key of the secret he marches faster]

[If curses be the wage of love]

[When wrath and terror changed Jove's regal port]

[Shun passion, fold the hands of thrift]

[The rules to men made evident]

[On bravely through the sunshine and the showers]

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]

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VI POEMS OF YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD 1823–1834

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[Easy to match what others do]

Easy to match what others do,
Perform the feat as well as they;
Hard to out-do the brave, the true,
And find a loftier way:
The school decays, the learning spoils
Because of the sons of wine;
How snatch the stripling from their toils?—
Yet can one ray of truth divine
The blaze of revellers' feasts outshine.