Skip directly to:Main content Main navigation

University of Virginia Library

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

1.

2.

II MAY-DAY AND OTHER PIECES

3.

III ELEMENTS AND MOTTOES

4.

IV QUATRAINS AND TRANSLATIONS

collapse section

5.

FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT

collapse section

FRAGMENTS ON NATURE AND LIFE

collapse section

[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]

6.

VI POEMS OF YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD 1823–1834

collapse section

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

[With the key of the secret he marches faster]

With the key of the secret he marches faster,
From strength to strength, and for night brings day;
While classes or tribes, too weak to master
The flowing conditions of life, give way.