Skip directly to:Main content Main navigation

University of Virginia Library

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

collapse section

1.

ALPHONSO OF CASTILE

collapse section

FABLE

ÉTIENNE DE LA BOÉCE

GIVE ALL TO LOVE

TO ELLEN AT THE SOUTH

THINE EYES STILL SHINED

collapse section

INITIAL, DÆMONIC AND CELESTIAL LOVE

1.

I THE INITIAL LOVE

2.

II THE DÆMONIC LOVE

3.

III THE CELESTIAL LOVE

THE DAY'S RATION

collapse section

2.

II MAY-DAY AND OTHER PIECES

collapse section

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

LOVE AND THOUGHT

THE ROMANY GIRL

THE CHARTIST'S COMPLAINT

THE NUN'S ASPIRATION

MAIDEN SPEECH OF THE ÆOLIAN HARP

collapse section

3.

III ELEMENTS AND MOTTOES

THE INFORMING SPIRIT

collapse section

4.

IV QUATRAINS AND TRANSLATIONS

HERI, CRAS, HODIE

NATURE IN LEASTS

ΑΔΑΚΡΥΝ ΝΕΜΟΝΤΑΙ ΑΙΩΝΑ

collapse section

5.

collapse section

1.

2.

collapse section

FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT

collapse section

[There are beggars in Iran and Araby]

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

[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]

collapse section

FRAGMENTS ON NATURE AND LIFE

collapse section

[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]

[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]

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]

collapse section

6.

VI POEMS OF YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD 1823–1834

collapse section

[When success exalts thy lot]

[I bear in youth the sad infirmities]

[Be of good cheer, brave spirit; steadfastly]

[A dull uncertain brain]

A MOUNTAIN GRAVE

[Day by day returns]

collapse section

[Henceforth, please God, forever I forego]

[And when I am entombèd in my place]

[Oh what is Heaven but the fellowship]

[The days pass over me]

WRITTEN IN NAPLES

WRITTEN AT ROME

FROM THE PHI BETA KAPPA POEM

[Why did all manly gifts in Webster fail]

collapse section

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

FABLE

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel,
And the former called the latter ‘Little Prig;’
Bun replied,
You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together,
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry.
I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track;
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut.’