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Poems

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

TO ELLEN AT THE SOUTH

TO ELLEN

TO EVA

THE AMULET

THINE EYES STILL SHINED

EROS

HERMIONE

INITIAL, DÆMONIC AND CELESTIAL LOVE

I THE INITIAL LOVE

II THE DÆMONIC LOVE

III THE CELESTIAL LOVE

MEROPS

II MAY-DAY AND OTHER PIECES

THE CHARTIST'S COMPLAINT

MAIDEN SPEECH OF THE ÆOLIAN HARP

CUPIDO

THE PAST

IN MEMORIAM

III ELEMENTS AND MOTTOES

IV QUATRAINS AND TRANSLATIONS

ΑΔΑΚΡΥΝ ΝΕΜΟΝΤΑΙ ΑΙΩΝΑ

V APPENDIX

THE POET

[section]

FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT

[There are beggars in Iran and Araby]

III

[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

NATURE

[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]

THE EARTH

THE HEAVENS

TRANSITION

[Parks and ponds are good by day]

[In Walden wood the chickadee]

[The low December vault in June be lifted high]

THE GARDEN

[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]

MAIA

[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]

LIFE

[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]

[Love]

[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]

SUUM CUIQUE

[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]

WRITTEN IN A VOLUME OF GOETHE

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

THE EXILE

[I have an arrow that will find its mark]

VI POEMS OF YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD 1823–1834

THE BELL

THOUGHT

PRAYER

[When success exalts thy lot]

[I bear in youth the sad infirmities]

[Be of good cheer, brave spirit; steadfastly]

[A dull uncertain brain]

[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

WEBSTER

FROM THE PHI BETA KAPPA POEM

[Why did all manly gifts in Webster fail]

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MEROPS

What care I, so they stand the same,—
Things of the heavenly mind,—
How long the power to give them name
Tarries yet behind?

128

Thus far to-day your favors reach,
O fair, appeasing presences!
Ye taught my lips a single speech,
And a thousand silences.

Space grants beyond his fated road
No inch to the god of day;
And copious language still bestowed
One word, no more, to say.