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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

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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379

THE BELL

I love thy music, mellow bell,
I love thine iron chime,
To life or death, to heaven or hell,
Which calls the sons of Time.

Thy voice upon the deep
The home-bound sea-boy hails,
It charms his cares to sleep,
It cheers him as he sails.

To house of God and heavenly joys
Thy summons called our sires,
And good men thought thy sacred voice
Disarmed the thunder's fires.

And soon thy music, sad death-bell,
Shall lift its notes once more,
And mix my requiem with the wind
That sweeps my native shore.

1823.