Poems - Household Edition

Author:Emerson, Ralph Waldo [Emerson, Ralph Waldo]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Poetry
Publisher: manybooks.net

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III

ELEMENTS AND MOTTOES

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EXPERIENCE

The lords of life, the lords of life,--

I saw them pass

In their own guise,

Like and unlike,

Portly and grim,--

Use and Surprise,

Surface and Dream,

Succession swift and spectral Wrong,

Temperament without a tongue,

And the inventor of the game

Omnipresent without name;--

Some to see, some to be guessed,

They marched from east to west:

Little man, least of all,

Among the legs of his guardians tall,

Walked about with puzzled look.

Him by the hand dear Nature took,

Dearest Nature, strong and kind,

Whispered, 'Darling, never mind!

To-morrow they will wear another face,

The founder thou; these are thy race!'

COMPENSATION

The wings of Time are black and white,

Pied with morning and with night.

Mountain tall and ocean deep

Trembling balance duly keep.

In changing moon and tidal wave

Glows the feud of Want and Have.

Gauge of more and less through space,

Electric star or pencil plays,

The lonely Earth amid the balls

That hurry through the eternal halls,

A makeweight flying to the void,

Supplemental asteroid,

Or compensatory spark,

Shoots across the neutral Dark.

Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine;

Stanch and strong the tendrils twine:

Though the frail ringlets thee deceive,

None from its stock that vine can reave.

Fear not, then, thou child infirm,

There's no god dare wrong a worm;

Laurel crowns cleave to deserts,

And power to him who power exerts.

Hast not thy share? On winged feet,

Lo it rushes thee to meet;

And all that Nature made thy own,

Floating in air or pent in stone,

Will rive the hills and swim the sea,

And, like thy shadow, follow thee.

POLITICS

Gold and iron are good

To buy iron and gold;

All earth's fleece and food

For their like are sold.

Boded Merlin wise,

Proved Napoleon great,

Nor kind nor coinage buys

Aught above its rate.

Fear, Craft and Avarice

Cannot rear a State.

Out of dust to build

What is more than dust,

Walls Amphion piled

Phoebus stablish must.

When the Muses nine

With the Virtues meet,

Find to their design

An Atlantic seat,

By green orchard boughs

Fended from the heat,

here the statesman ploughs

Furrow for the wheat,--

When the Church is social worth,

When the state-house is the hearth,

Then the perfect State is come,

The republican at home.

HEROISM

Ruby wine is drunk by knaves,

Sugar spends to fatten slaves,

Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons;

Thunder-clouds are Jove's festoons,

Drooping oft in wreaths of dread,

Lightning-knotted round his head;

The hero is not fed on sweets,

Daily his own heart he eats;

Chambers of the great are jails,

And head-winds right for royal sails.

CHARACTER

The sun set, but set not his hope:

Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:

Fixed on the enormous galaxy,

Deeper and older seemed his eye;

And matched his sufferance sublime

The taciturnity of time.

He spoke, and words more soft than rain

Brought the Age of Gold again:

His action won such reverence sweet

As hid all measure of the feat.

CULTURE

Can rules or tutors educate

The semigod whom we await?

He must be musical,

Tremulous, impressional,

Alive to gentle influence

Of landscape and of sky,

And tender to the spirit-touch

Of man's or maiden's eye:

But, to his native centre fast,

Shall into Future fuse the Past,

And the world's flowing fates in his own mould recast.

FRIENDSHIP

A ruddy drop of manly blood

The surging sea outweighs,

The world uncertain comes and goes;

The lover rooted stays.

I fancied he was fled,--

And, after many a year,

Glowed unexhausted kindliness,

Like daily sunrise there.

My careful heart was free again,

O friend, my bosom said,

Through thee

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