Thy summer voice, Musketaquit, Repeats the music of the rain; But sweeter rivers pulsing flit Through thee, as thou through the Concord Plain. Thou in thy narrow banks art pent:…
Posts published in “Ralph Waldo Emerson Poems”
Set not thy foot on graves;Hear what wine and roses say;The mountain chase, the summer waves,The crowded town, thy feet may well delay. Set not thy foot on graves;Nor seek…
O Fair and stately maid, whose eyeWas kindled in the upper skyAt the same torch that lighted mine;For so I must interpret stillThy sweet dominion o’er my will,A sympathy divine.…
The green grass is growing,The morning wind is in it,‘Tis a tune worth the knowing,Though it change every minute. ‘Tis a tune of the spring,Every year plays it over,To the…
The south-wind bringsLife, sunshine, and desire,And on every mount and meadowBreathes aromatic fire,But over the dead he has no power,The lost, the lost he cannot restore,And, looking over the hills,…
The Sphinx is drowsy, Her wings are furled: Her ear is heavy, She broods on the world. “Who’ll tell me my secret, The ages have kept?_ I awaited the seer…
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,Seems nowhere to alight: the whited airHides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven,And veils…
On being asked, Whence is the flower? In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,…
I like a church, I like a cowl,I love a prophet of the soul, And on my heart monastic aislesFall like sweet strains or pensive smiles;Yet not for all his…
The prosperous and beautifulTo me seem not to wearThe yoke of conscience masterful,Which galls me everywhere. I cannot shake off the ***;On my neck he makes his seat;I look at…
Long I followed happy guides,—I could never reach their sides.Their step is forth, and, ere the day,Breaks up their leaguer, and away.Keen my sense, my heart was young,Right goodwill my…
When I was born,From all the seas of strength Fate filled a chalice,Saying, This be thy portion, child; this chalice,Less than a lily’s, thou shalt daily drawFrom my great arteries;…
The bush that has most briers and bitter fruit,Wait till the frost has turned its green leaves red,Its sweetened berries will thy palate suit,And thou may’st find e’en there a…
Think me not unkind and rude,That I walk alone in grove and glen;I go to the *** of the woodTo fetch his word to men. Tax not my sloth that…
Your picture smiles as first it smiled,The ring you gave is still the same,Your letter tells, O changing child,No tidings since it came. Give me an amuletThat keeps intelligence with…
What boots it, thy virtue,What profit thy parts,While one thing thou lackest,The art of all arts!The only credentials,Passport to success,Opens castle and parlor,—Address, man, Address. The maiden in dangerWas saved…
The rain has spoiled the farmer’s day;Shall sorrow put my books away?Thereby are two days lost:Nature shall mind her own affairs,I will attend my proper cares,In rain, or sun, or…
Seek not the Spirit, if it hide,Inexorable to thy zeal:Baby, do not whine and chide;Art thou not also real?Why should’st thou stoop to poor excuse?Turn on the Accuser roundly; say,“Here…
Trees in groves,Kine in droves,In ocean sport the scaly herds,Wedge-like cleave the air the birds,To northern lakes fly wind-borne ducks,Browse the mountain sheep in flocks,Men consort in camp and town,But…
Ralph Waldo Emerson is an American poet, essayist and a leader of the philosophical movement of transcendentalism. Influenced by such schools of thought as English romanticism, Neo-Platonism, and Hindu philosophy,…
The sinful painter drapes his goddess warm,Because she still is *****, being drest;The godlike sculptor will not so deformBeauty, which bones and flesh enough invest.
Though loth to grieveThe evil time’s sole patriot,I cannot leaveMy buried thoughtFor the priest’s cant,Or statesman’s rant. If I refuseMy study for their politique,Which at the best is trick,The angry…
Who gave thee, O Beauty!The keys of this breast,Too credulous loverOf blest and unblest?Say when in lapsed agesThee knew I of old;Or what was the serviceFor which I was sold?When…
Because I was content with these poor fields,Low open meads, slender and sluggish streams,And found a home in haunts which others scorned,The partial wood-gods overpaid my love,And granted me the…
Thousand minstrels woke within me,“Our music’s in the hills; “—Gayest pictures rose to win me,Leopard-colored rills.Up!—If thou knew’st who callsTo twilight parks of beech and pine,High over the river intervals,Above…