Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One musician is sure,     His wisdom will not fail,     He has not tasted wine impure,     Nor bent to passion frail.     Age cannot cloud his"

"With beams December planets dart     His cold eye truth and conduct scanned,     July was in his sunny heart,     October in his liberal hand."

"Shines the last age, the next with hope is seen,     To-day slinks poorly off unmarked between:     Future or Past no richer secret folds,"

"Nature centres into balls,     And her proud ephemerals,     Fast to surface and outside,     Scan the profile of the sphere;     Knew they wh"

"LINES WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR'S BROTHER, EDWARD BLISS EMERSON, WHILST SAILING OUT OF BOSTON HARBOR, BOUND FOR THE ISLAND OF PORTO RICO, IN 1832"

"The debt is paid,     The verdict said,     The Furies laid,     The plague is stayed.     All fortunes made;     Turn the key and bolt the d"

"Be of good cheer, brave spirit; steadfastly     Serve that low whisper thou hast served; for know,     God hath a select family of sons     Now"

"Love scatters oil     On Life's dark sea,     Sweetens its toil--     Our helmsman he.     Around him hover     Odorous clouds;     Under t"

"Philosophers are lined with eyes within,     And, being so, the sage unmakes the man.     In love, he cannot therefore cease his trade;     Sca"

"Fall, stream, from Heaven to bless; return as well;     So did our sons; Heaven met them as they fell."

"In the suburb, in the town,     On the railway, in the square,     Came a beam of goodness down     Doubling daylight everywhere:     Peace no"

"The rocky nook with hilltops three     Looked eastward from the farms,     And twice each day the flowing sea     Took Boston in its arms;"

"Quit the hut, frequent the palace,     Reck not what the people say;     For still, where'er the trees grow biggest,     Huntsmen find the easi"

"Theme no poet gladly sung,     Fair to old and foul to young;     Scorn not thou the love of parts,     And the articles of arts.     Grandeur"

"The mountain and the squirrel     Had a quarrel,     And the former called the latter 'Little Prig;     Bun replied,     'You are doubtless ve"

"Was never form and never face     So sweet to SEYD as only grace     Which did not slumber like a stone,     But hovered gleaming and was gone."

"Day! hast thou two faces,     Making one place two places?     One, by humble farmer seen,     Chill and wet, unlighted, mean,     Useful only"

"The April winds are magical     And thrill our tuneful frames;     The garden walks are passional     To bachelors and dames.     The hedge is"

"Soft and softlier hold me, friends!     Thanks if your genial care     Unbind and give me to the air.     Keep your lips or finger-tips     Fo"

"I cannot spare water or wine, Tobacco-leaf, or poppy, or rose; From the earth-poles to the Line, All between that works or grows, Every thing is kin o"

"Virtue runs before the muse And defies her skill, She is rapt, and doth refuse To wait a painter's will. Star-adoring, occupied, Virtue cannot bend h"

"Who gave thee, O Beauty! The keys of this breast, Too credulous lover Of blest and unblest? Say when in lapsed ages Thee knew I of old; Or what was th"

"O Fair and stately maid, whose eye Was kindled in the upper sky At the same torch that lighted mine; For so I must interpret still Thy sweet dominion"

"Higher far, Upward, into the pure realm, Over sun or star, Over the flickering Dæmon film, Thou must mount for love,— Into vision which all form In on"

"And when I am entombed in my place,     Be it remembered of a single man,     He never, though he dearly loved his race,     For fear of human"

"A Queen rejoices in her peers,     And wary Nature knows her own     By court and city, dale and down,     And like a lover volunteers,     An"

"Her passions the shy violet     From Hafiz never hides;     Love-longings of the raptured bird     The bird to him confides."

"A dull uncertain brain,     But gifted yet to know     That God has cherubim who go     Singing an immortal strain,     Immortal here below."

"Askest, 'How long thou shalt stay?'     Devastator of the day!     Know, each substance and relation,     Thorough nature's operation,     Hat"

"They brought me rubies from the mine,     And held them to the sun;     I said, they are drops of frozen wine     From Eden's vats that run."

"Every day brings a ship,     Every ship brings a word;     Well for those who have no fear.     Looking seaward, well assured     That the wor"

"Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home:     Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.     Long through thy weary crowds I roam;     A river-ark"

"Who gave thee, O Beauty,     The keys of this breast,--     Too credulous lover     Of blest and unblest?     Say, when in lapsed ages     Th"

"A sterner errand to the silken troop     Has quenched the uneasy blush that warmed my cheek;     I am commissioned in my day of joy     To leav"

"I     There is no great and no small     To the Soul that maketh all:     And where it cometh, all things are;     And it cometh everywhere."

"Our eyeless bark sails free     Though with boom and spar     Andes, Alp or Himmalee,     Strikes never moon or star."

"I cannot spare water or wine,     Tobacco-leaf, or poppy, or rose;     From the earth-poles to the Line,     All between that works or grows,"

"(Musa loquitur.)     I hung my verses in the wind,     Time and tide their faults may find.     All were winnowed through and through,     Five l"

"Thee, dear friend, a brother soothes,     Not with flatteries, but truths,     Which tarnish not, but purify     To light which dims the mornin"

"On a mound an Arab lay,     And sung his sweet regrets     And told his amulets:     The summer bird     His sorrow heard,     And, when he h"

"She is gamesome and good,     But of mutable mood,--     No dreary repeater now and again,     She will be all things to all men.     She who"

"Thy trivial harp will never please     Or fill my craving ear;     Its chords should ring as blows the breeze,     Free, peremptory, clear."

"The sun goes down, and with him takes     The coarseness of my poor attire;     The fair moon mounts, and aye the flame     Of Gypsy beauty bla"

"Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint,     Possessed the land which rendered to their toil     Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wo"

"'A New commandment,' said the smiling Muse,     'I give my darling son, Thou shalt not preach';--     Luther, Fox, Behmen, Swedenborg, grew pale"

"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"

"Would you know what joy is hid     In our green Musketaquid,     And for travelled eyes what charms     Draw us to these meadow farms,     Com"

"If I could put my woods in song     And tell what's there enjoyed,     All men would to my gardens throng,     And leave the cities void."

"FROM THE FRENCH     Some of your hurts you have cured,     And the sharpest you still have survived,     But what torments of grief you endure"

"There is no architect     Can build as the Muse can;     She is skilful to select     Materials for her plan;     Slow and warily to choose"

"READ IN MUSIC HALL, JANUARY 1, 1863     The word of the Lord by night     To the watching Pilgrims came,     As they sat by the seaside,"

"Vast the realm of Being is,     In the waste one nook is his;     Whatsoever hap befalls     In his vision's narrow walls     He is here to te"

"The little needle always knows the North,     The little bird remembereth his note,     And this wise Seer within me never errs.     I never ta"

"The living Heaven thy prayers respect,     House at once and architect,     Quarrying man's rejected hours,     Builds therewith eternal towers"

"Day by day returns     The everlasting sun,     Replenishing material urns     With God's unspared donation;     But the day of day,     The"

"See yonder leafless trees against the sky,     How they diffuse themselves into the air,     And, ever subdividing, separate     Limbs into bra"

"Already blushes on thy cheek     The bosom thought which thou must speak;     The bird, how far it haply roam     By cloud or isle, is flying h"

"I am not wiser for my age,     Nor skilful by my grief;     Life loiters at the book's first page,--     Ah! could we turn the leaf."

"If the red slayer think he slays,     Or if the slain think he is slain,     They know not well the subtle ways     I keep, and pass, and turn"

"Grace, Beauty and Caprice     Build this golden portal;     Graceful women, chosen men,     Dazzle every mortal.     Their sweet and lofty cou"