Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Two well-assorted travellers use     The highway, Eros and the Muse.     From the twins is nothing hidden,     To the pair is nought forbidden;"

"Ill fits the abstemious Muse a crown to weave     For living brows; ill fits them to receive:     And yet, if virtue abrogate the law,     One"

"Once I wished I might rehearse     Freedom's paean in my verse,     That the slave who caught the strain     Should throb until he snapped his"

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

"Space is ample, east and west,     But two cannot go abreast,     Cannot travel in it two:     Yonder masterful cuckoo     Crowds every egg ou"

"Go, speed the stars of Thought     On to their shining goals;--     The sower scatters broad his seed;     The wheat thou strew'st be souls."

"I am not poor, but I am proud,     Of one inalienable right,     Above the envy of the crowd,--     Thought's holy light.     Better it is th"

"And I behold once more     My old familiar haunts; here the blue river,     The same blue wonder that my infant eye     Admired, sage doubting"

"Burly, dozing humble-bee,     Where thou art is clime for me.     Let them sail for Porto Rique,     Far-off heats through seas to seek;     I"

"Thousand minstrels woke within me,     'Our music's in the hills;'--     Gayest pictures rose to win me,     Leopard-colored rills.     'Up!--"

"A JOURNAL     DEDICATED TO MY FELLOW TRAVELLERS IN AUGUST, 1858     Wise and polite,--and if I drew     Their several portraits, you would ow"

"The sense of the world is short,--     Long and various the report,--     To love and be beloved;     Men and gods have not outlearned it;"

"By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave     One scent to hyson and to wall-flower,     One sound to pine-groves and to waterfalls,     One aspe"

"Thine eyes still shined for me, though far     I lonely roved the land or sea:     As I behold yon evening star,     Which yet beholds not me."

"We are what we are made; each following day     Is the Creator of our human mould     Not less than was the first; the all-wise God     Gilds a"

"I. THE INITIAL LOVE     Venus, when her son was lost,     Cried him up and down the coast,     In hamlets, palaces and parks,     And told th"

"Let Webster's lofty face     Ever on thousands shine,     A beacon set that Freedom's race     Might gather omens from that radiant sign."

"Gold and iron are good     To buy iron and gold;     All earth's fleece and food     For their like are sold.     Boded Merlin wise,     Prov"

"ON BEING ASKED, WHENCE IS THE FLOWER?     In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,     I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,     Spreading"

"Over his head were the maple buds,     And over the tree was the moon,     And over the moon were the starry studs     That drop from the angel"

"O what are heroes, prophets, men,     But pipes through which the breath of Pan doth blow     A momentary music. Being's tide     Swells hither"

"Thanks to the morning light,     Thanks to the foaming sea,     To the uplands of New Hampshire,     To the green-haired forest free;     Than"

"BY ELLEN LOUISA TUCKER     Why lingerest thou, pale violet, to see the dying year;     Are Autumn's blasts fit music for thee, fragile one, to hear"

"Love on his errand bound to go     Can swim the flood and wade through snow,     Where way is none, 't will creep and wind     And eat through"

"Give to barrows, trays and pans     Grace and glimmer of romance;     Bring the moonlight into noon     Hid in gleaming piles of stone;     On"

"FROM HILALI     Hark, what, now loud, now low, the pining flute complains,     Without tongue, yellow-cheeked, full of winds that wail and sigh"

"Ruby wine is drunk by knaves,     Sugar spends to fatten slaves,     Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons;     Thunder-clouds are Jove's festoons,"

"Have ye seen the caterpillar     Foully warking in his nest?     'T is the poor man getting siller,     Without cleanness, without rest."

"Bethink, poor heart, what bitter kind of jest     Mad Destiny this tender stripling played;     For a warm breast of maiden to his breast,"

"A patch of meadow upland     Reached by a mile of road,     Soothed by the voice of waters,     With birds and flowers bestowed.     Hither I"

"I mourn upon this battle-field,     But not for those who perished here.     Behold the river-bank     Whither the angry farmers came,     In"

"The bard and mystic held me for their own,     I filled the dream of sad, poetic maids,     I took the friendly noble by the hand,     I was th"

"I, Alphonso, live and learn,     Seeing Nature go astern.     Things deteriorate in kind;     Lemons run to leaves and rind;     Meagre crop o"

"In my garden three ways meet,     Thrice the spot is blest;     Hermit-thrush comes there to build,     Carrier-doves to nest.     There broa"

"CONCORD, 1838     I reached the middle of the mount     Up which the incarnate soul must climb,     And paused for them, and looked around,"

"As sings the pine-tree in the wind,     So sings in the wind a sprig of the pine;     Her strength and soul has laughing France     Shed in eac"

"You shall not be overbold     When you deal with arctic cold,     As late I found my lukewarm blood     Chilled wading in the snow-choked wood."

"Though love repine, and reason chafe,     There came a voice without reply,--     ''T is man's perdition to be safe,     When for the truth he"

"Alone in Rome. Why, Rome is lonely too;--     Besides, you need not be alone; the soul     Shall have society of its own rank.     Be great, be"

"The yesterday doth never smile,     The day goes drudging through the while,     Yet, in the name of Godhead, I     The morrow front, and can d"