Right upward on the road of fame With sounding steps the poet came; Born and nourished in miracles,
His feet were shod with golden bells, Or where he stepped the soil did peal As if the dust were glass and steel. The gallant child where'er he came Threw to each fact a tuneful name. The things whereon he cast his eyes Could not the nations rebaptize,
Nor Time's snows hide the names he set, Nor last posterity forget.
Yet every scroll whereon he wrote In latent fire his secret thought, Fell unregarded to the ground, Unseen by such as stood around. The pious wind took it away, The reverent darkness hid the lay. Methought like water-haunting birds Divers or dippers were his words, And idle clowns beside the mere At the new vision gape and jeer. But when the noisy scorn was past, Emerge the winged words in haste. New - bathed, new - trimmed, on healthy wing,
Right to the heaven they steer and sing. A Brother of the world, his song Sounded like a tempest strong
Which tore from oaks their branches broad,
And stars from the ecliptic road. Times wore he as his clothing-weeds. He sowed the sun and moon for seeds. As melts the iceberg in the seas, As clouds give rain to the eastern breeze, As snow-banks thaw in April's beam, The solid kingdoms like a dream Resist in vain his motive strain, They totter now and float amain. For the Muse gave special charge
His learning should be deep and large, 4o
This poem was begun as early as 1831, probably earlier, and received additions for more than twenty years, but was never completed. In its early form, it was entitled, "The Discon tented Poet, A Masque,"
And his training should not scant The deepest lore of wealth or want: His flesh should feel, his eyes should read Every maxim of dreadful Need; In its fulness he should taste Life's honeycomb, but not too fast; Full fed, but not intoxicated;
He should be loved; he should be hated A blooming child to children dear, His heart should palpitate with fear. 50
And well he loved to quit his home And, Calmuck, in his wagon roam
To read new landscapes and old skies;- But oh, to see his solar eyes
Like meteors which chose their way And rived the dark like a new day! Not lazy grazing on all they saw, Each chimney-pot and cottage door, Farm-gear and village picket-fence, But, feeding on magnificence, They bounded to the horizon's edge Aid searched with the sun's privilege. Landward they reached the mountains old Where pastoral tribes their flocks infold, Saw rivers run seaward by cities high And the seas wash the low-hung sky; Saw the endless rack of the firmament And the sailing moon where the cloud was rent,
And through man and woman and sea and
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,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool, Made the black water with their beauty
Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown
Of thee from the hill-top looking down; The heifer that lows in the upland farm, Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Deems not that great Napoleon
Stops his horse, and lists with delight, Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height;
Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair or good alone.
I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, Singing at dawn on the alder bough;
I brought him home, in his nest, at even; He sings the song, but it cheers not now, For I did not bring home the river and
He sang to my ear,-they sang to my eye. The delicate shells lay on the shore; The bubbles of the latest wave Fresh pearls to their enamel gave,
When the south wind, in May days, With a net of shining haze Silvers the horizon wall, And with softness touching all, Tints the human countenance With a color of romance, And infusing subtle heats, Turns the sod to violets, Thou, in sunny solitudes, Rover of the underwoods, The green silence dost displace With thy mellow, breezy bass.
Hot midsummer's petted crone, Sweet to me thy drowsy tone Tells of countless sunny hours, Long days, and solid banks of flowers; Of gulfs of sweetness without bound In Indian wildernesses found; Of Syrian peace, immortal leisure, Firmest cheer, and bird-like pleasure.
Aught unsavory or unclean Hath my insect never seen; But violets and bilberry bells, Maple-sap and daffodels,
Grass with green flag half-mast high, Succory to match the sky, Columbine with horn of honey, Scented fern, and agrimony, Clover, catchfly, adder's-tongue And brier-roses, dwelt among; All beside was unknown waste, All was picture as he passed.
Wiser far than human seer, Yellow-breeched philosopher! Seeing only what is fair, Sipping only what is sweet, Thou dost mock at fate and care, Leave the chaff, and take the wheat. When the fierce northwestern blast Cools sea and land so far and fast, Thou already slumberest deep; Woe and want thou canst outsleep; Want and woe, which torture us, Thy sleep makes ridiculous.
20 Yet not for all his faith can see Would I that cowlèd churchman be.
Western Messenger, Feb., 1839 し
THE PROBLEM 1
I like a church; I like a cowl;
I love a prophet of the soul; And on my heart monastic aisles Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles;
1 Many of the thoughts and some of the phrasing of this poem can be found in the essay on Art. This double treatment of ideas and double use of phrases is of frequent occurrence in Emerson's writings.
Of leaves, and feathers from her breast? Or how the fish outbuilt her shell, Painting with morn her annual cell? Or how the sacred pine-tree adds To her old leaves new myriads? Such and so grew these holy piles, Whilst love and terror laid the tiles. Earth proudly wears the Parthenon, As the best gem upon her zone, And Morning opes with haste her lids To gaze upon the Pyramids; O'er England's abbeys bends the sky, As on its friends, with kindred eye; For out of Thought's interior sphere These wonders rose to upper air; And Nature gladly gave them place, Adopted them into her race,
And granted them an equal date With Andes and with Ararat.
These temples grew as grows the grass; Art might obey, but not surpass.
The passive Master lent his hand To the vast soul that o'er him planned; And the same power that reared the shrine Bestrode the tribes that knelt within. Ever the fiery Pentecost
Girds with one flame the countless host, Trances the heart through chanting choirs, And through the priest the mind inspires. The word unto the prophet spoken Was writ on tables yet unbroken; The word by seers or sibyls told, In groves of oak, or fanes of gold, Still floats upon the morning wind, Still whispers to the willing mind.
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