Ralph Waldo Emerson Poems

Can rules or tutors educate
The semigod whom we await?
He must be musical,
Tremulous, impressional,
...

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 again.
...

Sicut Patribus, sit Deus Nobis)

The rocky nook with hilltops three
Looked eastward from the farms,
...

Man was made of social earth,
Child and brother from his birth;
Tethered by a liquid cord
Of blood through veins of kindred poured,
...

Give me truths,
For I am weary of the surfaces,
And die of inanition. If I knew
Only the herbs and simples of the wood,
...

Think me not unkind and rude
That I walk alone in grove and glen;
I go to the god of the wood
To fetch his word to men.
...

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.
...

How much, preventing God! how much I owe
To the defenses thou hast round me set:
Example, custom, fear, occasional slow,
These scorned bondmen were my parapet.
...

Higher far,
Upward, into the pure realm,
Over sun or star,
Over the flickering Dæmon film,
...

Give to barrows, trays, and pans
Grace and glimmer of romance;
Bring the moonlight into noon
...