The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Biographical Sketch.
• I.: Poems.
• The Sphinx.
• Each and All.
• The Problem.
• To Rhea.
• The Visit.
• Uriel.
• The World-soul.
• Alphonso of Castile.
• Mithridates.
• To J. W.
• Destiny.
• Guy.
• Hamatreya.
• Earth-song.
• Good-bye.
• The Rhodora: On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower?
• The Humble-bee.
• Berrying.
• The Snow-storm.
• Woodnotes.
• Woodnotes.
• Monadnoc.
• Fable.
• Ode. Inscribed to W. H. Channing.
• Astræ
• étienne De La Boéce.
• Compensation.
• Forbearance.
• The Park.
• Forerunners.
• Sursum Corda.
• Ode to Beauty.
• Give All to Love.
• To Ellen At the South.
• To Eva.
• The Amulet.
• Thine Eyes Still Shined.
• Eros.
• Hermione.
• Initial, Dæmonic, and Celestial Love
• The Apology.
• Merlin.
• Merlin.
• Bacchus.
• Merops.
• Saadi.
• Holidays.
• Xenophanes.
• The Day's Ration.
• Blight.
• Musketaquid.
• Dirge. Concord, 1838.
• Threnody.
• Concord Hymn: Sung At the Completion of the Battle Monument, April 19, 1836.
• II.: May-day and Other Pieces.
• May-day.
• The Adirondacs. a Journal.
• Occasional and Misc. Pieces: Brahma.
• Fate.
• Freedom.
• Ode. Sung In the Town Hall, Concord, July 4, 1857.
• Boston Hymn. Read In Music Hall, January 1, 1863.
• Voluntaries
• Boston. Sicut Patribus, Sit Deus Nobib. [read In Faneuil Hall, On December 16, 1873, the Centennial Anniverary At the Destruction of the Tea In Roston Harbor.]
• Letters.
• Rubies.
• The Test. (musa Loquitur.)
• Solution.
• Hymn Sung At the Second Church, Boston, At the Ordination of Rev. Chandler Robbins.
• Nature and Life: Nature.
• Nature.
• The Romany Girl.
• Days.
• The Chartist's Complaint.
• My Garden.
• The Titmouse.
• The Harp.
• Sea-shore.
• Song of Nature.
• Two Rivers.
• Waldeinsamkeit.
• Terminus.
• The Nun's Aspiration.
• April.
• Maiden Speech of the æolian Harp.
• Cupido.
• The Past.
• The Last Farewell. 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.
• In Memoriam. Edward Bliss Emerson.
• Elements: Experience.
• Compensation.
• Politics.
• Heroism.
• Character. 1
• Culture.
• Friendship.
• Beauty.
• Manners.
• Art.
• Spiritual Laws.
• Unity.
• Worship.
• Quatrains.
• Translations.
• III.: Appendix.
• The Poet. 1
• Fragments On the Poet and the Poetic Gift. 1
• Fragments On Nature and Life.
• The Bohemian Hymn.
• Prayer.
• Grace.
• Eros.
• Written In Naples, March 1833.
• Written At Rome, 1833.
• Peter's Field. 1
• The Walk.
• May Morning.
• The Miracle.
• The Waterfall.
• Walden. 1
• Pan.
• Monadnoc From Afar.
• The South Wind.
• Fame.
• Webster. From the Phi Beta Kappa Poem, 1834.
• Written In a Volume of Goethe.
• The Enchanter.
• Philosopher.
• Limits.
• Inscription For a Well In Memory of the Martyrs of the War.
• The Exile. (after Taliessin.)

to rhea.

• • Thee, dear friend, a brother soothes,
  • Not with flatteries, bat truths,
  • Which tarnish not, but purify
  • To light which dims the morning's eye.
  • I have come from the spring-woods,
  • From the fragrant solitudes;—
  • Listen what the poplar-tree
  • And murmuring waters counselled me.
• • If with love thy heart has burned;
  • If thy love is unreturned;
  • Hide thy grief within thy breast,
  • Though it tear thee unexpressed;
  • For when love has once departed
  • From the eyes of the false-hearted,
  • And one by one has torn off quite
  • The bandages of purple light;
  • Though thou wert the loveliest
  • Form the soul had ever dressed,
  • Thou shalt seem, in each reply,
  • A vixen to his altered eye;
  • Thy softest pleadings seem too bold,
  • Thy praying lute will seem to scold;
  • Though thou kept the straightest road,
  • Yet thou errest far and broad.
• • But thou shalt do as do the gods
  • In their cloudless periods;
  • For of this lore be thou sure,—
  • Though thou forget, the gods, secure,
  • Forget never their command,
  • Bat make the statute of this land.
  • As they lead, so follow all,
  • Elver have done, ever shall.
  • Warning to the blind and deaf,
  • 'T is written on the iron leaf,
  • Who drinks of Cupid's nectar cup
  • Loveth downward, and not up;
  • He who loves, of gods or men,
  • Shall not by the same be loved again;
  • His sweetheart's idolatry
  • Falls, in turn, a new degree.
  • When a god is once beguiled
  • By beauty of a mortal child
  • And by her radiant youth delighted,
  • He is not fooled, but warily knoweth
  • His love shall never be requited.
  • And thus the wise Immortal doeth,—
  • 'T is his study and deligh
  • To bless that creature day and night;
  • From all evils to defend her;
  • In her lap to pour all splendor;
  • To ransack earth for riches rare,
  • And fetch her stars to deck her hair;
  • He mixes music with her thoughts,
  • And saddens her with heavenly doubts;
  • All grace, all good his great heart knows,
  • Profuse in love, the king bestows,
  • Saying, ‘Hearken! Earth, Sea, Air;
  • This monument of my despair
  • Build I to the All-Good, All-Fair.
  • Not for a private good,
  • But I, from my beatitude.
  • Albeit scorned as none was scorned,
  • Adorn her as was none adorned.
  • I make this maiden an ensample
  • To Nature, through her kingdoms
  • Whereby to model newer races,
  • Statelier forms and fairer faces;
  • To carry man to new degrees
  • Of power and of comeliness.
  • These presents be the hostages
  • Which I pawn for my release.
  • See to thyself, O Universe!
  • Thou art better, and not worse.’—
  • And the god, having given all,
  • Is freed forever from his thrall.