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.)

destiny.

• • That you are fair or wise is vain,
  • Or strong, or rich, or generous;
  • You must add the untaught strain
  • That sheds beauty on the rose.
  • There's a melody born of melody,
  • Which melts the world into a sea.
  • Toil could never compass it;
  • Art its height could never hit;
  • It came never out of wit;
  • But a music music-born
  • Well may Jove and Juno scorn.
  • Thy beauty, if it lack the fire
  • Which drives me mad with sweet desire,
  • What boots it? What the soldier's mail,
  • Unless he conquer and prevail?
  • What all the goods thy pride which lift,
  • If thou pine for another's gift?
  • Alas! that one is born in blight,
  • Victim of perpetual slight:
  • When thou lookest on his face,
  • Thy heart saith, ‘Brother, go thy ways!
  • None shall ask thee what thou doest,
  • Or care a rush for what thou knowest,
  • Or listen when thou repliest,
  • Or remember where thou lieat,
  • Or how thy supper is sodden;’
  • And another is born
  • To make the sun forgotten.
  • Surely he carries a talisman
  • Under his tongue;
  • Broad his shoulders are and strong;
  • And his eye is scornful,
  • Threatening and young.
  • I hold it of little matter
  • Whether your jewel be of pure water,
  • A rose diamond or a white,
  • But whether it dazzle me with light.
  • I care not how you are dressed,
  • In coarsest weeds or in the best;
  • Nor whether your name is base or brave;
  • Nor for the fashion of your behavior;
  • But whether you charm me,
  • Bid my bread feed and my fire warm me,
  • And dress up Nature in your favor.
  • One thing is forever good;
  • That one thing is Success,—
  • Dear to the Eumenides,
  • And to all the heavenly brood.
  • Who bides at home, nor looks abroad,
  • Carries the eagles, and masters the sword.