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guy. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 9 (Poems) [1909]

Edition used:

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. Fireside Edition (Boston and New York, 1909).

Part of: The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. (Fireside Edition).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


guy.

    • Mortal mixed of middle clay,
    • Attempered to the night and day,
    • Interchangeable with things,
    • Needs no amulets nor rings,
    • Guy possessed the talisman
    • That all things from him began;
    • And as, of old, Polycrates
    • Chained the sunshine and the breeze,
    • So did Guy betimes discover
    • Fortune was his guard and lover;
    • In strange junctures, felt, with awe,
    • His own symmetry with law;
    • That no mixture could withstand
    • The virtue of his lucky hand.
    • He gold or jewel could not lose,
    • Nor not receive his ample dues.
    • Fearless Guy had never foes,
    • He did their weapons decompose.
    • Aimed at him, the blushing blade
    • Healed as fast the wounds it made.
    • If on the foeman fell his gaze,
    • Him it would straightway blind or craze
    • In the street, if he turned round,
    • His eye the eye 't was seeking found.
    • It seemed his Genius discreet
    • Worked on the Maker's own receipt,
    • And made each tide and element
    • Stewards of stipend and of rent;
    • So that the common waters fell
    • As costly wine into his well.
    • He had so sped his wise affairs
    • That he caught Nature in his snares.
    • Early or late, the falling rain
    • Arrived in time to swell his grain;
    • Stream could not so perversely wind
    • But corn of Guy's was there to grind:
    • The siroc found it on its way,
    • To speed his sails, to dry his hay;
    • And the world's sun seemed to rise
    • To drudge all day for Guy the wise.
    • In his rich nurseries, timely skill
    • Strong crab with nobler blood did fill;
    • The aephyr in his garden rolled
    • From plum-trees vegetable gold;
    • And all the hours of the year
    • With their own harvest honored were.
    • There was no frost but welcome came,
    • Nor freshet, nor midsummer flame.
    • Belonged to wind and world the toil
    • And venture, and to Guy the oil.