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.)

the humble-bee.

• • Burly, dozing humble-bee,
  • Where thou art is clime for me.
  • Let them sail for Porto Rique,
  • Far-off heats through seas to seek;
  • I will follow thee alone,
  • Thou animated torrid-zone!
  • Zigzag steerer, desert cheerer,
  • Let me chase thy waving lines;
  • Keep me nearer, me thy hearer.
  • Singing over shrubs and vines.
• • Insect lover of the sun,
  • Joy of thy dominion!
  • Sailor of the atmosphere;
  • Swimmer through the waves of air!
  • Voyager of light and noon;
  • Epicurean of June;
  • Wait, I prithee, till I come
  • Within earshot of thy hum,—
  • All without is martyrdom.
• • 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.