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.)

ode to beauty.

• • Who gave thee, O Beauty,
  • The keys of this breast,—
  • Too credulous lover
  • Of blest and unblest?
  • Say, when in lapsed ages
  • Thee knew I of old?
  • Or what was the service
  • For which I was sold?
  • When first my eyes saw thee,
  • I found me thy thrall,
  • By magical drawings,
  • Sweet tyrant of all!
  • I drank at thy fountain
  • False waters of thirst;
  • Thou intimate stranger,
  • Thou latest and first!
  • Thy dangerous glances
  • Make women of men;
  • New-born, we are melting
  • Into nature again.
• • Lavish, lavish promiser,
  • Nigh persuading gods to err!
  • Guest of million painted forms,
  • Which in turn thy glory warms!
  • The frailest leaf, the mossy bark,
  • The acorn's cup, the raindrop's arc,
  • The swinging spider's silver line,
  • The ruby of the drop of wine,
  • The shining pebble of the pond,
  • Thou inscribest with a bond,
  • In thy momentary play,
  • Would bankrupt nature to repay.
• • Ah, what avails it
  • To hide or to shun
  • Whom the Infinite One
  • Hath granted his throne?
  • The heaven high over
  • Is the deep's lover;
  • The sun and sea,
  • Informed by thee,
  • Before me run
  • And draw me on,
  • Yet fly me still,
  • As Fate refuses
  • To me the heart Fate for me chooses.
  • Is it that my opulent soul
  • Was mingled from the generous whole;
  • Sea-valleys and the deep of skies
  • Furnished several supplies;
  • And the sands whereof I'm made
  • Draw me to them, self-betrayed?
  • I turn the proud portfolio
  • Which holds the grand designs
  • Of Salvator, of Guercino,
  • And Piranesi's lines.
  • I hear the lofty pæans
  • Of the masters of the shell,
  • Who heard the starry music
  • And recount the numbers well;
  • Olympian bards who sung
  • Divine Ideas below,
  • Which always find us young
  • And always keep us so.
  • Oft, in streets or humblest places,
  • I detect far-wandered graces,
  • Which, from Eden wide astray,
  • In lowly homes have lost their way.
• • Thee gliding through the sea of form,
  • Like the lightning through the storm,
  • Somewhat not to be possessed,
  • Somewhat not to be caressed,
  • No feet so fleet could ever find,
  • No perfect form could ever bind.
  • Thou eternal fugitive,
  • Hovering over all that live,
  • Quick and skilful to inspire
  • Sweet, extravagant desire,
  • Starry space and lily-bell
  • Filling with thy roseate smell,
  • Wilt not give the lips to taste
  • Of the nectar which thou hast
• • All that's good and great with thee
  • Works in close conspiracy;
  • Thou hast bribed the dark and lonely
  • To report thy features only,
  • And the cold and purple morning
  • Itself with thoughts of thee adorning;
  • The leafy dell, the city mart,
  • Equal trophies of thine art;
  • E'en the flowing azure air
  • Thou hast touched for my despair;
  • And, if I languish into dreams,
  • Again I meet the ardent beams.
  • Queen of things! I dare not die
  • In Being's deeps past ear and eye;
  • Lest there I find the same deceive,
  • And be the sport of Fate forever.
  • Dread Power, but dear! if God thou be,
  • Unmake me quite, or give thyself to me!