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xenophanes. - 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).

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xenophanes.

    • By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave
    • One scent to hyson and to wall-flower,
    • One sound to pine-groves and to waterfalls,
    • One aspect to the desert and the lake.
    • It was her stern necessity: all things
    • Are of one pattern made; bird, beast and flower,
    • Song, picture, form, space, thought and character
    • Deceive us, seeming to be many things,
    • And are but one. Beheld far off, they part
    • As God and devil; bring them to the mind,
    • They dull its edge with their monotony.
    • To know one element, explore another,
    • And in the second reappears the first
    • The specious panorama of a year
    • But multiplies the image of a day,—
    • A belt of mirrors round a taper's flame;
    • And universal Nature, through her vast
    • And crowded whole, an infinite paroquet,
    • Repeats one note.