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the day's ration. - 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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the day's ration.

    • When I was born,
    • From all the seas of strength Fate filled a chalice,
    • Saying, ‘This be thy portion, child; this chalice,
    • Less than a lily's, thou shalt daily draw
    • From my great arteries,—nor less, nor more,’
    • All substances the cunning chemist Time
    • Melts down into that liquor of my life,—
    • Friends, foes, joys, fortunes, beauty and disgust.
    • And whether I am angry or content,
    • Indebted or insulted, loved or hurt,
    • All he distils into sidereal wine
    • And brims my little cup; heedless, alas!
    • Of all he sheds how little it will hold,
    • How much runs over on the desert sands.
    • If a new Muse draw me with splendid ray,
    • And I uplift myself into its heaven,
    • The needs of the first sight absorb my blood,
    • And all the following hours of the day
    • Drag a ridiculous age.
    • To-day, when friends approach, and every hour
    • Brings book, or starbright scroll of genius,
    • The little cap will hold not a bead more,
    • And all the costly liquor runs to waste;
    • Nor gives the jealous lord one diamond drop
    • So to be husbanded for poorer days.
    • Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?
    • Why need I galleries, when a pupil's draught
    • After the master's sketch fills and o'erfills
    • My apprehension? Why seek Italy,
    • Who cannot circumnavigate the sea
    • Of thoughts and things at home, but still adjourn
    • The nearest matters for a thousand days?