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terminus. - 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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terminus.

    • It is time to be old,
    • To take in sail:—
    • The god of bounds,
    • Who sets to seas a shore,
    • Came to me in his fatal rounds,
    • And said: ‘No more!
    • No farther shoot
    • Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root.
    • Fancy departs: no more invent;
    • Contract thy firmament
    • To compass of a tent.
    • There's not enough for this and that,
    • Make thy option which of two;
    • Economize the failing river,
    • Not the less revere the Giver,
    • Leave the many and hold the few.
    • Timely wise accept the terms,
    • Soften the fall with wary foot;
    • A little while
    • Still plan and smile,
    • And,—fault of novel germs,—
    • Mature the unfallen fruit.
    • Curse, if thou wilt, thy sires,
    • Bad husbands of their fires,
    • Who, when they gave thee breath,
    • Failed to bequeath
    • The needful sinew stark as once,
    • The Baresark marrow to thy bones,
    • But left a legacy of ebbing veins,
    • Inconstant beat and nerveless reins,—
    • Amid the Muses, left thee deaf and dumb,
    • Amid the gladiators, halt and numb.’
    • As the bird trims her to the gale,
    • I trim myself to the storm of time,
    • I man the rudder, reef the sail,
    • Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
    • ‘Lowly faithful, banish fear,
    • Right onward drive unharmed;
    • The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
    • And every wave is charmed.’