Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow the past. - The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 9 (Poems)

Return to Title Page for The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 9 (Poems)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Literature

the past. - 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).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


the past.

    • The debt is paid,
    • The verdict said,
    • The Furies laid,
    • The plague is stayed,
    • All fortunes made;
    • Turn the key and bolt the door,
    • Sweet is death forevermore.
    • Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin,
    • Nor murdering hate, can enter in.
    • All is now secure and fast;
    • Not the gods can shake the Past;
    • Flies-to the adamantine door
    • Bolted down forevermore.
    • None can re-enter there,—
    • No thief so politic,
    • No Satan with a royal trick
    • Steal in by window, chink, or hole,
    • To bind or unbind, add what lacked,
    • Insert a leaf, or forge a name,
    • New-face or finish what is packed,
    • Alter or mend eternal Fact.