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.)

in memoriam.
edward bliss emerson.

• • I mourn upon this battle-field,
  • But not for those who perished here.
  • Behold the river-bank
  • Whither the angry farmers came,
  • In sloven dress and broken rank,
  • Nor thought of fame.
  • Their deed of blood
  • All mankind praise;
  • Even the serene Reason says,
  • It was well done.
  • The wise and simple have one glance
  • To greet yon stern head-stone,
  • Which more of pride than pity gave
  • To mark the Briton's friendless grave.
  • Yet it is a stately tomb;
  • The grand return
  • Of eve and morn,
  • The year's fresh bloom,
  • The silver cloud,
  • Might grace the dust that is most proud.
• • Yet not of these I muse
  • In this ancestral place,
  • But of a kindred face
  • That never joy or hope shall here diffuse.
• • Ah, brother of the brief but blazing star:
  • What hast thou to do with these
  • Haunting this bank's historic trees?
  • Thou born for noblest life,
  • For action's field, for victor's car,
  • Thon living champion of the right?
  • To these their penalty belonged:
  • I grudge not these their bed of death,
  • But thine to thee, who never wronged
  • The poorest that drew breath.
• • All inborn power that could
  • Consist with homage to the good
  • Flamed from his martial eye;
  • He who seemed a soldier born,
  • He should have the helmet worn,
  • All friends to fend, all foes defy,
  • Fronting foes of God and man,
  • Frowning down the evil-doer,
  • Battling for the weak and poor.
  • His from youth the leader's look
  • Gave the law which others took,
  • And never poor beseeching glance
  • Shamed that sculptured countenance.
• • There is no record left on earth,
  • Save in tablets of the heart,
  • Of the rich inherent worth,
  • Of the grace that on him shone,
  • Of eloquent lips, of joyful wit:
  • He could not frame a word unfit,
  • An act unworthy to be done;
  • Honor prompted every glance,
  • Honor came and sat beside him,
  • In lowly cot or painful road,
  • And evermore the cruel god.
  • Cried, “Onward!” and the palm-crown showed.
  • Born for success he seemed,
  • With grace to win, with heart to hold,
  • With shining gifts that took all eyes,
  • With budding power in college-halls,
  • As pledged in coming days to forge
  • Weapons to guard the State, or scourge
  • Tyrants despite their guards or walls.
  • On his young promise Beauty smiled,
  • Drew his free homage unbeguiled,
  • And prosperous Age held out his hand,
  • And richly his large future planned,
  • And troops of friends enjoyed the tide,—
  • All, all was given, and only health denied.
• • I see him with superior smile
  • Hunted by Sorrow's grisly train
  • In lands remote, in toil and pain,
  • With angel patience labor on,
  • With the high port he wore erewhile,
  • When, foremost of the youthful band,
  • The prizes in all lists he won;
  • Nor bate one jot of heart or hope,
  • And, least of all, the loyal tie
  • Which holds to home ‘neath every sky,
  • The joy and pride the pilgrim feels
  • In hearts which round the hearth at home
  • Keep pulse for pulse with those who roam.
• • What generous beliefs console
  • The brave whom Fate denies the goal!
  • If others reach it, is content;
  • To Heaven's high will his will is bent.
  • Firm on his heart relied,
  • What lot soe'er betide,
  • Work of his hand
  • He nor repents nor grieves,
  • Pleads for itself the fact,
  • As unrepenting Nature leaves
  • Her every act.
• • Fell the bolt on the branching oak;
  • The rainbow of his hope was broke;
  • No craven cry, no secret tear,—
  • He told no pang, he knew no fear;
  • Its peace sublime his aspect kept,
  • His purpose woke, his features slept;
  • And yet between the spasms of pain
  • His genius beamed with joy again.
• • O'er thy rich dust the endless smile
  • Of Nature in thy Spanish isle
  • Hints never loss or cruel break
  • And sacrifice for love's dear sake,
  • Nor mourn the unalterable Days
  • That Genius goes and Folly stays.
  • What matters how, or from what ground,
  • The freed soul its Creator found?
  • Alike thy memory embalms
  • That orange-grove, that isle of palms,
  • And these loved banks, whose oak-boughs bold
  • Root in the blood of heroes old.

experience.

• • The lords of life, the lords of life,—
  • I saw them pass
  • In their own guise,
  • Like and unlike,
  • Portly and grim,—
  • Use and Surprise,
  • Surface and Dream,
  • Succession swift and spectral Wrong,
  • Temperament without a tongue,
  • And the inventor of the game
  • Omnipresent without name;—
  • Some to see, some to be guessed,
  • They marched from east to west:
  • Little man, least of all,
  • Among the legs of his guardians tall,
  • Walked about with puzzled look.
  • Him by the hand dear Nature took,
  • Dearest Nature, strong and kind,
  • Whispered, ‘Darling, never mind!
  • To-morrow they will wear another face,
  • The founder thou; these are thy race!