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beauty. - 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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beauty.

    • Was never form and never face
    • So sweet to Seyd as only grace
    • Which did not slumber like a stone,
    • But hovered gleaming and was gone.
    • Beauty chased he everywhere,
    • In flame, in storm, in clouds of air.
    • He smote the lake to feed his eye
    • With the beryl beam of the broken wave;
    • He flung in pebbles well to hear
    • The moment's music which they gave.
    • Oft pealed for him a lofty tone
    • From nodding pole and belting zone.
    • He heard a voice none else could hear
    • From centred and from errant sphere.
    • The quaking earth did quake in rhyme,
    • Seas ebbed and flowed in epic chime.
    • In dens of passion, and pits of woe,
    • He saw strong Eros struggling through,
    • To sun the dark and solve the curse,
    • And beam to the bounds of the universe.
    • While thus to love he gave his days
    • In loyal worship, scorning praise,
    • How spread their lures for him in vain
    • Thieving Ambition and paltering Gain!
    • He thought it happier to be dead,
    • To die for Beauty, than live for bread.