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art. - 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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art.

    • Give to barrows, trays and pans
    • Grace and glimmer of romance;
    • Bring the moonlight into noon
    • Hid in gleaming piles of stone;
    • On the city's paved street
    • Plant gardens lined with lilacs sweet;
    • Let spouting fountains cool the air,
    • Singing in the sun-baked square;
    • Let statue, picture, park and hall,
    • Ballad, flag and festival,
    • The past restore, the day adorn,
    • And make to-morrow a new morn.
    • So shall the drudge in dusty frock
    • Spy behind the city clock
    • Retinues of airy kings.
    • Skirts of angels, starry wings,
    • His fathers shining in bright fables,
    • His children fed at heavenly tables.
    • 'T is the privilege of Art
    • Thus to play its cheerful part,
    • Man on earth to acclimate
    • And bend the exile to his fate,
    • And, moulded of one element
    • With the days and firmament,
    • Teach him on these as stairs to climb.
    • And live on even terms with Time;
    • Whilst upper life the slender rill
    • Of human sense doth overfill.