Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow may morning. - 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

may morning. - 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.


may morning.

    • Who saw the hid beginnings
    • When Chaos and Order strove,
    • Or who can date the morning
    • The purple flaming of love?
    • I saw the hid beginnings
    • When Chaos and Order strove,
    • And I can date the morning prime
    • And purple flame of love.
    • Song breathed from all the forest,
    • The total air was fame;
    • It seemed the world was all torches
    • That suddenly caught the flame.
    • Is there never a retroscope mirror
    • In the realms and corners of space
    • That can give us a glimpse of the battle
    • And the soldiers face to face?
    • Sit here on the basalt ranges
    • Where twisted hills betray
    • The seat of the world-old Forces
    • Who wrestled here on a day.
    • When the purple flame shoots up,
    • And Love ascends his throne,
    • I cannot hear your songs, O birds,
    • For the witchery of my own.
    • And every human heart
    • Still keeps that golden day
    • And rings the bells of jubilee
    • On its own First of May.