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webster. from the phi beta kappa poem, 1834. - 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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webster.
from the phi beta kappa poem, 1834.

    • Ill fits the abstemious Muse a crown to weave
    • For living brows; ill fits them to receive:
    • And yet, if virtue abrogate the law,
    • One portrait,—fact or fancy—we may draw;
    • A form which Nature cast in the heroic mould
    • Of them who rescued liberty of old;
    • He, when the rising storm of party roared,
    • Brought his great forehead to the council board,
    • There, while hot heads perplexed with fears the state,
    • Calm as the morn the manly patriot sate;
    • Seemed, when at last his clarion accents broke,
    • As if the conscience of the country spoke.
    • Not on its base Monadnoc surer stood,
    • Than he to common sense and common good:
    • No mimic; from his breast his counsel drew,
    • Believed the eloquent was aye the true;
    • He bridged the gulf from th' alway good and wise
    • To that within the vision of small eyes.
    • Self-centred; when he launched the genuine word
    • It shook or captivated all who heard,
    • Ran from his mouth to mountains and the sea,
    • And burned in noble hearts proverb and prophecy.