IX New England Reformers
IN the suburb, in the town, On the railway, in the square, Came a beam of goodness down Doubling daylight everywhere: Peace now each for malice takes, Beauty for his sinful weeds, For the angel Hope aye makes Him an…
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Category III – Essays II
Essays, Second Series, was originally published in 1844, three years after Essays, First Series. The major event in Emerson’s life during this period was the death of his son,Waldo, Jr., aged five, who died quite suddenly in 1842 from scarlet fever. The essay "Experience" reflects this tragic event and is thought by many to signal a turning point in Emerson’s vision. But the rest of the volume continues the major themes begun earlier.
VIII Nominalist and Realist
In countless upward-striving waves The moon-drawn tide-wave strives; In thousand far-transplanted grafts The parent fruit survives; So, in the new-born millions, The perfect Adam lives. Not less are summer-mornings dear To every child they wake, And each with novel life…
VII Politics
Gold and iron are good To buy iron and gold; All earth’s fleece and food For their like are sold. Boded Merlin wise, Proved Napoleon great, — Nor kind nor coinage buys Aught above its rate. Fear, Craft, and Avarice…
VI Nature
The rounded world is fair to see, Nine times folded in mystery: Though baffled seers cannot impart The secret of its laboring heart, Throb thine with Nature’s throbbing breast, And all is clear from east to west. Spirit that lurks…
V Gifts
Gifts of one who loved me, — ‘T was high time they came; When he ceased to love me, Time they stopped for shame. Essay V Gifts It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that…
IV Manners
“How near to good is what is fair! Which we no sooner see, But with the lines and outward air Our senses taken be. Again yourselves compose, And now put all the aptness on Of Figure, that Proportion Or Color…
III Character
The sun set; but set not his hope: Stars rose; his faith was earlier up: Fixed on the enormous galaxy, Deeper and older seemed his eye: And matched his sufferance sublime The taciturnity of time. He spoke, and words more…
II 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…
I The Poet
A moody child and wildly wise Pursued the game with joyful eyes, Which chose, like meteors, their way, And rived the dark with private ray: They overleapt the horizon’s edge, Searched with Apollo’s privilege; Through man, and woman, and sea,…