The cup of life is not so shallow That we have drained the best, That all the wine at once we swallow And lees make all the rest. Maids of as soft a bloom shall marry As Hymen yet hath blessed, And fairer forms are in the quarry Than Phidias released. 1827.

Though her eye seek other forms And a glad delight below, Yet the love the world that warms Bids for me her bosom glow. She must love me till she find Another heart as large and true. Her soul is frank as the ocean wind, And the world has only two. If Nature hold another […]

Tell me, maiden, dost thou use Thyself thro’ Nature to diffuse? All the angles of the coast Were tenanted by thy sweet ghost, Bore thy colors every flower, Thine each leaf and berry bore; All wore thy badges and thy favors In their scent or in their savors, Every moth with painted wing, Every bird […]

Dear brother, would you know the life, Please God, that I would lead? On the first wheels that quit this weary town Over yon western bridges I would ride And with a cheerful benison forsake Each street and spire and roof, incontinent. Then would I seek where God might guide my steps, Deep in a […]

Why fear to die And let thy body lie Under the flowers of June, Thy body food For the ground-worms’ brood And thy grave smiled on by the visiting moon. Amid great Nature’s halls Girt in by mountain walls And washed with waterfalls It would please me to die, Where every wind that swept my […]

There is in all the sons of men A love that in the spirit dwells, That panteth after things unseen, And tidings of the future tells. And God hath built his altar here To keep this fire of faith alive, And sent his priests in holy fear To speak the truth–for truth to strive. And […]

Henceforth, please God, forever I forego The yoke of men’s opinions. I will be Light-hearted as a bird, and live with God. I find him in the bottom of my heart, I hear continually his voice therein. * * * The little needle always knows the North, The little bird remembereth his note, And this […]

We are what we are made; each following day Is the Creator of our human mould Not less than was the first; the all-wise God Gilds a few points in every several life, And as each flower upon the fresh hillside, And every colored petal of each flower, Is sketched and dyed, each with a […]

Alone in Rome. Why, Rome is lonely too;– Besides, you need not be alone; the soul Shall have society of its own rank. Be great, be true, and all the Scipios, The Catos, the wise patriots of Rome, Shall flock to you and tarry by your side, And comfort you with their high company. Virtue […]

1831 Let Webster’s lofty face Ever on thousands shine, A beacon set that Freedom’s race Might gather omens from that radiant sign. 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 […]

Two well-assorted travellers use The highway, Eros and the Muse. From the twins is nothing hidden, To the pair is naught forbidden; Hand in hand the comrades go Every nook of nature through: Each for other they were born, Each can other best adorn; They know one only mortal grief Past all balsam or relief, […]

Good Heart, that ownest all! I ask a modest boon and small: Not of lands and towns the gift,– Too large a load for me to lift,– But for one proper creature, Which geographic eye, Sweeping the map of Western earth, Or the Atlantic coast, from Maine To Powhatan’s domain, Could not descry. Is’t much […]

This address was delivered at Cambridge in 1837, before the Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, a college fraternity composed of the first twenty-five men in each graduating class. The society has annual meetings, which have been the occasion for addresses from the most distinguished scholars and thinkers of the day. MR. PRESIDENT […]

SHAKSPEARE;[525] OR, THE POET [Transcriber’s Note: Shakspeare is spelled as “Shakspeare” as well as “Shakespeare” in this essay. The original spellings have been retained.] 1. Great men are more distinguished by range and extent, than by originality. If we require the originality which consists in weaving, like a spider, their web from their own bowels; […]

And I behold once more My old familiar haunts; here the blue river, The same blue wonder that my infant eye Admired, sage doubting whence the traveller came,– Whence brought his sunny bubbles ere he washed The fragrant flag-roots in my father’s fields, And where thereafter in the world he went. Look, here he is, […]

I love thy music, mellow bell, I love thine iron chime, To life or death, to heaven or hell, Which calls the sons of Time. Thy voice upon the deep The home-bound sea-boy hails, It charms his cares to sleep, It cheers him as he sails. To house of God and heavenly joys Thy summons […]

Let me go where’er I will, I hear a sky-born music still: It sounds from all things old, It sounds from all things young, From all that’s fair, from all that’s foul, Peals out a cheerful song. It is not only in the rose, It is not only in the bird, Not only where the […]