Power that by obedience grows, Knowledge which its source not knows, Wave which severs whom it bears From the things which he compares, Adding wings through things to range, To his own blood harsh and strange.

Dark flower of Cheshire garden, Red evening duly dyes Thy sombre head with rosy hues To fix far-gazing eyes. Well the Planter knew how strongly Works thy form on human thought; I muse what secret purpose had he To draw all fancies to this spot.

In the turbulent beauty Of a gusty Autumn day, Poet on a sunny headland Sighed his soul away. Farms the sunny landscape dappled, Swandown clouds dappled the farms, Cattle lowed in mellow distance Where far oaks outstretched their arms. Sudden gusts came full of meaning, All too much to him they said, Oh, south winds […]

October woods wherein The boy’s dream comes to pass, And Nature squanders on the boy her pomp, And crowns him with a more than royal crown, And unimagined splendor waits his steps. The gazing urchin walks through tents of gold, Through crimson chambers, porphyry and pearl, Pavilion on pavilion, garlanded, Incensed and starred with lights […]

[Knows he who tills this lonely field To reap its scanty corn, What mystic fruit his acres yield At midnight and at morn?] That field by spirits bad and good, By Hell and Heaven is haunted, And every rood in the hemlock wood I know is ground enchanted. For in those lonely grounds the sun […]

A Queen rejoices in her peers, And wary Nature knows her own By court and city, dale and down, And like a lover volunteers, And to her son will treasures more And more to purpose freely pour In one wood walk, than learned men Can find with glass in ten times ten.

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 […]

I have trod this path a hundred times With idle footsteps, crooning rhymes. I know each nest and web-worm’s tent, The fox-hole which the woodchucks rent, Maple and oak, the old Divan Self-planted twice, like the banian. I know not why I came again Unless to learn it ten times ten. To read the sense […]

A patch of meadow upland Reached by a mile of road, Soothed by the voice of waters, With birds and flowers bestowed. Hither I come for strength Which well it can supply, For Love draws might from terrene force And potencies of sky. The tremulous battery Earth Responds to the touch of man; It thrills […]

In my garden three ways meet, Thrice the spot is blest; Hermit-thrush comes there to build, Carrier-doves to nest. There broad-armed oaks, the copses’ maze, The cold sea-wind detain; Here sultry Summer overstays When Autumn chills the plain. Self-sown my stately garden grows; The winds and wind-blown seed, Cold April rain and colder snows My […]

Six thankful weeks,–and let it be A meter of prosperity,– In my coat I bore this book, And seldom therein could I look, For I had too much to think, Heaven and earth to eat and drink. Is he hapless who can spare In his plenty things so rare?

In the deep heart of man a poet dwells Who all the day of life his summer story tells; Scatters on every eye dust of his spells, Scent, form and color; to the flowers and shells Wins the believing child with wondrous tales; Touches a cheek with colors of romance, And crowds a history into […]

Have ye seen the caterpillar Foully warking in his nest? ‘T is the poor man getting siller, Without cleanness, without rest. Have ye seen the butterfly In braw claithing drest? ‘T is the poor man gotten rich, In rings and painted vest. The poor man crawls in web of rags And sore bested with woes. […]

Philosophers are lined with eyes within, And, being so, the sage unmakes the man. In love, he cannot therefore cease his trade; Scarce the first blush has overspread his cheek, He feels it, introverts his learned eye To catch the unconscious heart in the very act. His mother died,–the only friend he had,– Some tears […]

Who knows this or that? Hark in the wall to the rat: Since the world was, he has gnawed; Of his wisdom, of his fraud What dost thou know? In the wretched little beast Is life and heart, Child and parent, Not without relation To fruitful field and sun and moon. What art thou? His […]

I am not poor, but I am proud, Of one inalienable right, Above the envy of the crowd,– Thought’s holy light. Better it is than gems or gold, And oh! it cannot die, But thought will glow when the sun grows cold, And mix with Deity. BOSTON, 1823.

I rake no coffined clay, nor publish wide The resurrection of departed pride. Safe in their ancient crannies, dark and deep, Let kings and conquerors, saints and soldiers sleep– Late in the world,–too late perchance for fame, Just late enough to reap abundant blame,– I choose a novel theme, a bold abuse Of critic charters, […]

When success exalts thy lot, God for thy virtue lays a plot: And all thy life is for thy own, Then for mankind’s instruction shown; And though thy knees were never bent, To Heaven thy hourly prayers are sent, And whether formed for good or ill, Are registered and answered still. 1826 [?]. I bear […]

Ah Fate, cannot a man Be wise without a beard? East, West, from Beer to Dan, Say, was it never heard That wisdom might in youth be gotten, Or wit be ripe before ‘t was rotten? He pays too high a price For knowledge and for fame Who sells his sinews to be wise, His […]

A sterner errand to the silken troop Has quenched the uneasy blush that warmed my cheek; I am commissioned in my day of joy To leave my woods and streams and the sweet sloth Of prayer and song that were my dear delight, To leave the rudeness of my woodland life, Sweet twilight walks and […]