Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson / [by Ralph Waldo Emerson] ; with an introduction by Nathan Haskell Dole [electronic text]

ODE.

I.

INITIAL LOVE.

Venus, when her son was lost, Cried him up and down the coast, In hamlets, palaces, and parks, And told the truant by his marks, Golden curls, and quiver, and bow;— This befell long ago. Time and tide are strangely changed, Men and manners much deranged; None will now find Cupid latent By this foolish antique patent. He came late along the waste, Shod like a traveller for haste, With malice dared me to proclaim him, That the maids and boys might name him.

Boy no more, he wears all coats, Frocks, and blouses, capes, capôtes,

He bears no bow, or quiver, or wand, Nor chaplet on his head or hand: Leave his weeds and heed his eyes, All the rest he can disguise. In the pit of his eyes a spark Would bring back day if it were dark, And,—if I tell you all my thought, Though I comprehend it not,— In those unfathomable orbs Every function he absorbs; He doth eat, and drink, and fish, and shoot, And write, and reason, and compute, And ride, and run, and have, and hold, And whine, and flatter, and regret, And kiss, and couple, and beget, By those roving eye-balls bold; Undaunted are their courages, Right Cossacks in their forages; Fleeter they than any creature, They are his steeds and not his feature, Inquisitive, and fierce, and fasting, Restless, predatory, hasting,— And they pounce on other eyes, As lions on their prey;

And round their circles is writ, Plainer than the day, Underneath, within, above, Love, love, love, love. He lives in his eyes, There doth digest, and work, and spin, And buy, and sell, and lose, and win; He rolls them with delighted motion, Joy-tides swell their mimic ocean. Yet holds he them with tortest rein, That they may seize and entertain The glance that to their glance opposes, Like fiery honey sucked from roses.

He palmistry can understand, Imbibing virtue by his hand As if it were a living root; The pulse of hands will make him mute; With all his force he gathers balms Into those wise thrilling palms.

Cupid is a casuist, A mystic, and a cabalist, Can your lurking Thought surprise,

And interpret your device; Mainly versed in occult science, In magic, and in clairvoyance. Oft he keeps his fine ear strained, And reason on her tiptoe pained, For aery intelligence, And for strange coincidence. But it touches his quick heart When Fate by omens takes his part, And chance-dropt hints from Nature's sphere Deeply soothe his anxious ear.

Heralds high before him run, He has ushers many a one, Spreads his welcome where he goes, And touches all things with his rose. All things wait for and divine him,— How shall I dare to malign him, Or accuse the god of sport?— I must end my true report, Painting him from head to foot, In as far as I took note, Trusting well the matchless power Of this young-eyed emperor

Will clear his fame from every cloud, With the bards, and with the crowd.

He is wilful, mutable, Shy, untamed, inscrutable, Swifter-fashioned than the fairies, Substance mixed of pure contraries, His vice some elder virtue's token, And his good is evil spoken. Failing sometimes of his own, He is headstrong and alone; He affects the wood and wild, Like a flower-hunting child, Buries himself in summer waves, In trees, with beasts, in mines, and caves, Loves nature like a horned cow, Bird, or deer, or cariboo.

Shun him, nymphs, on the fleet horses! He has a total world of wit, O how wise are his discourses! But he is the arch-hypocrite, And through all science and all art, Seeks alone his counterpart. He is a Pundit of the east,

He is an augur and a priest, And his soul will melt in prayer, But word and wisdom are a snare; Corrupted by the present toy, He follows joy, and only joy.

There is no mask but he will wear, He invented oaths to swear, He paints, he carves, he chants, he prays, And holds all stars in his embrace, Godlike, —but 'tis for his fine pelf, The social quintessence of self. Well, said I, he is hypocrite, And folly the end of his subtle wit, He takes a sovran privilege Not allowed to any liege, For he does go behind all law, And right into himself does draw, For he is sovranly allied. Heaven's oldest blood flows in his side, And interchangeably at one With every king on every throne, That no God dare say him nay, Or see the fault, or seen betray;

He has the Muses by the heart, And the Parcæ all are of his part.

His many signs cannot be told, He has not one mode, but manifold, Many fashions and addresses, Piques, reproaches, hurts, caresses, Action, service, badinage, He will preach like a friar, And jump like Harlequin, He will read like a crier, And fight like a Paladin. Boundless is his memory, Plans immense his term prolong, He is not of counted age, Meaning always to be young. And his wish is intimacy, Intimater intimacy, And a stricter privacy, The impossible shall yet be done, And being two shall still be one. As the wave breaks to foam on shelves, Then runs into a wave again, So lovers melt their sundered selves, Yet melted would be twain.

II.

THE DÆMONIC AND THE CELESTIAL LOVE.

DÆMONIC LOVE.

Man was made of social earth, Child and brother from his birth; Tethered by a liquid cord Of blood through veins of kindred poured, Next his heart the fireside band Of mother, father, sister, stand; Names from awful childhood heard, Throbs of a wild religion stirred, Their good was heaven, their harm was vice, Till Beauty came to snap all ties, The maid, abolishing the past, With lotus-wine obliterates Dear memory's stone-incarved traits, And by herself supplants alone Friends year by year more inly known.

When her calm eyes opened bright, All were foreign in their light. It was ever the self-same tale, The old experience will not fail,— Only two in the garden walked, And with snake and seraph talked.

But God said; I will have a purer gift, There is smoke in the flame; New flowerets bring, new prayers uplift, And love without a name. Fond children, ye desire To please each other well; Another round, a higher, Ye shall climb on the heavenly stair, And selfish preference forbear; And in right deserving, And without a swerving Each from your proper state, Weave roses for your mate.

Deep, deep are loving eyes, Flowed with naphtha fiery sweet,

And the point is Paradise Where their glances meet: Their reach shall yet be more profound, And a vision without bound: The axis of those eyes sun-clear Be the axis of the sphere; Then shall the lights ye pour amain Go without check or intervals, Through from the empyrean walls, Unto the same again.

Close, close to men, Like undulating layer of air, Right above their heads, The potent plain of Dæmons spreads. Stands to each human soul its own, For watch, and ward, and furtherance In the snares of nature's dance; And the lustre and the grace Which fascinate each human heart, Beaming from another part, Translucent through the mortal covers, Is the Dæmon's form and face. To and fro the Genius hies,

A gleam which plays and hovers Over the maiden's head, And dips sometimes as low as to her eyes.

Unknown, — albeit lying near, — To men the path to the Dæmon sphere, And they that swiftly come and go, Leave no track on the heavenly snow. Sometimes the airy synod bends, And the mighty choir descends, And the brains of men thenceforth, In crowded and in still resorts, Teem with unwonted thoughts. As when a shower of meteors Cross the orbit of the earth, And, lit by fringent air, Blaze near and far. Mortals deem the planets bright Have slipped their sacred bars, And the lone seaman all the night Sails astonished amid stars.

Beauty of a richer vein, Graces of a subtler strain,

Unto men these moon-men lend, And our shrinking sky extend. So is man's narrow path By strength and terror skirted, Also (from the song the wrath Of the Genii be averted! The Muse the truth uncolored speaking), The Dæmons are self-seeking; Their fierce and limitary will Draws men to their likeness still.

The erring painter made Love blind, Highest Love who shines on all; Him radiant, sharpest-sighted god None can bewilder; Whose eyes pierce The Universe, Path-finder, road-builder, Mediator, royal giver, Rightly-seeing, rightly-seen, Of joyful and transparent mien. 'Tis a sparkle passing From each to each, from me to thee, Perpetually,

Sharing all, daring all, Levelling, misplacing Each obstruction, it unites Equals remote, and seeming opposites. And ever and forever Love Delights to build a road; Unheeded Danger near him strides, Love laughs, and on a lion rides. But Cupid wears another face Born into Dæmons less divine, His roses bleach apace, His nectar smacks of wine. The Dæmon ever builds a wall, Himself incloses and includes, Solitude in solitudes: In like sort his love doth fall. He is an oligarch, He prizes wonder, fame, and mark, He loveth crowns, He scorneth drones; He doth elect The beautiful and fortunate, And the sons of intellect, And the souls of ample fate,

Who the Future's gates unbar, Minions of the Morning Star. In his prowess he exults, And the multitude insults. His impatient looks devour Oft the humble and the poor, And, seeing his eye glare, They drop their few pale flowers Gathered with hope to please Along the mountain towers, Lose courage, and despair. He will never be gainsaid, Pitiless, will not be stayed. His hot tyranny Burns up every other tie; Therefore comes an hour from Jove Which his ruthless will defies, And the dogs of Fate unties. Shiver the palaces of glass, Shrivel the rainbow-colored walls Where in bright art each god and sibyl dwelt Secure as in the Zodiack's belt; And the galleries and halls Wherein every Siren sung,

Like a meteor pass. For this fortune wanted root In the core of God's abysm, Was a weed of self and schism: And ever the Dæmonic Love Is the ancestor of wars, And the parent of remorse.

CELESTIAL LOVE.

Higher far, Upward, into the pure realm, Over sun or star, Over the flickering Dæmon film, Thou must mount for love,— Into vision which all form In one only form dissolves; In a region where the wheel, On which all beings ride, Visibly revolves; Where the starred eternal worm Girds the world with bound and term; Where unlike things are like, When good and ill,

And joy and moan, Melt into one. There Past, Present, Future, shoot Triple blossoms from one root Substances at base divided In their summits are united, There the holy Essence rolls, One through separated souls, And the sunny Æon sleeps Folding nature in its deeps, And every fair and every good Known in part or known impure To men below, In their archetypes endure.

The race of gods, Or those we erring own, Are shadows flitting up and down In the still abodes. The circles of that sea are laws, Which publish and which hide the Cause. Pray for a beam Out of that sphere Thee to guide and to redeem.

O what a load Of care and toil By lying Use bestowed, From his shoulders falls, who sees The true astronomy, The period of peace! Counsel which the ages kept, Shall the well-born soul accept. As the overhanging trees Fill the lake with images, As garment draws the garment's hem Men their fortunes bring with them; By right or wrong, Lands and goods go to the strong; Property will brutely draw Still to the proprietor, Silver to silver creep and wind, And kind to kind, Nor less the eternal poles Of tendency distribute souls. There need no vows to bind Whom not each other seek but find. They give and take no pledge or oath, Nature is the bond of both.

No prayer persuades, no flattery fawns, Their noble meanings are their pawns. Plain and cold is their address, Power have they for tenderness, And so thoroughly is known Each others' purpose by his own, They can parley without meeting, Need is none of forms of greeting, They can well communicate In their innermost estate; When each the other shall avoid, Shall each by each be most enjoyed. Not with scarfs or perfumed gloves Do these celebrate their loves, Not by jewels, feasts, and savors, Not by ribbons or by favors, But by the sun-spark on the sea, And the cloud-shadow on the lea, The soothing lapse of morn to mirk, And the cheerful round of work. Their cords of love so public are, They intertwine the farthest star. The throbbing sea, the quaking earth, Yield sympathy and signs of mirth;

Is none so high, so mean is none, But feels and seals this union. Even the tell Furies are appeased, The good applaud, the lost are eased.

Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond, Bound for the just, but not beyond; Not glad, as the low-loving herd, Of self in others still preferred, But they have heartily designed The benefit of broad mankind. And they serve men austerely, After their own genius, clearly, Without a false humility; For this is love's nobility, Not to scatter bread and gold, Goods and raiment bought and sold, But to hold fast his simple sense, And speak the speech of innocence, And with hand, and body, and blood, To make his bosom-counsel good: For he that feeds men, serveth few, He serves all, who dares be true.