Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE APOLOGY, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE APOLOGY, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Think me not unkind and rude
Last Line: Which I gather in a song.


Think me not unkind and rude
That I walk alone in grove and glen;
I go to the god of the wood
To fetch his word to men.

Tax not my sloth that I
Fold my arms beside the brook;
Each cloud that floated in the sky
Writes a letter in my book.

Chide me not, laborious band,
For the idle flowers I brought;
Every aster in my hand
Goes home loaded with a thought.

There was never mystery
But 'tis figured in the flowers;
Was never secret history
But birds tell it in the bowers.

One harvest from thy field
Homeward brought the oxen strong;
A second crop thine acres yield,
Which I gather in a song.





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