Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WOODNOTES: 1, 1, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WOODNOTES: 1, 1, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: For this present, hard / is the future of the bard
Last Line: Coming and past eternities?


For this present, hard
Is the fortune of the bard,
Born out of time;
All his accomplishment,
From Nature's utmost treasure spent,
Booteth not him.
When the pine tosses its cones
To the song of its waterfall tones,
He speeds to the woodland walks,
To birds and trees he talks:
Caesar of his leafy Rome,
There the poet is at home.
He goes to the river-side, --
Not hook nor line hath he;
He stands in the meadows wide, --
Nor gun nor scythe to see;
With none has he to do,
And none seek him,
Nor men below,
Nor spirits dim.
Sure some god his eye enchants:
What he knows nobody wants.
In the wood he travels glad,
Without better fortune had,
Melancholy without bad.
Planter of celestial plants,
What he knows nobody wants;
What he knows he hides, not vaunts.
Knowledge this man prizes best
Seems fantastic to the rest:
Pondering shadows, colors, clouds,
Grass-buds, and caterpillar-shrouds,
Boughs on which the wild bees settle,
Tints that spot the violets' petal,
Why Nature loves the number five,
And why the star-form she repeats:
Lover of all things alive,
Wonderer at all he meets,
Wonderer chiefly at himself, --
Who can tell him what he is?
Or how meet in human elf
Coming and past eternities?





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