Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WOODS; A PROSE SONNET, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WOODS; A PROSE SONNET, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wise are ye, o ancient woods!
Last Line: Always new, like time itself, or like love.
Subject(s): Forests; Woods


Wise are ye, O ancient woods! wiser than man. Whoso goeth in your paths or
into your thickets where no paths are, readeth the same cheerful lesson whether
he be a young child or a hundred years old. Comes he in good fortune or bad, ye
say the same things, & from age to age. Ever the needles of the pine grow &
fall, the acorns on the oak, the maples redden in autumn, & at all times of the
year the ground pine & the pyrola bud & root under foot. What is called fortune
& what is called Time by men -- ye know them not. Men have not language to
describe one moment of your eternal life. This I would ask of you, o sacred
Woods, when ye shall next give me somewhat to say, give me also the tune wherein
to say it. Give me a tune of your own like your winds or rains or brooks or
birds; for the songs of men grow old when they have been often repeated, but
yours, though a man have heard them for seventy years, are never the same, but
always new, like time itself, or like love.





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