Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SPEAK NOT THY SPEECH, FR. WOODNOTES, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SPEAK NOT THY SPEECH, FR. WOODNOTES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography


'Speak not thy speech my boughs among:
Put off thy years, wash in the breeze;
My hours are peaceful centuries.
Talk no more with feeble tongue;
No more the fool of space and time,
Come weave with mine a nobler rhyme.
Only thy Americans
Can read thy line, can meet thy glance,
But the runes that I rehearse
Understands the universe;
The least breath my boughs which tossed
Brings again the Pentecost;
To every soul resounding clear
In a voice of solemn cheer,-
Am I not thine? Are not these thine?
And they reply, "Forever mine!"
My branches speak Italian,
English, German, Basque, Castilian,
Mountain speech to Highlanders,
Ocean tongues to islanders,
To Fin and Lap and swart Malay,
To each his bosom-secret say.






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