Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LOVER'S PETITION, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Good heart, that ownest all! Last Line: The world were better left alone. | ||||||||
Good Heart, that ownest all! I ask a modest boon and small: Not of lands and towns the gift, -- Too large a load for me to lift, -- But for one proper creature, Which geographic eye, Sweeping the map of Western earth, Or the Atlantic coast, from Maine To Powhatan's domain, Could not descry. Is 't much to ask in all thy huge creation, So trivial a part, -- A solitary heart? Yet count me not of spirit mean, Or mine a mean demand, For 't is the concentration And worth of all the land, The sister of the sea, The daughter of the strand, Composed of air and light, And of the swart earth-might. So little to thy poet's prayer Thy large bounty well can spare. And yet I think, if she were gone, The world were better left alone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BOSTON HYMN; READ IN MUSIC HALL, JANUARY 1, 1863 by RALPH WALDO EMERSON CONCORD HYMN; SUNG AT COMPLETION OF CONCORD MONUMENT, 1836 by RALPH WALDO EMERSON DIRGE (1) by RALPH WALDO EMERSON EACH AND [OR, IN] ALL by RALPH WALDO EMERSON EROS (1) by RALPH WALDO EMERSON FABLE: THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SQUIRREL by RALPH WALDO EMERSON |
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