Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WRITTEN IN NAPLES, MARCH, 1833, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: We are what we are made; each following day Last Line: Thine elegy, sweet singer, sainted wife! Subject(s): God | ||||||||
We are what we are made; each following day Is the Creator of our human mould Not less than was the first; the all wise God Gilds a few points in every several life And as each flower upon the fresh hill-side, And every coloured petal of each flower, Is sketched and dyed each with a new design, Its spot of purple, & its streak of brown, So each man's life shall have its proper lights, And a few joys, a few peculiar charms, For him round in the melancholy hours, And reconcile him to the common days. Not many men see beauty in the fogs Of close low pine-woods in a river town: Yet unto me not morn's magnificence, Nor the red rainbow of a summer eve, Nor Rome, nor joyful Paris, nor the halls Of rich men blazing hospitable light, Nor wit, nor eloquence, no, nor even the song Of any woman that is now alive, Hath such a soul, such divine influence, Such resurrection of the happy past, As is to me when I behold the morn Ope in such low moist road-side, & beneath Peep the blue violets out of the black loam, Pathetic silent poets that sing to me Thine elegy, sweet singer, sainted wife! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MOUNTAIN IS STRIPPED by DAVID IGNATOW AS CLOSE AS BREATHING by MARK JARMAN UNHOLY SONNET 1 by MARK JARMAN UNHOLY SONNET 13 by MARK JARMAN BIRTH-DUES by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE SILENT SHEPHERDS by ROBINSON JEFFERS GOING TO THE HORSE FLATS by ROBINSON JEFFERS |
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