Page:May-day and other pieces, Emerson, 1867.djvu/182

 MANNERS.

RACE, Beauty, and Caprice

Build this golden portal;

Graceful women, chosen men,

Dazzle every mortal.

Their sweet and lofty countenance

His enchanted food;

He need not go to them, their forms

Beset his solitude.

He looketh seldom in their face,

His eyes explore the ground,—

The green grass is a looking-glass

Whereon their traits are found.

Little and less he says to them,

So dances his heart in his breast;