Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/102

90 'Hearken once more!

I will tell thee the mundane lore.

Older am I than thy numbers wot;

Change I may, but I pass not.

Hitherto all things fast abide,

And anchored in the tempest ride.

Trenchant time behoves to hurry

All to yean and all to bury:

All the forms are fugitive,

But the substances survive.

Ever fresh the broad creation,

A divine improvisation,

From the heart of God proceeds,

A single will, a million deeds.

Once slept the world an egg of stone,

And pulse, and sound, and light was none;

And God said, "Throb!" and there was motion,

And the vast mass became vast ocean.

Onward and on, the eternal Pan,

Who layeth the world's incessant plan,

Halteth never in one shape,

But forever doth escape,