Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/129

117 ODE,

INSCRIBED TO W. H. CHANNING.

loath to grieve

The evil time's sole patriot,

I cannot leave

My honied thought

For the priest's cant,

Or statesman's rant.

If I refuse

My study for their politique,

Which at the best is trick,

The angry Muse

Puts confusion in my brain.

But who is he that prates

Of the culture of mankind,