Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/136

124 Louder than with speech they pray,—

'What am I! companion, say.'

And the friend not hesitates

To assign just place and mates;

Answers not in word or letter,

Yet is understood the better;

Is to his friend a looking-glass,

Reflects his figure that doth pass.

Every wayfarer he meets

What himself declared repeats,

What himself confessed records,

Sentences him in his words;

The form is his own corporal form,

And his thought the penal worm.

Yet shine forever virgin minds,

Loved by stars and purest winds,

Which, o'er passion throned sedate,

Have not hazarded their state;

Disconcert the searching spy,

Rendering to a curious eye