Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/175

Rh His many signs cannot be told;

He has not one mode, but manifold,—

Many fashions and addresses,

Piques, reproaches, hurts, caresses,

Arguments, lore, poetry,

Action, service, badinage;

He will preach like a friar,

And jump like Harlequin;

He will read like a crier,

And fight like a Paladin.

Boundless is his memory;

Plans immense his term prolong;

He is not of counted age,

Meaning always to be young.

And his wish is intimacy,

Intimater intimacy,

And a stricter privacy;

The impossible shall yet be done,

And, being two, shall still be one.

As the wave breaks to foam on shelves,

Then runs into a wave again,