Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/19



THE SPHINX.

Sphinx is drowsy,

Her wings are furled;

Her ear is heavy,

She broods on the world.

"Who'll tell me my secret,

The ages have kept?—

I awaited the seer,

While they slumbered and slept;—

"The fate of the man-child;

The meaning of man;

Known fruit of the unknown;

Dædalian plan; 7