Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/24

12 Have I a lover

Who is noble and free?—

I would he were nobler

Than to love me.

"Eterne alternation

Now follows, now flies;

And under pain, pleasure,—

Under pleasure, pain lies.

Love works at the centre,

Heart-heaving alway;

Forth speed the strong pulses

To the borders of day.

"Dull Sphinx, Jove keep thy five wits!

Thy sight is growing blear;

Rue, myrrh, and cummin for the Sphinx—

Her muddy eyes to clear!"—

The old Sphinx bit her thick lip,—

Said, "Who taught thee me to name?

I am thy spirit, yoke-fellow,

Of thine eye I am eyebeam.