Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/34

22 And one by one has torn off quite

The bandages of purple light;

Though thou wert the loveliest

Form the soul had ever dressed,

Thou shalt seem, in each reply,

A vixen to his altered eye;

Thy softest pleadings seem too bold,

Thy praying lute will seem to scold;

Though thou kept the straightest road,

Yet thou errest far and broad.

But thou shalt do as do the gods

In their cloudless periods;

For of this lore be thou sure,—

Though thou forget, the gods, secure,

Forget never their command,

But make the statute of this land.

As they lead, so follow all,

Ever have done, ever shall.

Warning to the blind and deaf,

'Tis written on the iron leaf,