Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/37

25 THE VISIT.

, 'How long thou shalt stay,'

Devastator of the day?

Know, each substance, and relation,

Thorough nature's operation,

Hath its unit, bound, and metre;

And every new compound

Is some product and repeater,—

Product of the early found.

But the unit of the visit,

The encounter of the wise,—

Say, what other metre is it

Than the meeting of the eyes?

Nature poureth into nature

Through the channels of that feature.

Riding on the ray of sight,

More fleet than waves or whirlwinds go,