Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/88

76 Old as Jove,

Old as Love,

Who of me

Tells the pedigree?

Only the mountains old,

Only the waters cold,

Only moon and star

My coevals are.

Ere the first fowl sung

My relenting boughs among;

Ere Adam wived,

Ere Adam lived,

Ere the duck dived,

Ere the bees hived,

Ere the lion roared,

Ere the eagle soared,

Light and heat, land and sea,

Spake unto the oldest tree.

Glad in the sweet and secret aid

Which matter unto matter paid,

The water flowed, the breezes fanned,

The tree confined the roving sand,