Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/132

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WRITTEN BY ELLEN LOUISA TUCKER SHORTLY BEFORE HER MARRIAGE TO MR. EMERSON

scatters oil

On Life's dark sea,

Sweetens its toil—

Our helmsman he.

Around him hover

Odorous clouds;

Under this cover

His arrows he shrouds.

The cloud was around me,

I knew not why

Such sweetness crowned me,

While Time shot by.

No pain was within,

But calm delight,

Like a world without sin,

Or a day without night.

The shafts of the god

Were tipped with down,