Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/352

316 His lot of action at the urn.

He by false usage pinned about

No breath therein, no passage out,

Cast wishful glances at the stars

And wishful saw the Ocean stream:—

Merge me in the brute universe,

Or lift to a diviner dream!'

Beside him sat enduring love,

Upon him noble eyes did rest,

Which, for the Genius that there strove,

The follies bore that it invest.

They spoke not, for their earnest sense

Outran the craft of eloquence.

He whom God had thus preferred,—

To whom sweet angels ministered,

Saluted him each morn as brother,

And bragged his virtues to each other,—

Alas! how were they so beguiled,

And they so pure? He, foolish child,

A facile, reckless, wandering will,

Eager for good, not hating ill,

Thanked Nature for each stroke she dealt;

On his tense chords all strokes were felt,

The good, the bad with equal zeal,

He asked, he only asked, to feel.

Timid, self-pleasing, sensitive,

With Gods, with fools, content to live;