Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/356

320 Serve thou it not for daily bread,—

Serve it for pain and fear and need.

Love it, though it hide its light;

By love behold the sun at night.

If the Law should thee forget,

More enamoured serve it yet;

Though it hate thee, suffer long;

Put the Spirit in the wrong;

Brother, no decrepitude

Chills the limbs of Time;

As fleet his feet, his hands as good,

His vision as sublime:

On Nature's wheels there is no rust;

Nor less on man's enchanted dust

Beauty and Force alight.

FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT

I

are beggars in Iran and Araby,

Said was hungrier than all;

Hafiz said he was a fly

That came to every festival.

He came a pilgrim to the Mosque

On trail of camel and caravan,

Knew every temple and kiosk

Out from Mecca to Ispahan;