Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/45

Rh I see his cowlèd portrait dear;

And yet, for all his faith could see,

I would not the good bishop be.

TO RHEA

, dear friend, a brother soothes,

Not with flatteries, but truths,

Which tarnish not, but purify

To light which dims the morning's eye.

I have come from the spring-woods,

From the fragrant solitudes;—

Listen what the poplar-tree

And murmuring waters counselled me.

If with love thy heart has burned;

If thy love is unreturned;

Hide thy grief within thy breast,

Though it tear thee unexpressed;

For when love has once departed

From the eyes of the false-hearted,

And one by one has torn off quite

The bandages of purple light;

Though thou wert the loveliest

Form the soul had ever dressed,

Thou shalt seem, in each reply,

A vixen to his altered eye;