Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/56

 THE SPHINX

Sphinx is drowsy,

Her wings are furled:

Her ear is heavy,

She broods on the world.

Who'll tell me my secret,

The ages have kept?—

I awaited the seer

While they slumbered and slept:—

The fate of the man-child,

The meaning of man;

Known fruit of the unknown;

Dædalian plan;

Out of sleeping a waking,

Out of waking a sleep;

Life death overtaking;

Deep underneath deep?

Erect as a sunbeam,

Upspringeth the palm;

The elephant browses,

Undaunted and calm;

In beautiful motion

The thrush plies his wings;