Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/58

22 But man crouches and blushes,

Absconds and conceals;

He creepeth and peepeth,

He palters and steals;

Infirm, melancholy,

Jealous glancing around,

An oaf, an accomplice,

He poisons the ground.

Out spoke the great mother,

Beholding his fear;—

At the sound of her accents

Cold shuddered the sphere:—

Who has drugged my boy's cup?

Who has mixed my boy's bread?

Who, with sadness and madness,

Has turned my child's head?'"

I heard a poet answer

Aloud and cheerfully,

Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges

Are pleasant songs to me.

Deep love lieth under

These pictures of time;

They fade in the light of

Their meaning sublime.

The fiend that man harries

Is love of the Best;