To J.W.

Home
Up
Texts
Search
Look Up Word
Discuss
Site Map
Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Contact

Emerson Poems: A-C
Emerson Poems: D-G
Emerson Poems: H-O
Emerson Poems: P-Z

Painting and Sculpture
The Park
The Problem
The Rhodora
Saadi
The Snow-Storm
Sphynx
"Sursum Corda"
"Suum Cuique"
Tact
Threnody
To Ellen, At the South
To Eva
To J.W.
To Rhea
Uriel
The Visit
Wood Notes I
Wood Notes II
The World-Soul
Xenophanes

Texts : Early Emerson Poems : Emerson Poems: P-Z : TO J.W.

To J.W.

Set not thy foot on graves;
Hear what wine and roses say;
The mountain chase, the summer waves,
The crowded town, thy feet may well delay.

Set not thy foot on graves;
Nor seek to unwind the shroud
Which charitable time
And nature have allowed
To wrap the errors of a sage sublime.

Set not thy foot on graves;
Care not to strip the dead
Of his sad ornament;
His myrrh, and wine, and rings,
His sheet of lead,
And trophies buried;
Go get them where he earned them when alive,
As resolutely dig or dive.

Life is too short to waste
The critic bite or cynic bark,
Quarrel, or reprimand;
'Twill soon be dark;
Up! mind thine own aim, and
God speed the mark.

from: Emerson, Ralph Waldo.  Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York, Boston, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company: 1899. Introduction by Nathan Haskell Dole. 

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Painting and Sculpture ] [ The Park ] [ The Problem ] [ The Rhodora ] [ Saadi ] [ The Snow-Storm ] [ Sphynx ] [ "Sursum Corda" ] [ "Suum Cuique" ] [ Tact ] [ Threnody ] [ To Ellen, At the South ] [ To Eva ] [ To J.W. ] [ To Rhea ] [ Uriel ] [ The Visit ] [ Wood Notes I ] [ Wood Notes II ] [ The World-Soul ] [ Xenophanes ] [ Emerson Poems: A-C ] [ Emerson Poems: D-G ] [ Emerson Poems: H-O ] [ Emerson Poems: P-Z ]