Poem: “Xenophanes” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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American Literature – American Poetry – Ralph Waldo Emerson – Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Xenophanes

By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave
One scent to hyson and to wall-flower,
One sound to pine-groves and to waterfalls,
One aspect to the desert and the lake.
It was her stern necessity: all things
Are of one pattern made; bird, beast and flower,
Song, picture, form, space, thought and character
Deceive us, seeming to be many things,
And are but one. Beheld far off, they part
As God and devil; bring them to the mind,
They dull its edge with their monotony.
To know one element, explore another,
And in the second reappears the first.
The specious panorama of a year
But multiplies the image of a day,—
A belt of mirrors round a taper’s flame;
And universal Nature, through her vast
And crowded whole, an infinite paroquet,
Repeats one note.

< < < Holidays
The Day’s Ration > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Ralph Waldo Emerson – Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Xenophanes

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