Nemesis

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)



Already blushes in thy cheek
The bosom-thought which thou must speak;
The bird, how far it haply roam
By cloud or isle, is flying home;
The maiden fears, and fearing runs
Into the charmed snare she shuns;
And every man, in love or pride,
Of his fate is never wide.

Will a woman's fan the ocean smooth?
Or prayers the stony Parcae sooth,
Or coax the thunder from its mark?
Or tapers light the chaos dark?
In spite of Virtue and the Muse,
Nemesis will have her dues,
And all our struggles and our toils
Tighter wind the giant coils.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

30 sec read
85

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 538
Words 102
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. more…

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