Analysis of Celestial Love
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)
Higher far,
Upward, into the pure realm,
Over sun or star,
Over the flickering Dæmon film,
Thou must mount for love,—
Into vision which all form
In one only form dissolves;
In a region where the wheel,
On which all beings ride,
Visibly revolves;
Where the starred eternal worm
Girds the world with bound and term;
Where unlike things are like,
When good and ill,
And joy and moan,
Melt into one.
There Past, Present, Future, shoot
Triple blossoms from one root
Substances at base divided
In their summits are united,
There the holy Essence rolls,
One through separated souls,
And the sunny &Aelig;on sleeps
Folding nature in its deeps,
And every fair and every good
Known in part or known impure
To men below,
In their archetypes endure.
The race of gods,
Or those we erring own,
Are shadows flitting up and down
In the still abodes.
The circles of that sea are laws,
Which publish and which hide the Cause.
Pray for a beam
Out of that sphere
Thee to guide and to redeem.
O what a load
Of care and toil
By lying Use bestowed,
From his shoulders falls, who sees
The true astronomy,
The period of peace!
Counsel which the ages kept,
Shall the well-born soul accept.
As the overhanging trees
Fill the lake with images,
As garment draws the garment's hem
Men their fortunes bring with them;
By right or wrong,
Lands and goods go to the strong;
Property will brutely draw
Still to the proprietor,
Silver to silver creep and wind,
And kind to kind,
Nor less the eternal poles
Of tendency distribute souls.
There need no vows to bind
Whom not each other seek but find.
They give and take no pledge or oath,
Nature is the bond of both.
No prayer persuades, no flattery fawns,
Their noble meanings are their pawns.
Plain and cold is their address,
Power have they for tenderness,
And so thoroughly is known
Each others' purpose by his own,
They can parley without meeting,
Need is none of forms of greeting,
They can well communicate
In their innermost estate;
When each the other shall avoid,
Shall each by each be most enjoyed.
Not with scarfs or perfumed gloves
Do these celebrate their loves,
Not by jewels, feasts, and savors,
Not by ribbons or by favors,
But by the sun-spark on the sea,
And the cloud-shadow on the lea,
The soothing lapse of morn to mirk,
And the cheerful round of work.
Their cords of love so public are,
They intertwine the farthest star.
The throbbing sea, the quaking earth,
Yield sympathy and signs of mirth;
Is none so high, so mean is none,
But feels and seals this union.
Even the tell Furies are appeased,
The good applaud, the lost are eased.
Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond,
Bound for the just, but not beyond;
Not glad, as the low-loving herd,
Of self in others still preferred,
But they have heartily designed
The benefit of broad mankind.
And they serve men austerely,
After their own genius, clearly,
Without a false humility;
For this is love's nobility,
Not to scatter bread and gold,
Goods and raiment bought and sold,
But to hold fast his simple sense,
And speak the speech of innocence,
And with hand, and body, and blood,
To make his bosom-counsel good:
For he that feeds men, serveth few,
He serves all, who dares be true.
Scheme | AXAXXXBXXBCCDXEFGGHHIIXBJKXK XEXBXXLXLMXMNOXPPNXQQRRXXSSIISSTTBXXXEEUUVVWWXXYYOODXAAZZFF1 1 2 2 3 3 SSOOOO4 4 XXHJ5 5 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101 1001011 10111 100100111 11111 0110111 0110101 0010101 111101 10001 1010101 1011101 101111 1101 0101 1011 1110101 1010111 10011010 01101010 1010101 111001 001011 1010011 0100101001 1011101 1101 011001 0111 111101 1110101 0011 01011111 11001101 1101 1111 1110101 1101 1101 110101 1110111 010100 010011 1010101 1011101 101001 1011100 1101011 1110111 1111 1011101 100111 1100100 10110101 0111 1100101 11000101 111111 11110111 11011111 1010111 110111001 11010111 101111 10111100 0110011 11010111 11100110 11111110 111010 011001 11010101 11111101 1111011 111011 11101010 11101110 11011101 0011101 01011111 0010111 11111101 10010101 01010101 11000111 11111111 1101110 10011101 01010111 11110111 11011101 11101101 11010101 11110001 01001111 011110 10111010 01010100 11110100 1110101 101101 11111101 01011100 01101001 11110101 1111111 1111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,073 |
Words | 574 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 28, 61, 18 |
Lines Amount | 107 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 828 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 190 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 2:53 min read
- 69 Views
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"Celestial Love" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/29794/celestial-love>.
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