Politics

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



Gold and iron are good
To buy iron and gold;
All earth's fleece and food
For their like are sold.
Hinted Merlin wise,
Proved Napoleon great,
Nor kind nor coinage buys
Aught above its rate.
Fear, Craft, and Avarice
Cannot rear a State.
Out of dust to build
What is more than dust,--
Walls Amphion piled
Phoebus stablish must.
When the Muses nine
When the Virtues meet,
Find to their design
An Atlantic seat,
By green orchard boughs
Fended from the heat,
Where the statesman ploughs
Furrow for the wheat,--
When the Church is social worth,
When the state-house is the hearth,
Then the perfect State is come,
The republican at home.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBDEDEFEGHIHJKJKLKLKMNOP
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 612
Words 116
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26

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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