The Visit

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



Askest 'How long thou shall stay?'
Devastator of the day!
Know, each substance and relation
Thorough nature's operation,
Hath its unit, bound, and metre,
And every new compound
Is some product and repeater,
Product of the early found.
But the unit of the visit,
The encounter of the wise,
Say what other metre is it
Than the meeting of the eyes?
Nature poureth into nature
Through the channels of that feature.
Riding on the ray of Sight,
More fleet than waves or whirlwinds go,
Or for service or delight,
Hearts to hearts their meaning show,
Sum their long experience,
And import intelligence.
Single look has drained the breast,
Single moment years confessed.
The duration of a glance
Is the term of convenance,
And, though thy rede be church or state,
Frugal multiples of that.
Speeding Saturn cannot halt;
Linger,— thou shall rue the fault,
If Love his moment overstay,
Hatred's swift repulsions play.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
76

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCDCDEFGFCCHIHIJJKKLFMNOOAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 887
Words 157
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 30

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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