A Letter

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



Dear brother, would you know the life,
Please God, that I would lead?
On the first wheels that quit this weary town
Over yon western bridges I would ride
And with a cheerful benison forsake
Each street and spire and roof, incontinent.
Then would I seek where God might guide my steps,
Deep in a woodland tract, a sunny farm,
Amid the mountain counties, Hants, Franklin, Berks,
Where down the rock ravine a river roars,
Even from a brook, and where old woods
Not tamed and cleared cumber the ground
With their centennial wrecks.
Find me a slope where I can feel the sun
And mark the rising of the early stars.
There will I bring my books,--my household gods,
The reliquaries of my dead saint, and dwell
In the sweet odor of her memory.
Then in the uncouth solitude unlock
My stock of art, plant dials in the grass,
Hang in the air a bright thermometer
And aim a telescope at the inviolate sun.
  
CHARDON ST., BOSTON, 1831.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on April 10, 2023

51 sec read
23

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXXXXAXAXXXXBXXXXXXXB B
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 900
Words 171
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 22, 1

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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