LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Frontispiece From a daguerreotype taken in the West in 1859 REV. WILLIAM EMERSON, Pastor Of The First CHURCH IN Boston

62 From an engraving in The Polyanthos for May,

1812 MRS. RUTH EMERSON

104 From the painting by Alexander, in the possession

of the family WILLIAM EMERSON, Of New York, OLDEST BROTHER OF Ralph Waldo EMERSON

158

I

SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE

Seyd melted the days like cups of pearl,
Served high and low, the lord and churl,
Loved harebells nodding on a rock,
A cabin hung with curling smoke,
Ring of axe or hum of wheel
Or gleam which use can paint on steel,
And huts and tents; nor loved he less
Stately lords in palaces,
Princely women hard to please,
Fenced by form and ceremony,
Decked by courtly rites and dress
And etiquette of gentilesse.
But when the mate of the snow and wind,
He left each civil scale behind:
Him wood-gods fed with honey wild
And of his memory beguiled.
In caves and hollow trees he crept
And near the wolf and panther slept.
He stood before the tumbling main
With joy too tense for sober brain;
He shared the life of the element,
The tie of blood and home was rent:
As if in him the welkin walked,
The winds took flesh, the mountains talked,
And he the bard, a crystal soul,
Sphered and concentric with the whole.