Manners

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



Grace, Beauty, and Caprice
Build this golden portal;
Graceful women, chosen men,
Dazzle every mortal.
Their sweet and lofty countenance
His enchanted food;
He need not go to them, their forms
Beset his solitude.
He looketh seldom in their face,
His eyes explore the ground,--
The green grass is a looking-glass
Whereon their traits are found.
Little and less he says to them,
So dances his heart in his breast;
Their tranquil mien bereaveth him
Of wit, of words, of rest.
Too weak to win, too fond to shun
The tyrants of his doom,
The much deceived Endymion
Slips behind a tomb.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

31 sec read
81

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBDEFEGHIHJKLKMNCN
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 567
Words 105
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20

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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