The Apology

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



Think me not unkind and rude
That I walk alone in grove and glen;
I go to the god of the wood
To fetch his word to men.

Tax not my sloth that I
Fold my arms beside the brook;
Each cloud that floated in the sky
Writes a letter in my book.

Chide me not, laborious band,
For the idle flowers I brought;
Every aster in my hand
Goes home loaded with a thought.

There was never mystery
But 'tis figured in the flowers;
Was never secret history
But birds tell it in the bowers.

One harvest from thy field
Homeward brought the oxen strong;
A second crop thine acres yield,
Which I gather in a song.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

36 sec read
437

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA BCBC DEDE FGFG HIHI
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 594
Words 120
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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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