Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poems

   Thy summer voice, Musketaquit,
   Repeats the music of the rain;
   But sweeter rivers pulsing flit
   Through thee, as thou through the Concord Plain.

   Thou in thy narrow banks art pent:
   The stream I love unbounded goes
   Through flood and sea and firmament;
   Through light, through life, it forward flows.

   I see the inundation sweet,
   I hear the spending of the steam
   Through years, through men, through Nature fleet,
   Through love and thought, through power and dream.

   Musketaquit, a goblin strong,
   Of shard and flint makes jewels gay;
   They lose their grief who hear his song,
   And where he winds is the day of day.

   So forth and brighter fares my stream,--
   Who drink it shall not thirst again;
   No darkness taints its equal gleam,
   And ages drop in it like rain.

1856

Early versions of the poem from his journal:

I see thy brimming, eddying stream
And thy enchantment,
For thou changest every rock in thy bed
Into a gem,
All is opal and agate,
And at will thou pavest with diamonds:
Take them away from the stream
And they are poor, shreds and flints.
So is it with me today.

1858

A later version:
Thy murmuring voice, Musketaquid,
Repeats the music of the rain,
But sweeter rivers silent flit
Through thee as thou through Concord plain.
Thou in thy banks must dwell,
But
The stream I follow freely flows
Through thee, through rocks, through air as well,
Through light, through men it gayly goes.