Poetry by Emma Lazarus
Echoes
Late-born and woman souled I dare not hope,
The freshness of the elder lays, the might
Of manly, modern passion shall alight
Upon my Muses’s lips, nor may I cope
(Who veiled and screened by womanhood must grope)
With the world’s strong-armed warriors and recite
The dangers, wounds, and triumphs of the fight;
Twanging the full-stringed lyre through all its scope.
But if thou ever in some lake-floored cave
O’erbrowed by hard rocks, a wild voice wooed and heard,
Answering at once from heaven and earth and wave,
Lending elf-music to thy harshest word,
Misprize thou not these echoes that belong
To one in love with solitude and song.
Links
The little and the great are joined in one
By God’s great force. The wondrous golden sun
Is linked unto the glow-worm’s tiny spark;
The eagle soars to heaven in his flight;
And in those realms of space, all bathed in light,
Soar none except the eagle and the lark.
The End of the Song
What dainty note of long-drawn melody
Athwart our dreamless sleep rings sweet and clear,
Till all the fumes of slumber are brushed by,
And with awakened consciousness we hear
The pipe of birds? Look forth! The sane, white day
Blesses the hilltops, and the sun is near.
All misty phantoms slowly roll away
With the night’s vapors toward the western sky.
The Real enchants us, the fresh breath of hay
Blows toward us; soft the meadow-grasses lie,
Bearded with dew; the air is a caress;
The sudden sun o’ertops the boundary
Of eastern hills, the morning joyousness
Thrills tingling through the frame; life’s pulse beats strong;
Night’s fancies melt like dew. So ends the song!