Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/359

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE POET
323

And love, for words thy tongue could say.
I cannot sell my heaven again
For all that rattles in thy brain."


III

Said Saadi, "When I stood before
Hassan the camel-driver's door,
I scorned the fame of Timour brave;
Timour, to Hassan, was a slave.
In every glance of Hassan's eye
I read great years of victory,
And I, who cower mean and small
In the frequent interval
When wisdom not with me resides,
Worship Toil's wisdom that abides.
I shunned his eyes, that faithful man's,
I shunned the toiling Hassan's glance."


IV

The civil world will much forgive
To bards who from its maxims live,
But if, grown bold, the poet dare
Bend his practice to his prayer
And following his mighty heart
Shame the times and live apart,—
Væ solis! I found this,
That of goods I could not miss
If I fell within the line,
Once a member, all was mine,