R.W.  EMERSON.

The Summer Rain.

  My books I’d fain cast off, I cannot read. 
    ’Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large
  Down in the meadow, where is richer feed,
    And will not mind to hit their proper targe.

  Plutarch was good, and so was Homer too,
    Our Shakespeare’s life were rich to live again,
  What Plutarch read, that was not good nor true,
    Nor Shakespeare’s books, unless his books were men.

  Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough,
    What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town,
  If juster battles are enacted now
    Between the ants upon this hummock’s crown?

  Bid Homer wait till I the issue learn,
    If red or black the gods will favor most,
  Or yonder Ajax will the phalanx turn,
    Struggling to heave some rock against the host.

  Tell Shakespeare to attend some leisure hour,
    For now I’ve business with this drop of dew,
  And see you not, the clouds prepare a shower,—­
    I’ll meet him shortly when the sky is blue.

  This bed of herdsgrass and wild oats was spread
    Last year with nicer skill than monarchs use;
  A clover tuft is pillow for my head,
    And violets quite overtop my shoes.

  And now the cordial clouds have shut all in,
    And gently swells the wind to say all’s well;
  The scattered drops are falling fast and thin,
    Some in the pool, some in the flower-bell.

  I am well drenched upon my bed of oats;
    But see that globe come rolling down its stem,
  Now like a lonely planet there it floats,
    And now it sinks into my garment’s hem.

  Drip, drip the trees for all the country round,
    And richness rare distills from every bough;
  The wind alone it is makes every sound,
    Shaking down crystals on the leaves below.

  For shame the sun will never show himself,
    Who could not with his beams e’er melt me so;
  My dripping locks,—­they would become an elf,
    Who in a beaded coat does gayly go.

H.D.  THOREAU.

To the Dandelion.

    Dear common flower, that grow’st beside the way,
  Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold,
      First pledge of blithesome May,
  Which children pluck, and, full of pride, uphold,
    High-hearted buccaneers, o’erjoyed that they
  An Eldorado in the grass have found,
  Which not the rich earth’s ample round
    May match in wealth, thou art more dear to me
    Than all the prouder summer-blooms may be.

    Gold such as thine ne’er drew the Spanish prow
  Through the primeval hush of Indian seas,
      Nor wrinkled the lean brow
  Of age, to rob the lover’s heart of ease;
    ’Tis the Spring’s largess, which she scatters now
  To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand,
  Though most hearts never understand
    To take it at God’s value, but pass by
    The offered wealth with unrewarded eye.