Page:Miscellanies - With a biographical sketch by Ralph Waldo Emerson and a general index to the writings. -- by Thoreau, Henry David.djvu/382

But is more chivalrous than they are,
And sigheth for a nobler war;
A finer strain its trumpet sings,
A brighter gleam its armor flings.
The life that I aspire to live
No man proposeth me;
Only the promise of my heart
Wears its emblazonry.

 

THE MOON

Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide;
⁠Mortality below her orb is placed.

Raleigh.

The full-orbed moon with unchanged ray
⁠Mounts up the eastern sky,
Not doomed to these short nights for aye,
⁠But shining steadily.

She does not wane, but my fortune,
⁠Which her rays do not bless;
My wayward path declineth soon,
⁠But she shines not the less.

And if she faintly glimmers here,
⁠And palèd is her light,
Yet alway in her proper sphere
⁠She's mistress of the night.