Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/236

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200
ODE

For sea and land don't understand,
Nor skies without a frown
See rights for which the one hand fights
By the other cloven down.


Be just at home; then write your scroll
Of honor o'er the sea,
And bid the broad Atlantic roll,
A ferry of the free.


And henceforth there shall be no chain,
Save underneath the sea
The wires shall murmur through the main
Sweet songs of liberty.


The conscious stars accord above,
The waters wild below,
And under, through the cable wove,
Her fiery errands go.


For He that worketh high and wise,
Nor pauses in his plan,
Will take the sun out of the skies
Ere freedom out of man.