Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/60

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
24
THE SPHINX

Love works at the centre,
Heart-heaving alway;
Forth speed the strong pulses
To the borders of day.


"Dull Sphinx, Jove keep thy five wits;
Thy sight is growing blear;
Rue, myrrh and cummin for the Sphinx,
Her muddy eyes to clear!"
The old Sphinx bit her thick lip,—
Said, "Who taught thee me to name?
I am thy spirit, yoke-fellow;
Of thine eye I am eyebeam.


"Thou art the unanswered question;
Couldst see thy proper eye,
Alway it asketh, asketh;
And each answer is a lie.
So take thy quest through nature,
It through thousand natures ply;
Ask on, thou clothed eternity;
Time is the false reply."


Uprose the merry Sphinx,
And crouched no more in stone;
She melted into purple cloud,
She silvered in the moon;
She spired into a yellow flame;

She flowered in blossoms red;