Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/99

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to depict an imaginary voyage through the air with Ellen Sewall, then perhaps visiting her friends in Concord.

Like two careless swifts let's sail,
(Zephyrus shall think for me)
Over hill and over dale;
Riding on the easy gale
We will scan the earth and sea.

Yonder see that willow tree,
Winnowing the buxom air!
You a gnat and I a bee,
With our merry minstrelsy
We will make a concert there.

One green leaf shall be our screen
Till the sun doth go to bed;
I the king and you the queen
Of that peaceful little green,
Without any subject's aid.

To our music Time shall linger,
And Earth open wide her ear;
Nor shall any need to tarry,
To immortal verse to marry
Such sweet music as he'll hear.[1]

  1. This year 1839 was marked by the writing of many verses, some of which were destroyed without seeing the light, as Thoreau said in his last illness, while others were handed to Emerson for publication in The Dial of 1840. The long poem, Sympathy, supposed to relate to Ellen Sewall, was written June 24, 1839. On the 21st of May, 1838, after returning from his

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