Parks and ponds

By Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803–1882 Ralph Waldo Emerson
Parks and ponds are good by day;
I do not delight
In black acres of the night,
Nor my unseasoned step disturbs
The sleeps of trees or dreams of herbs.

Source: Poets of the English Language (Viking Press, 1950)

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Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803–1882

POET’S REGION U.S., New England

Subjects Nature, Activities, Travels & Journeys, Landscapes & Pastorals, Arts & Sciences, Philosophy, Social Commentaries, Town & Country Life

Poetic Terms Aphorism

 Ralph  Waldo Emerson

Biography

No one has a better claim than Ralph Waldo Emerson to being the central figure in the whole history of American literature. All artists distill influences from the past to become, themselves, influences on the future, but in Emerson's case the affiliations reach farther back and farther forward and more generally and consequentially in both directions. He inherits, for example, the inwardness of his Puritan ancestors—their . . .

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Poem Categorization

SUBJECT Nature, Activities, Travels & Journeys, Landscapes & Pastorals, Arts & Sciences, Philosophy, Social Commentaries, Town & Country Life

POET’S REGION U.S., New England

Poetic Terms Aphorism

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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