The Internal Fire

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Born in Boston on May 25, 1803, Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.     His work not only influenced his contemporaries, such as Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, but would continue to influence thinkers and writers in the United States and around the world down to the present.  There is little disagreement that Emerson was the most influential writer of 19th-century America.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Emerson’s,

 

The Bell

 

I love thy music, mellow bell,

I love thine iron chime,

To life or death, to heaven or hell,

Which calls the sons of Time.

 

Thy voice upon the deep

The home-bound sea-boy hails,

It charms his cares to sleep,

It cheers him as he sails.

 

To house of God and heavenly joys

Thy summons called our sires,

And good men thought thy sacred voice

Disarmed the thunder’s fires.

 

And soon thy music, sad death-bell,

Shall lift its notes once more,

And mix my requiem with the wind

That sweeps my native shore.

 

 

 

 

Share A Writer’s Moment with friends

Writersmoment.blogspot.com/