"The Past" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 31, 2019   The Past   Ralph Waldo Emerson

The debt is paid, The verdict said, The Furies laid, The plague is stayed. All fortunes made; Turn the key and bolt the door, Sweet is death forevermore. Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin, Nor murdering hate, can enter in. All is now secure and fast; Not the gods can shake the Past; Flies-to the adamantine door Bolted down forevermore. None can re-enter there,— No thief so politic, No Satan with a royal trick Steal in by window, chink, or hole, To bind or unbind, add what lacked, Insert a leaf, or forge a name, New-face or finish what is packed, Alter or mend eternal Fact.            This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 31, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About This Poem   "The Past" was published in May-Day and Other Pieces (Ticknor and Fields, 1867).   Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. Most known for his contributions as a transcendentalist philosopher, he is the author of May-Day and Other Pieces (Ticknor and Fields, 1867) and Poems (James Munroe, 1847). He died on April 27, 1882. Poetry by Emerson   May-Day (Blurb, 2019) "Constancy to an Ideal Object" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge "An Hymn to the Evening" by Phillis Wheatley "Sic Vita" by Henry David Thoreau August Guest Editor: Ruth Ellen Kocher   Thanks to Ruth Ellen Kocher, author of Third Voice (Tupelo Press, 2016), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Kocher about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Your Support Makes Poem-a-Day Possible   Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. This free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on the weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038