{"id":718,"date":"2010-10-31T17:12:47","date_gmt":"2010-10-31T17:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=718"},"modified":"2010-10-31T17:12:47","modified_gmt":"2010-10-31T17:12:47","slug":"the-problem-by-ralph-waldo-emerson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/the-problem-by-ralph-waldo-emerson\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PROBLEM by Ralph Waldo Emerson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

?<\/p>\n

THE PROBLEM by Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p>\n

I like a church; I like a cowl;
\nI love a prophet of the soul;
\nAnd on my heart monastic aisles
\nFall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles
\nYet not for all his faith can see
\nWould I that cowl?d churchman be.
\nWhy should the vest on him allure,
\nWhich I could not on me endure?
\nNot from a vain or shallow thought
\nHis awful Jove young Phidias brought;
\nNever from lips of cunning fell
\nThe thrilling Delphic oracle;
\nOut from the heart of nature rolled
\nThe burdens of the Bible old;
\nThe litanies of nations came,
\nLike the volcano’s tongue of flame,
\nUp from the burning core below,?
\nThe canticles of love and woe:
\nThe hand that rounded Peter’s dome
\nAnd groined the aisles of Christian Rome
\nWrought in a sad sincerity;
\nHimself from God he could not free;
\nHe builded better than he knew;?
\nThe conscious stone to beauty grew.
\nKnow’st thou what wove yon woodbird’s nest
\nOf leaves, and feathers from her breast?
\nOr how the fish outbuilt her shell,
\nPainting with morn each annual cell?
\nOr how the sacred pine-tree adds
\nTo her old leaves new myriads?
\nSuch and so grew these holy piles,
\nWhilst love and terror laid the tiles.
\nEarth proudly wears the Parthenon,
\nAs the best gem upon her zone,
\nAnd Morning opes with haste her lids
\nTo gaze upon the Pyramids;
\nO’er England’s abbeys bends the sky,
\nAs on its friends, with kindred eye;
\nFor out of Thought’s interior sphere
\nThese wonders rose to upper air;
\nAnd Nature gladly gave them place,
\nAdopted them into her race,
\nAnd granted them an equal date
\nWith Andes and with Ararat.
\nThese temples grew as grows the grass;
\nArt might obey, but not surpass.
\nThe passive Master lent his hand
\nTo the vast soul that o’er him planned;
\nAnd the same power that reared the shrine
\nBestrode the tribes that knelt within.
\nEver the fiery Pentecost
\nGirds with one flame the countless host,
\nTrances the heart through chanting choirs,
\nAnd through the priest the mind inspires.
\nThe word unto the prophet spoken
\nWas writ on tables yet unbroken;
\nThe word by seers or sibyls told,
\nIn groves of oak, or fanes of gold,
\nStill floats upon the morning wind,
\nStill whispers to the willing mind.
\nOne accent of the Holy Ghost
\nThe heedless world hath never lost.
\nI know what say the fathers wise,?
\nThe Book itself before me lies,
\nOld Chrysostom, best Augustine,
\nAnd he who blent both in his line,
\nThe younger Golden Lips or mines,
\nTaylor, the Shakspeare of divines.
\nHis words are music in my ear,
\nI see his cowl?d portrait dear;
\nAnd yet, for all his faith could see,
\nI would not the good bishop be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

? THE PROBLEM by Ralph Waldo Emerson I like a church; I like a cowl; I love a prophet of the soul; And on my heart monastic aisles Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles Yet not for all his faith can see Would I that cowl?d churchman be. Why should the vest on him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1800s","category-ralph-waldo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t