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The Sage and the Stones

Text of Poem
His neighbors farmed
            their stones with hate,
But Emerson saw more
            than weight,
 
saw more than statues
            of the dead,
"A stone is a granite book,"
            he said.
 
Stones break plows
            and show their might,
and farmers answer
            with dynamite.
 
But the will of force
            cannot be done
against the truth,
            said Emerson.
 
Knowledge is more
            than laws and books,
he went on reading
            stones and brooks.
First Line
His Neighbors farmed
Original Publication Date
1962
Original Citation
Limited View. Muscatine, IA: Prairie Press, 1962.
Complete Poems
97
Word Count
67
Bibliographic Notes

Original Title of The Sage The Stones; Reprinted in the Complete Works as Emerson's Page

Observations
Text differs significantly between Limited View and Complete Works; no other publication of poem is noted in Ward bibliography