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MOTTO TO 'FATE' by RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: DELICATE OMENS TRACED IN AIR
Last Line: IS THE SAME GENIUS THAT CREATES.
Subject(s): FATE; DESTINY;

Delicate omens traced in air
To the lone bard true witness bare;
Birds with auguries on their wings
Chanted undeceiving things
Him to beckon, him to warn;
Well might then the poet scorn
To learn of scribe or courier
Hints writ in vaster character;
And on his mind, at dawn of day,
Soft shadows of the evening lay.
For the prevision is allied
Unto the thing so signified;
Or say, the foresight that awaits
Is the same Genius that creates.



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