TO J. W. by RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Set not thy foot on graves:
Hear what wine and roses say:
The mountain chase, the summer waves,
The crowded town, thy feet may well delay.

Set not thy foot on graves:
Nor seek to unwind the shroud
Which charitable Time
And Nature allowed
To wrap the errors of a sage sublime.

Set not thy foot on graves:
Care not to strip the dead
Of his sad ornament,
His myrrh, and wine, and rings,

His sheet of lead,
And trophies buried:
Go, get them where he earned them when alive;
As resolutely dig or dive.

Life is too short to waste
In critic peep or cynic bark,
Quarrel or reprimand:
'Twill soon be dark;
Up, heed thine own aim, and
God speed the mark!

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