Earth laughs in flowers
One of our guiding principles, we love this quotation from the poem "Hamatreya" by Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson - it describes flowers as Earth's laughter at our arrogance. The poem confronts the tension between human beings, the environment and the misguided belief that we rule the Earth - the truth being that we all, every single one of us, succumb and return to it eventually.
Emerson studied Hindu scriptures and was fascinated by the sacred Vedas. This poem is based on a passage of the Vishnu Purana. The poem's title is a shortened form of "Hail Maitreya". Here, the poet records what the sage named Parashara taught his disciple Maitreya in response to the disciple's query regarding the actual worth of earthly possessions. The poet talks about the "Earth Song" and the story of a few landowners to clarify what the sage told his disciples about the real meaning of life.
The cyclical nature of nature is exposed - and how everything comes from the Earth, belongs to the Earth, and will return to the Earth - we've merely granted a brief playtime in nature's backyard. Best to make the most of it.
Hamatreya
BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint,
Possessed the land which rendered to their toil
Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood.
Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm,
Saying, “’Tis mine, my children’s and my name’s.
How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees!
How graceful climb those shadows on my hill!
I fancy these pure waters and the flags
Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize;
And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.”
Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.
Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet
Clear of the grave.
They added ridge to valley, brook to pond,
And sighed for all that bounded their domain;
“This suits me for a pasture; that’s my park;
We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge,
And misty lowland, where to go for peat.
The land is well,—lies fairly to the south.
’Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back,
To find the sitfast acres where you left them.”
Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds
Him to his land, a lump of mould the more.
Hear what the Earth say:—
EARTH-SONG
“Mine and yours;
Mine, not yours.
Earth endures;
Stars abide—
Shine down in the old sea;
Old are the shores;
But where are old men?
I who have seen much,
Such have I never seen.
“The lawyer’s deed
Ran sure,
In tail,
To them and to their heirs
Who shall succeed,
Without fail,
Forevermore.
“Here is the land,
Shaggy with wood,
With its old valley,
Mound and flood.
But the heritors?—
Fled like the flood's foam.
The lawyer and the laws,
And the kingdom,
Clean swept there from.
“They called me theirs,
Who so controlled me;
Yet every one
Wished to stay, and is gone,
How am I theirs,
If they cannot hold me,
But I hold them?”
When I heard the Earth-song
I was no longer brave;
My avarice cooled
Like lust in the chill of the grave.
Source: Poets of the English Language (Viking Press, 1950)