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1803–1882

THE CHARTIST'S COMPLAINT

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Day! hast thou two faces, Making one place two places? One, by humble farmer seen, Chill and wet, unlighted, mean,

Useful only, triste and damp, Serving for a laborer's lamp? Have the same mists another side, To be the appanage of pride,

Gracing the rich man's wood and lake, His park where amber mornings break, And treacherously bright to show His planted isle where roses glow?

O Day! and is your mightiness A sycophant to smug success? Will the sweet sky and ocean broad Be fine accomplices to fraud?

O Sun! I curse thy cruel ray: Back, back to chaos, harlot Day!

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THE CHARTIST'S COMPLAINT · Ralph Waldo Emerson · Poetry Cove