Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here you will find the Poem Nemesis of poet Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nemesis

Already blushes in thy cheek 
The bosom-thought which thou must speak; 
The bird, how far it haply roam 
By cloud or isle, is flying home; 
The maiden fears, and fearing runs 
Into the charmed snare she shuns; 
And every man, in love or pride, 
Of his fate is never wide. 

Will a woman's fan the ocean smooth? 
Or prayers the stony Parcae sooth, 
Or coax the thunder from its mark? 
Or tapers light the chaos dark? 
In spite of Virtue and the Muse, 
Nemesis will have her dues, 
And all our struggles and our toils 
Tighter wind the giant coils.