The Earth Laughs...

It's apropos that I should write this post on the 4th of July, the day America claims the birthday for the land of the free. The irony, of course, is that the land has always been free, it's people who entrap it, claim it as their own.

I know that this American nation and its founding documents relay an ideology, not the freedom of "the land" itself but of its people. But people are funny, we're the ones who not only build bridges, but also fences and walls.

No one says it better than Emerson. I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "The Earth laughs in flowers", but have you read the poem from which it comes? I am posting it here, because it is a wonderful reminder to us of how to really be free - we only need look to the land. It has wonderful things to teach us.

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 herefrom.

          “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.