"The Past" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( August 31, 2019 [The Past]( [Ralph Waldo Emerson]( The debt is paid, The verdict said, The Furies laid, The plague is stayed. All fortunes made; Turn the key and bolt the door, Sweet is death forevermore. Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin, Nor murdering hate, can enter in. All is now secure and fast; Not the gods can shake the Past; Flies-to the adamantine door Bolted down forevermore. None can re-enter there,— No thief so politic, No Satan with a royal trick Steal in by window, chink, or hole, To bind or unbind, add what lacked, Insert a leaf, or forge a name, New-face or finish what is packed, Alter or mend eternal Fact. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 31, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. ["The Past" by Emerson]( About This Poem “The Past” was published in May-Day and Other Pieces (Ticknor and Fields, 1867). [Ralph Waldo Emerson]( Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. Most known for his contributions as a transcendentalist philosopher, he is the author of May-Day and Other Pieces (Ticknor and Fields, 1867) and Poems (James Munroe, 1847). He died on April 27, 1882. [more-at-poets]( [May-Day]( Poetry by Emerson [May-Day]( (Blurb, 2019) "Constancy to an Ideal Object" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge [read-more]( "An Hymn to the Evening" by Phillis Wheatley [read-more]( "Sic Vita" by Henry David Thoreau [read-more]( August Guest Editor: Ruth Ellen Kocher Thanks to [Ruth Ellen Kocher](, author of Third Voice (Tupelo Press, 2016), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a [Q&A with Kocher]( about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our [guest editors for the year.]( Your Support Makes Poem-a-Day Possible Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. This free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on the weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. [make a one-time donation]( [illustration]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038