Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

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    Who shall tell what did befall,
    Far away in time, when once,
    Over the lifeless ball,
    Hung idle stars and suns?
    What god the element obeyed?
    Wings of what wind the lichen bore,
    Wafting the puny seeds of power,
    Which, lodged in rock, the rock abrade?
    And well the primal pioneer
    Knew the strong task to it assigned,
    Patient through Heaven's enormous year
    To build in matter home for mind.
    From air the creeping centuries drew
    The matted thicket low and wide,
    This must the leaves of ages strew
    The granite slab to clothe and hide,
    Ere wheat can wave its golden pride.
    What smiths, and in what furnace, rolled
    (In dizzy aeons dim and mute
    The reeling brain can ill compute)
    Copper and iron, lead and gold?
    What oldest star the fame can save
    Of races perishing to pave
    The planet with a floor of lime?
    Dust is their pyramid and mole:
    Who saw what ferns and palms were pressed
    Under the tumbling mountain's breast,
    In the safe herbal of the coal?
    But when the quarried means were piled,
    All is waste and worthless, till
    Arrives the wise selecting will,
    And, out of slime and chaos, Wit
    Draws the threads of fair and fit.
    Then temples rose, and towns, and marts,
    The shop of toil, the hall of arts;
    Then flew the sail across the seas
    To feed the North from tropic trees;
    The storm-wind wove, the torrent span,
    Where they were bid, the rivers ran;
    New slaves fulfilled the poet's dream,
    Galvanic wire, strong-shouldered steam.
    Then docks were built, and crops were stored,
    And ingots added to the hoard.
    But though light-headed man forget,
    Remembering Matter pays her debt:
    Still, through her motes and masses, draw
    Electric thrills and ties of law,
    Which bind the strengths of Nature wild
    To the conscience of a child.

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Type of Poem: Reflective Poem

Date Written:

Date Published:

Language: English

Keywords: Public Domain

Source: Public Domain Collection

Publisher:

Rights/Permissions: Public Domain

Comments/Notes: Emerson’s "Wealth" is a remarkable philosophical meditation that transcends the immediate notion of material riches to explore the very origins and spiritual meaning of abundance. Rather than celebrating wealth in the narrow economic sense, Emerson stages a magnificent drama of cosmic evolution, tracing how inert matter, through infinite patience and hidden law, eventually yields not just useful resources but the foundation for culture, art, commerce, and human flourishing.

At the outset, the poem gestures toward the primordial stillness of the universe — a time before organic life had stirred, when stars and suns “hung idle” over a barren, lifeless earth. Emerson evokes this distant prehistory with an almost mythological solemnity, asking rhetorically what unknown forces or divine agencies began the slow transformation of rock and element into a habitable world. The tone is awed and speculative, emphasizing the mystery of creation far beyond human memory or reckoning.

The poem next turns to the microscopic beginnings of life, where "puny seeds of power" borne on some unnamed "wings of wind" lodge themselves in rock and begin the laborious, patient work of abrading and transforming it. Here Emerson personifies the earliest forms of life as "primal pioneers" — beings entrusted by a divine intelligence with the monumental task of preparing a home for mind and spirit. Life, therefore, is not accidental; it has a spiritual mission, requiring vast epochs to render the earth capable of thought, imagination, and civilization.

Throughout these early stanzas, Emerson calls attention to the vast timescale of natural processes. The creeping of lichens across barren stone, the layering of ancient forests into coal, the secret forging of copper, iron, and gold deep within the earth — these labors take place over "dizzy aeons dim and mute," almost beyond the grasp of human understanding. Emerson’s language here heightens our sense of awe before the silent industry of nature, working without witnesses, without haste, but with infallible purpose.

And yet, the poet reminds us, matter alone is not enough. No accumulation of natural resources can by itself give rise to meaning, beauty, or wealth properly understood. The "wise selecting will" — the human capacity for judgment, invention, and art — must intervene. Only with the coming of mind does the latent power of nature crystallize into culture: temples, towns, docks, shops, marts, the arts of navigation, the taming of rivers, the harnessing of steam and electricity. Emerson offers a thrilling image of human ingenuity as the ordering intelligence that brings coherence to the vast, formless riches of the world.

But Emerson’s celebration of human achievement is tempered by a profound sense of ethical responsibility. Matter may seem passive, but it still "pays her debt." The physical world retains its own laws and resistances, enforcing moral lessons upon those who would exploit it. Thus, through "motes and masses," there continue to flow "electric thrills and ties of law" — invisible forces binding the immense energies of nature to the "conscience of a child."

In this final turn, Emerson suggests that true wealth is not a matter of possession but of harmony. Real prosperity lies not in exploitation or accumulation but in a faithful, conscious stewardship of nature’s powers, guided by a moral sense as delicate and intimate as a child’s conscience.

Stylistically, "Wealth" is constructed in free verse, its structure resembling a chain of thought rather than a rigid formal pattern. Emerson’s syntax flows flexibly, often unfolding across long, complex sentences that mirror the vast, evolutionary processes he describes. The diction moves between the elemental (rock, seeds, copper, iron) and the transcendent (mind, will, law, conscience), reinforcing the philosophical bridge between matter and spirit that is the poem’s central concern.

In sum, "Wealth" is not a narrow encomium to material riches but a sweeping spiritual genealogy of abundance, a meditation on the labor of nature across eternity and the sacred responsibility of human beings to recognize, honor, and wisely shape the gifts that have been entrusted to them.