Lyric Poem · Nature

Loss And Gain

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading room

1Virtue runs before the muse

2And defies her skill,

3She is rapt, and doth refuse

4To wait a painter's will.

5Star-adoring, occupied,

6Virtue cannot bend her,

7Just to please a poet's pride,

8To parade her splendor.

9The bard must be with good intent

10No more his, but hers,

11Throw away his pen and paint,

12Kneel with worshippers.

13Then, perchance, a sunny ray

14From the heaven of fire,

15His lost tools may over-pay,

16And better his desire.

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“Loss And Gain” by Ralph Waldo Emerson — quilloak.com/poems/loss-and-gain-emerson

Quick facts

Poem: Loss And Gain
Poet: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Peace

Craft notes

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Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 16 lines · 4 quatrains
Line length: Lines run 5-7 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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Author record: Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882
Source record: PoetryDBLoss And Gain by ralph-waldo-emerson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 91f4b7d7207db217…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature Peace

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