Lyric Poem · Nature

Mithridates

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading room

1I cannot spare water or wine,

2Tobacco-leaf, or poppy, or rose;

3From the earth-poles to the Line,

4All between that works or grows,

5Every thing is kin of mine.

6Give me agates for my meat,

7Give me cantharids to eat,

8From air and ocean bring me foods,

9From all zones and altitudes.

10From all natures, sharp and slimy,

11Salt and basalt, wild and tame,

12Tree, and lichen, ape, sea-lion,

13Bird and reptile be my game.

14Ivy for my fillet band,

15Blinding dogwood in my hand,

16Hemlock for my sherbet cull me,

17And the prussic juice to lull me,

18Swing me in the upas boughs,

19Vampire-fanned, when I carouse.

20Too long shut in strait and few,

21Thinly dieted on dew,

22I will use the world, and sift it,

23To a thousand humors shift it,

24As you spin a cherry.

25O doleful ghosts, and goblins merry,

26O all you virtues, methods, mights;

27Means, appliances, delights;

28Reputed wrongs, and braggart rights;

29Smug routine, and things allowed;

30Minorities, things under cloud!

31Hither! take me, use me, fill me,

32Vein and artery, though ye kill me;

33God! I will not be an owl,

34But sun me in the Capitol.

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“Mithridates” by Ralph Waldo Emerson — quilloak.com/poems/mithridates

Quick facts

Poem: Mithridates
Poet: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Length: 34 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Peace

Craft notes

How this poem works

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: 34 lines · 5 stanzas of 4–15 lines
Line length: Lines run 7-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. 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: PoetryDBMithridates 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 ddc74fbc97afba3f…
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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