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Home  »  Parnassus  »  William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Outward and Inward Bound

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

(From Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 6.)

ALL things that are,

Are with more spirit chasèd than enjoy’d.

How like a younker or a prodigal

The scarfèd bark puts from her native bay,

Hugg’d and embracèd by the strumpet wind!

How like the prodigal doth she return

With over-weather’d ribs, and ragged sails,

Lean, rent, and beggar’d by the strumpet wind!