[Perhaps humankind's greatest folly is not just to extract itself from the world but to claim ownership of the world. That's the topic of a poem I much enjoy by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya," that reflects his reading of Hindu texts. An online study note for this poem notes: "'Hamatreya' is a free rendering of a passage in the Vishnu Purana which Emerson copied into his 1845 Journal: 'These and other kings who . . . have indulged the feeling that suggests "This earth is mine--it is my son's--it belongs to my dynast"--have all passed away. So, many who reigned before them, many who succeeded them, and many who are yet to come, have ceased or will cease to be. Earth laughs, as if smiling with autumnal flowers, to behold her Kings unable to effect the subjugation of themselves. I will repeat to you, Maitreya, the stanzas that were chanted by Earth...'"How great is the folly of princes who are endowed with the faculty of reason, to cherish the confidence of ambition when they themselves are but foam upon the wave....Foolishness has been the character of every King who has boasted, 'All this earth is mine--everything is mine--it will be in my house forever,'--for he is dead..." 'These were the verses, Maitreya, which Earth recited, and by listening to which ambitions fade away like snow before the sun.'" Emerson's poem follows (btw, the names in the first line are of deceased landowners who lived near Emerson):]
Hamatreya
Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint, Possessed the land which rendered to their toil Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool and wood. Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm, Saying, "'Tis mine, my children's and my name's. How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees! How graceful climb those shadows on my hill! I fancy these pure waters and the flags Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize; And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.'
Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave. They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, And sighed for all that bounded their domain; 'This suits me for a pasture; that's my park; We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge, And misty lowland, where to go for peat. The land is well,--lies fairly to the south. 'Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back, To find the sitfast acres where you left them.' Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds Him to his land, a lump of mould the more. Hear what the Earth says:--
***
Earth-Song
'Mine and yours; Mine, not yours, Earth endures; Stars abide-- Shine down in the old sea; Old are the shores; But where are old men? I who have seen much, Such have I never seen. 'The lawyer's deed Ran sure, In tail, To them, and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore.
'Here is the land, Shaggy with wood, With its old valley, Mound and flood. "But the heritors?-- Fled like the flood's foam. The lawyer, and the laws, And the kingdom, Clean swept herefrom.
'They called me theirs, Who so controlled me; Yet every one Wished to stay, and is gone, How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, But I hold them?'
***
When I heard the Earth-song, I was no longer brave; My avarice cooled Like lust in the chill of the grave.
(1846)
<http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/poems/hamatreya.html>
Carl