American Scholar

“The theory of books is noble. The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it went out of him truth. It came to him short-lived actions; it went out of him immortal thoughts. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. It was dead fact; now, it is quick thought. It can stand, and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). 
 
It’s the last 
Roll of the 
Dice 

Gather round children I’ll 
Tell you a tale.  
About an old man who was 
Destined to fail. 

Obsessed with his leg he’d 
Set fast the sail.  
On the hunt for that white 
Spectral whale 

It’s the last 
Roll of the 
Dice 

Driven obsessively  
into the tide  
Hang all the crew 
‘Fore turning behind 

It’s the last 
Roll of the 
Dice 

Onwards to plunge like the  
harpooner’s spine  
Til the beast sinks  
Defeated in brine 

It’s the last 
Roll of the 
Dice 
The last 
roll