The water understands
Civilization well;
It wets my foot, but prettily,
It chills my life, but wittily,
It is not disconcerted,
It is not broken-hearted:
Well used, it decketh joy,
Adorneth, doubleth joy:
Ill used, it will destroy,
In perect time and measure
With a face of golden pleasure
Elegantly destroy.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Excerpt from Poets of the English Language (Viking Press, 1950/editors W.H. Auden and Norman Holmes Pearson)