The Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elaine Raphael (Etching), Don Bolognese (Etching)

Collection of over 150 poems by the American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. He is often identified as the first writer to develop a uniquely American literary style and vision, rather than following in the footsteps of his contemporaries who were strongly influenced by their British cultural heritage. He was considered one of the great orators of the time. His outspoken, uncompromising support for abolitionism later in life caused protest and jeers from crowds when he spoke on the subject. He formulated and first expressed the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his essay Nature (1836) which was the first significant work to establish this new way of looking at the Americas and its raw, natural environment.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Classics

333 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1867

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. Educated at Harvard and the Cambridge Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister in 1826 at the Second Church Unitarian. The congregation, with Christian overtones, issued communion, something Emerson refused to do. "Really, it is beyond my comprehension," Emerson once said, when asked by a seminary professor whether he believed in God. (Quoted in 2,000 Years of Freethought edited by Jim Haught.) By 1832, after the untimely death of his first wife, Emerson cut loose from Unitarianism. During a year-long trip to Europe, Emerson became acquainted with such intelligentsia as British writer Thomas Carlyle, and poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. He returned to the United States in 1833, to a life as poet, writer and lecturer. Emerson inspired Transcendentalism, although never adopting the label himself. He rejected traditional ideas of deity in favor of an "Over-Soul" or "Form of Good," ideas which were considered highly heretical. His books include Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), Divinity School Address (1838), Essays, 2 vol. (1841, 1844), Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849), and three volumes of poetry. Margaret Fuller became one of his "disciples," as did Henry David Thoreau.

The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.

Reviews

[Jozef Vizdak · Rating 3 out of 5]

The frailest leaf, the mossy bark,
The acorn's cup, the raindrops's arc,
The swinging spider's silver line,
The ruby of the drop of wine,
The shining pebble of the pond,
Thou inscribest with a bond,
In thy momentary play,
Would bankrupt nature to repay.

The South-wind brings
Live, sunshine, and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire;
But over the dead he has no power,
The lost, the lost, he cannot restore;
And, looking over the hills, I mourn
The darling who shall not return.

[عدنان العبار · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent volume of poetry. To be found in it are gems and fillers. I adored some poems, and pulled myself through others. I am pretty sure I would love them in the proper sitting and mood, but I was not in that. All poems, even the ones that pull and lag have segment that make them worth the read. Some I felt were way way too long and I wish to read them at a later time and perhaps edit my review and explain what the issue was.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

The poem which I read is "Uriel', but I could not find it individually in Goodreads.
I couldn't work out what was going on in this poem. Uriel is an angel or God and overhears some gods scheming and tells on them, maybe!

[Stephen Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, pretty disappointing after reading the essays. Generic C19 poems with awkward rhymes.