Ralph Waldo Emerson as a Poet - Questionpurs

Ralph Waldo Emerson as a Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Great American Poet R.W. Emerson has been regarded as one of the most prominent figures of nineteenth-century American poetry. A close examination of his writings shows that his genius found its best expression in his prose. But we cannot deny the importance of his role as a poet. He had an exalted conception of poetry. In his essay on The Poet, he writes: "It is not metred but a metre-making argument that makes a poem." He regarded himself as a born poet: "I am a born poet of a low class without doubt, yet a poet." His best poems are those which have a mystic idealism. T hat is why he has been described as a philosophical poet. Emerson was the pioneer of American Transcendentalism. He was the spokesman for an age in which old dogmas were fading away and the new were in the making. He was a rebel, like Shelley, against tradition and orthodoxy. The note of revolt in his poetry immensely influenced contemporary American life and thought.  Ralph Waldo Emerson A Philosophical Poet: His Transcendentalism Emerson has been regarded as the father of American Transcendentalism. He was a great scholar of Oriental scriptures, such as the Upanishads, the Gita, the Brahma- Sutra, etc. He was also influenced by Plato and the German philosophers. As a transcendental poet, he deals with the nature of God and man's place in the universe, He believed that "The Universe is the externalization of the Oversoul". The universe springs from and goes into It. Thus the Over-Soul is the origin of matter. This Over-Soul has been described in Emerson's poem, Brahma. The individual soul is the reflection of Brahma or the Over-Soul; it is immortal: If the red slayer thinks he slays, Or if the slain thinks he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. It was for his philosophical bent of mind that Emerson was revered as a sage.  Pantheistic Love of Nature Emerson had a Wordsworthian reverence for Nature. Like his British contemporary Wordsworth, he was a pantheist who felt the presence of Nature in every object. He also believed in the 'healing power' of Nature. In his essay, Nature, he writes that "Nature is loved by what is best in us", that is, by our soul. In some of his poems, he identifies Nature with God. At the same time, Emerson also rejoices in the beauty of Nature. In his poem, The Rhodora for example, he describes the beauty of a flowering plant called 'Rhodora': Rhodora! If the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing Then Beauty is its own excuse for being. He believed that "Nature is the incarnation of thought." At one place he writes: What is a farm but a mute gospel.  Ralph Waldo Emerson Lyricism  Emerson's poetic genius is essentially lyrical. His poems are remarkable for their lyrical intensity. Most of his poems are the outcome of a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. In his beautiful short lyric, To Eva, he expresses his devotion and gratitude to Eva, the goddess of light and knowledge. He thanks the goddess of light knowledge. He thanks the goddess for removing the darkness of his mind:  For so I must interpret still  They sweet dominion o'er my will  A sympathy divine.  Ah! Let me blameless gaze upon  Features that seem at heart my own... Emerson's lyrics are often characterised by passionate poetic thought. This point may be illustrated with reference to his poem, Brahma, which is loaded with emotional charge:  They reckon ill who leave me out;  When me they fly, I am the wings;  I am the doubter and the doubt,  I am they hymn the Brahmin sings.  Use of Images and Symbols: Metaphysical Note  In his use of images and symbols, Emerson was much influenced by the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century. However, his images are comparatively simple and picturesque. His poems abound in beautiful images. Generally, he drew his images from Nature and from his studies of Oriental philosophy. In his poem, To Eva for example, he draws a beautiful picture of the eyes of the goddess:  Nor fear those watchful sentinels,  Who charm the more their glance forbids  Chaste glowing underneath their lids,  With the fire that draws while it repels.  Emerson's most important contribution to American poetry was his use of symbols. "For him, Nature was itself a symbol of the spirit, and particular natural facts were symbols of particular spiritual facts." The Sphinx, the Aeolian harp, the sea, the snowstorm, etc. are among Emerson's important symbols. Brownell observes: "This metaphysical poetry was Emerson's invention for America."  Ralph Waldo Emerson, As an Artist: His Diction and Versification  According to Brownell, "It is the absence of art that is the most obvious weakness of Emerson's poetry." To some extent, it is true that as a poet he never achieved artistic perfection in his poetry. He lacked the gifts of sustained construction and development. He is at his best only in his shorter poems. However, in some of his poems, Emerson achieves epigrammatic terseness and near perfection of diction. His diction is simple and effective to the last degree. In Brahma, for instance, Emerson's language is simple, clear and straightforward. Consider the following lines from the poem:  Far and forget to me is near,  Shadow and sunlight are the same;  The vanished gods to me appear,  And one to me are shame and fame.  As a metrical artist, Emerson was not an experimenter in verse- forms. He chiefly used traditional verse forms and metres. The poem, Brahma, is written in the traditional four-line stanza-form consisting of iambic tetrameter lines.  Conclusion  Emerson was both a poet and seer. A critic has a poet among philosophers and a philosopher among poets. However, sometimes the philosophical depth of his poems undermines their aesthetic value. He was a mystic who, like Browning, asserted his robust optimism in all his writings. He believed that "expression is all we need, not knowledge, but power to express". But quite ironically, Emerson himself was "fundamentally a poet with an imperfect faculty of expression" (Prof. Woodberry) According to Garrod, "Emerson's greatness is pre-eminently that of a verbal artist. Such a word-watcher, such a word-catcher, such a weigher in the balance of niceties of rhythm and, order, as well as the phrase, has seldom been." 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