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Ralph Waldo Emerson's Poetry - An Analysis

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 LangLit
ISSN 2349-5189

An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal

RALPH WALDO EMERSON’S POETRY - AN
128. ANALYSIS DR. T. JEEVAN KUMAR ARTICLE

THE ONUS OF OPPRESSION: A REFLECTION ON

129. ARUNDHATI ROY’S THE DOCTOR AND THE DEBDULAL BANERJEE ARTICLE
SAINT
AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN READING OF THE ARTICLE
130. A VIJAY VISHNU
DALIT NOVEL UNTOUCHABLE SPRING
THE IMPACT OF GANDHIAN IDEOLOGY ON V. J. CHAVAN AND ARTICLE
131.
RAJA RAO’S KANTHAPURA S. S. AWASTHI
TUGHLAQ: A REVELATION OF KARNAD’S
132. KENDRE VITTHAL RANBA ARTICLE
HISTORICAL SENSE
PORTRAYAL OF TRIBAL WOMEN IN
133. SUNAYANA ARTICLE
LITERATURE: A STUDY OF SOME FICTIONS
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION IN QUEEN OF BLACK: A
134. REKHA PARESH PARMAR ARTICLE
SHORT STORY BY JASUMATI PARMAR
THE IRONY OF EDITH WHARTON’S
135. ROMANA FERNANDES ARTICLE
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE IN TONI
136. JAOJIAN BUANLIU ARTICLE
MORRISON’S PARADISE
THE STUDY OF CULTURAL CONFLICTS IN
CHITRA BANERJEE’S ARRANGED MARRIAGE
137. SHRIPAD ARUN JOSHI ARTICLE
WITH REFERENCE TO THE STORY ‘THE
BATS’ AND ‘CLOTHES’
RE-READING BELOVED BY TONI MORRISON
138. VAISHNAVI UPADHYAYA ARTICLE
FROM THE BAKHTINIAN PERSPECTIVE
TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS IN LANGUAGE ARTICLE
139. MS. ARTI KOTAK
LAB
THE STUDY OF FEMALE CONSCIOUSNESS IN ARTICLE
140. POTDAR SUHAS SURESHRAO
THE NOVELS OF MARGARET ATWOOD
MARGINALIZATION AND DALIT LITERATURE:
A BRIEF OVERVIEW WITH REFERENCE TO THE ARTICLE
141. ASHWINI JOSHI
WEAVE OF MY LIFE (AAYDAN) BY URMILA
PAWAR
HOMOSEXUALITY: EXISTENTIAL CONDITION ARTICLE
142. SUNIL N. WATHORE
OF THE MODERN MAN
THE POLITICS OF PRINT AND PRODUCTION OF ARTICLE
143. PRIYANKA SEN
KNOWLEDGE IN COLONIAL BENGAL (1778-1832)
A CRITICAL STUDY OF POST-MODERN PROF SHINDE P. R. AND
144. ARTICLE
FEMINISM IN REFERENCE WITH JUDITH BUTLER PROF KURE K. V.
INTERPRETING PROVERBS AS REPOSITORY OF ARTICLE
145. PRAGYAN CHOUDHARY
SOCIAL HISTORY
STUDY OF SPEECH ACTS WITH REFERENCE TO ARTICLE
146. SANDEEP H. PATIL
SHOBHA DE’S SECOND THOUGHTS
VOICES OF THE UNVOICED: A STUDY OF ARTICLE
147. RISWITA SARMAH
MAHASWETA DEVI’S DRAUPADI
ACHIEVEMENTS OF POST-INDEPENDENCE ARTICLE
148. DR. SUDHAKAR T. SALI
INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH
GRAMMAR TEACHING IN ESL CONTEXT ARTICLE
149. K. RAMAKRISHNA RAO

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RALPH WALDO EMERSON’S POETRY - AN ANALYSIS

DR. T. JEEVAN KUMAR
Assistant Professor of English,
Government College (UG & PG),
Ananthapuramu. Andhra Pradesh. India.

ABSTRACT

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist,

lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendealist movement of the
mid-19th century. He was seen as a “champion of
individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing
pressures of society.”1 He was described as a poet among
philosophers and a philosopher among poets. He was not only
a transcendentalist but also the founding father of
Transcendentalism. “The American Scholar” gives a concrete
expression to Emerson’s philosophic system. As a theorist of
aesthetic experience, he always emphasized the supremacy of
poetic inspiration over mere technical skill. Emerson was a
great essayist. His essays are the scriptures of thought.
Emerson was the first great American who read the Hindu
scriptures and was profoundly influenced by the Hindu
philosophy. The lyric also brings out the Hindu influence on
Emerson. The title of the poem as well as its theme is derived
from the Vishnu purana. The song of Mother Earth, with which
the lyric ends, has a mantric quality. The language used in this
poem is very simple but dignified and musical as well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the
Transcendealist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a “champion of
individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society.”1 He was
described as a poet among philosophers and a philosopher among poets. He was not only a
transcendentalist but also the founding father of Transcendentalism. “The American Scholar”
gives a concrete expression to Emerson‟s philosophic system. As a theorist of aesthetic
experience, he always emphasized the supremacy of poetic inspiration over mere technical
skill. Emerson was a great essayist. His essays are the scriptures of thought. Emerson was
the first great American who read the Hindu scriptures and was profoundly influenced by the
Hindu philosophy. He remained “among the linchpins of the American romantic
movement”2 and his work has greatedly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets that have
followed him. When people asked him to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was
“the infinitude of the private man.”3

Emerson started writing poem when he was at the age of 18. When he was in senior year, he
served as “Class poet – as was custom, he presented an original poem on Harvard‟s Class
Day, a month before his official graduation on August 29, 1821.”4 Later he went to St.
Augustine, Florida, where he took long walks on the beach and began writing poetry.

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Emerson‟s poetry emphasizes nature as a symbol of the divine and focuses on the
commonplace and everyday experience. Among his influences are the Romantic British poets
Wordsworth and Coleridge, the metaphysical poet George Herbert, and the transcendental
Persian poets Hafez and Saadi. The most well known of Emerson‟s mystical poems
influenced by the Persian poets are “The Sphinx,” the opening poem of his first volume
which establishes Emerson‟s mysterious, prophetic tone; “Hamatreya,” an application of
Hindu wisdom to the New England setting; “Bacchus,” a celebration of poetic inspiration;
“Days,” a combination of Puritan values and oriental imagery; and “Brahma,” a condensation
of Hindu ideas that lead to the association of Nirvana with selflessness. Another of
Emerson‟s major themes was the Romantic tribute to nature. It is represented in such famous
poems as “The Snow Storm,” a poem in blank verse which depicts a fierce winter storm that
transforms the New England landscape, “The Rhodora,” a lyrical celebration of the native
flower which suggests the presence of a divine force in its creation, along with “The
Adirondacs,” a blank verse tribute to the mountains and “The Titmouse,” a paean to the tiny
bird that conquers fear. Another thematic grouping contains poems examining personal
issues in Emerson‟s life, such as “Threnody” about the death of his son, “The Problem”
which addresses Emerson‟s personal dilemma of admiration for church leaders despite his
refusal to remain within their ranks and “Terminus,” an anticipation of his own death. During
his life, Emerson was most noted for his patriotic poems such as the classic, public verses
“Concord Hymn: Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837” and “Boston
Hymn.” His edition Selected Poems is a compilation of poems from his first two volumes,
rearranged with minor changes. Posthumous publications include Poems and the recently
published The Poetry Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson which makes easily accessible
Emerson‟s rough drafts and comments regarding the composition of his poetry.

Emerson‟s poetic skills have always been a matter of debate among critics and approaches to
evaluating his poems have been quite varied. The focus on thematic analyses began by
questioning Emerson‟s religious doctrines. The early reviewers of Emerson‟s first book of
poetry challenged Emerson‟s theological base and judged him lacking in Christian values. As
nineteenth-century readers found more liberal statements of faith in the publications of other
transcendental poets such as Whitman, critics became less harsh in their judgement of
Emerson‟s poems, shifting their thematic analyses to focus on Emerson‟s success in writing
about nature. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, Emerson‟s essays had established
his reputation as an outstanding American philosopher, and during the remainder of his life,
reviewers were generally reluctant to be overly critical of his poems. “Terminus” is one of the
powerful poems that Emerson wrote in which one sees the formative and illuminative power.
It is the time for the past to feel old (Emerson was 63 years of age at this time) and to keep
ready to set sail across the sea of eternity. Terminus, the Roman God of boundaries or limits,
who prescribes limits even of the sea and the Earth, came to the poet one day in the course of
his usual rounds, pronouncing the sentence of death on various people, and said to the poet:
No more!
No farther shoot
Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root.
Fancy departs; no more invent;
Contract thy firmament
To compass of a tent.5

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These lines reveal that the poet doesn‟t let the roots or branches of your ambition spread any
further. He further says that your poetical faculty is gone, therefore, put an end to your
writing of poetry. Let your imagination which is high and wide like the sky be confined to
the small area of a tent, i.e. the grave.

You don‟t have time left now to think of this or that. You have now to choose either life or
death. As you cannot live long, make as frugal a use of the shrinking river of life as possible.
In other words, conserve your energy. But at the same time be grateful and reverential to
God, the giver of life. You should no longer be tempted by the many good things of this
world and be grateful and faithful to Him alone. Be wise in time and accept the terms and
conditions prescribed by Him in a spirit of gratefulness. You should wisely accept the fact of
death. This would make it easier for you to enter your grave. Mental preparation is
necessary for an easy, peaceful death. Only a little time is now left, and so live cheerfully
and smile happily. Your frail health is the fault of the parental seed. However, let the fruit of
life mature well. But if you seek to curse somebody for your frail health, then curse your
ancestors, who did not take proper care of their energy and vitality and when they sowed the
seeds of your life, they did not pass on to you strong nerves or the powerful narrow in the
bones that made brave warriors who could fight without armour. They rather bequeathed to
you weak and frail veins, in constant energy and weak nerves. The result is that among the
poets you appear to be deaf and dumb, and among the warriors you seem to be hesitant and
frail. The poet listened to the advice of the God, Terminus, and acted accordingly. Just as a
bird makes itself fit and ready to face a strong gale of wind, so he prepared himself to face the
storm of death.
As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime; (399)

He decided himself to hold the rudder and handle and control the sails of the ships of his life.
He decided to obey the command of God now, in his old age, as he did earlier in youth. He
decided to be humbly faithful to be Almighty. He decided to banish all fear from his heart
and go forward in the sea of Eternity. The (the abode of God) is well-worth seeking and soon
it seemed to the poet that he was very close to it. All the waves of the sea of Eternity seemed
to be charmed with Divine grandeur. It meant that he was quite close to his destination, i.e.,
the abode of God. The title of the poem “Terminus” is significant, apt and suggestive.
Terminus was the Roman god of boundaries. He put boundaries or limits to everything. It
was he who put boundaries even to seas and oceans. He also put a limit to the river of life.
Therefore, human life is not unlimited. Old age comes to put a limit or terminate the river of
life. Man is not immortal, his life is limited and is sure to be terminated one day by death.

The poem is also autobiographical. The poet was sixty-three years of age when he wrote it.
At this advanced age no one can be sure as to when the end of his life may come. One day
the God Terminus in the course of his usual rounds came to him and cautioned him that the
end of his life was fast approaching. Therefore the God advised him to put a curb on his
desires and ambitions. There was no time left for making fresh plans and achieving one aim
or the other. He must now choose between a life of worldly ambitions and a calm peaceful
death. He should make a frugal use of the shrinking river of life, i.e., of the small vitality

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which he still has. Little time is now left, and so he should live cheerfully and smile, and not
worry about earthly matters. “Hamatreya” and “Earth-Song” are equally powerful poems like
“Terminus.” In these poems there are so many images and references. For instance in the
poem, “Earth-Song,” Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Merium, Flint were some of the earliest people
who settled in Concord, Massachusetts are the image figures in the poem. The poem opens
thus:
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. (377)

The people say that they possessed land there. The land yielded to their labour and they
produced hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool and food. Each of those people who were
owners of the land walked amidst his farm saying, “This land is mine and my children‟s and
my name is mentioned in the legal documents as its owner.” How sweet and soothing the
west wind appears as it passes through my trees. How gracefully the shadows climb upon my
hills. I feel as if these springs of pure water and the flags fluttering in the air know me as
intimately as does my dog. We are in harmony with each other, and I assert all my actions
have a flavor of the earth which belongs to me. But the poet asks,
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; (377)

The above lines reveal that all the ancient people are dead and buried in the graves in their
own grounds. And now fresh settlers recently arrived cultivate their land. These new arrivals
are as foolish as their forerunners, they plough the same lands with the same feeling of
possession. Earth laughs at them for their foolish hopes in the form of blooming flowers.
Flowers are the symbols of the laughter of Mother Earth. These cultivators also feel equally
proud of possessing the land, which cannot be theirs forever. They steer the plough in the
fields but cannot keep away from the grave. They don‟t know how to avoid Death. They
will soon die like the early settlers.

While ploughing and cultivating the fields they connect a rekey hillock with a valley, a brook
with a pond, and also aspire to bring under their possession lands lying beyond what is at
present possessed by them. While seeking to possess more and more of land, they say to
themselves; “This piece of land would suit me best for a pasture; and I can have a park there.
We must have clay, lime, gravel and hard rocks. We need them all and so we must try to
possess them. We also need misty lowlands for growing peat for fuel. This piece of land is
good. It suits us. It lies well to the south. It gives great satisfaction to us, if on our return
from across the seas, we find our fields intact and in the condition in which we left them.
Alas! The enthusiastic owners of the land do not see death waiting to swallow them up.
Death will soon turn them into a lump of clay and then they would merely be some more
mounds on the earth.

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Earth now speaks for herself and tells us of her own power and glory. She tells us, “stars
shine forever, they keep on shining down into the old sea.” The shores of the seas are also
old. The stars, the sea, and the shores, are everlasting. But where are old men? Who have
seen many old things, have not seen old men. There are no old men for death takes them all
away. The deeds of ownership and inheritance drawn by lawyers are there indeed. These
deeds pass on the ownership of land from one generation of inheritors to other generations.
Inheritors come and go but the land remains there, covered with woods, along with the old
valleys, mounds and rivers. But the inheritors of the land are nowhere to be seen. They have
all gone floating like foam on the stream of water. The lawyers and their laws and the
kingdoms are all gone, swept clean from the face of the earth.

These men called me, i.e., the earth, theirs, and believed they possessed me. Yet they are all
gone – one by one – though each wished to stay here on his land forever. How can I be theirs
if they cannot possess me. As a matter of fact, it is I who possess them, for after death they
become a part of me. Its title is derived from Vishnu purana. And it is shortened form of
“Hail Maitraya.” It is a celebration of the greatness and glory of Mother Earth. Mother Earth
or Nature is all powerful. None can possess her but all her ultimately possessed her.

This lyric brings out the frailty and morality of man. Man‟s possessions are all temporary
and slippery. No man can live or retain his possessions forever. The early settlers of
Concord possessed the land, and the land produced for them rich crops of food grains,
vegetables, fruits and flowers. Each of them walked proudly declaring that some particular
plot of land belonged to him. He fancied that the trees in his field knew him as well as his
dog knew him. But now none of them is to be seen anywhere. They are all dead and buried
and so are possessed by the land of which they considered themselves to be the proud
owners.

These early settlers were followed by others. These strangers ploughed their fields Earth
laughed at their pride because they believed that their fields belonged to them. They tried to
increase their possessions and enlarge their boundaries. They did not see Death lurking at the
corner. They are all dead, along with their inheritors. The Earth says: The land belongs to
me and not to man. The stars, the sun, the moon, the seas – they endure and they are old.
But are any old men alive? Legal documents mention the names of the various owners of
land, but the owners and their inheritors are dead. They were unable to hold me for any
length of time, but I hold forever. They have become a part of me.

Earth laughs at them. As a matter of fact, they are fools who hope to possess the land
forever, for it cannot be theirs forever. They steer the plough in the fields but cannot steer
their feel away from the grave. Death turns each of them into a lump of clay and then they
become a part of the land they claimed to possess. Stars, seas, oceans, shores, last forever.
One can see ancient stars and ancient seas. But no old man can be seen. The rights of
ownership may pass on from generation to generation. But all new inheritors, go floating like
foam on the sea. These men called the earth theirs and claimed to possess her. Yet they are
all gone – one by one. They could not possess the earth forever, but the earth possesses them
and they have become a part of her.

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This exquisite lyric contrasts the permanence of Nature or Earth with the short, fleeting life of
men and of things human. Men may come and go, but Nature goes on forever. It is,
therefore, a folly to be proud of one‟s possessions, for such possessions re only temporary.
Death is always near at hand and after death man becomes the possessed instead of remaining
the possessor.

The lyric also brings out the Hindu influence on Emerson. The title of the poem as well as its
theme is derived from the Vishnu purana. The song of Mother Earth, with which the lyric
ends, has a mantric quality. The language used in this poem is very simple but dignified and
musical as well.

REFERENCES

1. R. W. Emerson, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson.

2. T. Gregory Garvey, Introduction, The Emerson Dilemma: Essays on Emerson and Social
Reform, Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2001. xxi. Print.
3. Julius H. Ward, The Andover Review, Houghton Miffin, 389. Print.
4. John McAleer, Ralph Waldo Emerson: Days of Encounter, Boston: Little Brown and
Company, 1984. 61. Print.
5. Robert D. Richardson Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures, and Poems,
New York: Batnum Classic, 1995. 399. Subsequent poems are taken from this edition.

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