Ralph Waldo Emerson

Boston Hymn 1863

 Introduction
• Full title: "Boston Hymn, Read in Music Hall, January 1, 1863"
is one of Emerson’s greatest as well as influential poems.
• In the years leading up to the war's outbreak, Emerson's home
city of Boston was "hotbed" of abolitionism in the United
States.
• Emerson composed the poem in late 1862 and read it publicly
in Boston Music Hall on January 1, 1863.

• The poem commemorates the Emancipation

Proclamation issued earlier that day by President Abraham
Lincoln for the abolition of slavery to the Puritan notion of
sacred destiny for America.
• The poem combines all of the ideals that
would make America a perfect nation if they
are followed.
• The poem stands for a call to the American
people.
• To give it an authoritative and divine effective
voice, Emerson uses God as a speaker, the one
who rules the universe.
• This serves in resonating the tone of the
books in the Old Testament.
• The key element of the poem
is the personification of Freedom
in the form of an angel sent
by God to the American people.

• Freedom will be a sovereignty

as well as the primary goal mentioned in most
of the stanzas.
• Freedom (the angel) is a warning to the
American people not to do wrongs and a
chance to repent their crimes against human
race (slaves) and freedom.
 Structure
• “Boston Hymn” was written in the form of 22
rhyming four line- stanzas or quatrains.
• The poem’s language is biblical spoken by
God, which gives the poem sublimity and
seriousness.
• God’s voice is clear and commanding and at
times warning.
 Stanza 1
• First stanza’s focal element is the Pilgrims,
connecting the biblical figures with the early
settlers. “The word of the Lord” to the Pilgrims
alludes to the sublimity and maybe sacredness
of the mission the Pilgrims were supposed to
carry.
• This is explained in the following stanza.
 Stanza 2
• Second stanza’s focal figure is the oppressed poor at
the hands of the kings and ensuing injustice.
• This stanza directly opens with God’s voice which
attracts the reader’s attention to the seriousness of
God’s purpose and utterances.
• God declares that He has had enough with earthly
rulers and that the poor’s (slaves’) cry has reached
His ears.
• This suggests that God is angry with the (Pilgrims)
for founding slavery and wronging the slaves.
 Stanza 3
• This stanza starts with a rhetorical and
essential question set by God to humanity.
• The key element is God’s condemnation of
war on earth.
• God created earth for humans to live in peace
and love.
• People destroy earth with wars and “havoc”;
with enslaving and oppressing the poor.
 Stanza 4
• This stanza is significant. The key element is
the angel (Freedom).
• The speaker (God) goads that the angel
(Freedom) should be chosen king (metaphor
for Americans’ leader).
• This suggests that once chosen, America
would always be guided with justice and
protection, “And fend you with his wing”
 Stanzas 5 &6
• Stanza 5 alludes to the past discovery of the
west and suggests God’s leading power to
discover it and his choice to “uncover” for the
early settlers to settle there.
• Use of “I” and “my” in “Boston Hymn” gives
emphasis to God’s authoritative voice.
• “Columbia” in stanza 6 refers to the beautiful
land of the West with its “rocks”, “air-borne
flocks of clouds” and “the boreal fleece”.
 Stanzas 7
• The emphasis is shifted to an essential issue behind
God’s declaration by the equal distribution of wealth
among people. “I will divide my goods”.
• Those “the wretch and the slave” who have worked
and toiled will get their wages and wealth not only
“toil”.
• Only “the humble” who will rule.
• This hints at the slave owners’ mistreatment and
exploitation (they paid nothing to the slaves for their
service). (they live luxuriously at the expense of the
slaves).
 Stanza 8
• Another essential issue is raised in stanza 8.
• The “state” will only be
ruled by common people
regardless of the bloodline
“a noble” and “ no lineage
counted great”.
• The rulers of the state
will be “Fishers and choppers
and ploughmen”. (lineage
Will not decide the wealth).
 Stanza 9
• Biblical parallel to the Old Testament. While
God asked the Israelites to build him a temple
made of gold and other fine stones, here, God
is asking the Pilgrims to build him a home
from the trees of the forest.
• Call for the Americans to live a simple life
gained by their own hand work, “cut down the
trees in the forest and build me a wooden
house”.
 Stanza 10 ,11 & 12
• Call for all kinds of Americans :
“the young men and the sires
The digger in the harvest field,
Hireling and him that hires”
• The haves and the have nots shall unite in one purpose.
• Stanza 11 reflects the act of democracy by encouraging
the Americans to choose (elect) a ruler (guide) from
schools, churches or states, with Freedom placed on
the throne.
• Stanza 12: common men can rule as effectively as the
nobility.
 Stanza 13
• The key meaning of this stanza is biblical that Jesus has
come for a nobler purpose, to serve. So it is nobler to
serve people than to be served by (slaves) “‘T is
nobleness to serve”.
• The value and nobility are not in one’s wealth or
lineage.
• Break the idea of nobility that has penetrated society
for generation upon generation.
• Work not wealth is the source of pride.
• Warning not to deviate from such ideals of helping
those in need, “Help them who cannot help again”.
 Stanzas 14 & 15
• Direct speech about what has been hinted at
previously (emancipation).
• It is God Who “unchain the slaves” and makes
them as free “as wind or the wandering wave”.
• Stanza 15 can be the epitome of Emerson’s
belief suggesting the essential goodness of man
and that God is the source of this goodness and
He is everywhere and in everything
(transcendentalism).
 Stanzas 16 & 17
• This stanza is also pivotal. Many former slave owners
had used the Bible, “slaves obey your masters”, to
justify their ownership of slaves.
• By clarifying the point more, Emerson explains that the
Bible indicates the only reason to own a slave is when
a person owes much debt to another, he is obliged to
acquiesce to work it off for seven years of slavery.
• Stanza 17 is another call to “unbind” the slaves “the
captive”. God will eventually also “rescue” them when
the “Trump” sounds (biblical).
 Stanza 18
• This stanza is a very interesting twist.
• Reference to the North and the South. While the South
kept their right to own slaves, the North had to pay to free
them “Pay ransom to the owner And fill the bag to the
brim”.
• The twist is in the question “Who is the owner? God says
that “The slave is the owner,
And ever was. Pay him”.
• This is a clear call that the slaves should have owned what
they planted and harvested and that it is they, not the
owners, who must be paid.
 Stanza 19 & 20
• A call for both the North and the South, despite their
conflicts, to unite under one cause (Freedom).
• Call for the North to use their riches to save the slaves
from misery.
• Call for the South “for his shame” to eliminate their
shame (slavery) and gain honor.
• Call for rich Nevada ( silver and gold) to engrave its
“golden crags With Freedom’s image and name”.
• Stanza 20: encouraging the newly freed slaves from a
long “darkness” to make life for themselves fast like
“antelopes”
 Stanzas 21&22
• Inviting the whole nation, “East and West and
North”, despite their differences “races, as
snowflakes”, to unite for God’s “purpose”
(Freedom). God’s purpose is certain and firm.
• Stanza 22 indicates that God’s will shall be fulfilled
whether in day or night, because his “thunderbolt”,
another name for the angel, Freedom, has “eyes to
see his way home to the mark”.
• Freedom is God’s will and hence it will be King, no
matter how long it takes.