Joel Benton - Emerson as a Poet (with a concordance to Emersons Poetry), 1883

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517

EMERSON AS A POET








ARTOTYPE,

E.

BltRSIADT,

N.

Y.


EMERSON AS A POET BY

JOEL BENTON

RlEN DE CE QUI NE TRANSPORTE PAS N EST POESIE. LA LYRE EST UN INSTRUMENT AILE. Joubert.

NEW-YORK M.

L.

HOLBROOK &

CO.


COPYRIGHT, 1883, BY JOEL BENTON.


SBemt be3 IDi^ter* alte

fte

Denn

SWityte gefjt,

ntc^t ein!

tt>er

einmal un$

serftefjt,

2Birb un3 audj serjeityn.

The words of apprehend

their

a good poet, even full

when we do

not

meaning, pour a stream of

sweet nectar upon the soul.

From

the

Hindu of the Sarngadhara

Paddhati.

There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, and supreme,

divine Poesy is above all the rules of reason. ever discovers the beauty of it, with the

Who most

assured and most steady sight, sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of This is lightning. a sort of poetry that does not exercise, but ravishes

and overwhelms our judgment. Montaigne.

305571



SDefcication,

TO

WALTER

IF

H.

POMEROY,

WHOSE EARLY AND CONSTANT APPRECIATION OF EMERSON AND OF THE HIGHEST MINDS MAKES THIS ASSOCIATION APT, EVEN HALF A LIFE-TIME OF GENEROUS FRIEND SHIP WERE NOT ALSO IN THE SCALE, I DEDICATE, WITH ESPECIAL PLEAS URE, THIS LITTLE

VOLUME.

J.

B.



PREFATORY NOTE. TT

seems necessary

was

written over a year

and

ago,

is

form that

it

Emerson s

but been

to

death, or

slightly

on the day School of

to

do justice

to

Mr.

to the

mul

it

this event elicited.

If

expanded while preparing it The portion read at Concord, set

apart

to

Emerson by

the

was a fragment, which was furnished of

Philosophy"

only a brief synopsis

for the book representing the body.

essential change

accommodate

has been added, a few points have

for the press.

"

No

then had.

of sayings that

little

and a half

given here substantially in the

has been made

titude

say that this essay

to

lectures

of that


8

For

the privilege

from Mr. Emerson

Co.;

and

liberally

I am

indebted

poems,

of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin

to the courtesy 6r>

s

of copying so

Mr.

to

Washington, for

C.

If.

Brainard, of

the right to reduce for an

appropriate frontispiece the admirable litho

graph of Emerson, which had

origin in

its

a photograph owned by Theodore Parker,

and which was Mr. Parker s favorite picture of

author.

this

To many

other portrait of Emerson

others, also,

recalls

fectly in his best attittide, as

him

so

no

per

he was in his

prime.

I am

whatever judgment

provoke, that the addition of

may 1

nedy

sure,

s

Concordance

to

this essay

Mr. Ken

Mr. Emersoris poetry,

which he has kindly permitted me

to

make,

will prove a welcome feature in this offering. J.

Amenia, N. K,

Oct. f,

1882.

B.


CONTENTS. PAGE

PORTRAIT DEDICATION

5

PREFATORY NOTE

7

EMERSON AS A POET

1 1

APPENDIX

CONCORDANCE TO EMERSON

89 S

POETRY

EMERSON AS A MAGAZINE TOPIC

91 131



MR.

EMERSON AS A POET. I hold

it

of

little

matter

Whether your jewel be of pure water, A rose diamond or a white, But whether it dazzle me with light. EMERSON.

Charm

is

Song of

the glory which the poet divine.

makes

MATTHEW ARNOLD. says,

nary rib

made Milton all

poets

of this

in

his

Conversations,"

"Imagi

that

"

a

of Shakespeare would have the same portion of Milton,

born ever

largeness

premacy of genius

since."

and

intensity

belongs to

Something this

su

Emerson.


12

So dense and pervading is his peculiar and individual force, it might, if properly be made to equip and

distributed,

to Shakespeare

names, to find ment.

We

constellation.

literary

If

and Milton, among English an equally enormous endow

does not stream in

it

light a

must go back

versatility,

towers in

it

his

commanding altitude.* Among contemporaries we may name, to be sure,

notable

men

of a more composite order

but no personality at once so compact, so

While

essence-like, so opulent, so strong. his

power

direction

is

by

speak of

well

it

it,

authenticated

who

all is

are

curious,

explicable, that the

current

one

in

competent to and not quite literary

criti

cism conspires to go so completely around his poetry. *

the

It leaves

Dr. Bartol says

Mont

Blanc,

"

:

it,

indeed, in almost

If Shakespeare or Goethe be is a neighboring Aiguille

Emerson

of lesser breadth, but well-nigh equal

height."


surrounds

solitary neglect

the

of

high products

in this century,

if

of his strain

as

literary

if,

among

expression

alone should be reserved

it

Let us admit

as an island for silence.

the outset,

it

you

will,

that the fortitude

Matthew Arnold says

as

at

the verses of Epictetus

"is

of

for the strong,

few; even for them the spiritual atmosphere with which it surrounds them

for the

is

bleak and

and that

gray"

solemn peaks but to the stars are known, But to the stars and the cold lunar beams; Alone the sun arises, and alone

"The

Spring the great

streams."

But the best minds concede the liancy

of

delight in

accept his

Emerson its

thought,

in prose,

radiant,

poetry than the verses of singers.

and

acuteness and depth.

power and

unmatchable

s

They do not

and is

bril

find

They

this prose,

itself better

many

reputable

refuse to rate

him


4 as a philosopher,

and almost

as a prophet ;

but, so far as concerns any adequate state

ment, they overlook and pass by his over as a poet.

whelming preponderance are

who

those

think

Carlyle

pressed and notorious

this

verse-making (does

own

failure to

succeed in

certain proffered

Emerson

dislike

advice,

often

s

ex

of modern

spring it ?),

There

from

his

resulting in

and joined with

almost maiden modesty as an

s

aspirant, led the latter some time since into the habit * of disparaging his own great

So that we have the singular phe

gift.

nomenon

of the author of the most pure,

and

aerial

divinely souled

Shakespeare still,

*

and the

An

between point,

s

is

Monthly

poetry

since

music became measured and literary

world together,

fall-

some pleasant badinage Emerson and an interviewer on this

anecdote, giving gracefully told for

by a writer

February, 1880.

in Scribner s


mind which, except

ing into a condition of

and fragmentarily, ignores

casually lidity

and

But can

almost disputes

did not

peare,

or

doubt

about

his

was

really

own marvelous

in

vision

?

I purpose, in

to

va

know he was Shakes

Emerson

that

and melody

means

its

existence.

be believed that Shakespeare

it

inwardly

its

a brief paper, not by any

make up

the deficiency I lament,

but to offer a few cursory suggestions which others

may prompt

who have

the truth in

view, and the requisite fitness, to

show the

courage of their convictions on this subject.

One need

not go

popular in the

way

s is

;

for

not accepted and

is

that Longfellow

,

Whittier

of course, to see

far,

why Emerson s poetry

^n

or

i

he does not aim to medi

ate to the average mind,

dress the careless

He

s

-

i

and

and

will

not ad

irresolute thought.

shuns the dramatic form,

omits the


i6

and cannot

shining thread of narrative,

stoop to

an

tickle

and

idle

to do,

and

ephemeral

These things are well

fancy.

honorable in their sphere

but, apart from,

;

and above them, there should be ample room to furnish him a well-recognized seat

modern Parnassus.

in the least

at

even

if

into a stage

and play-house

his style obscure,

Browning s

?

I

will

and

recalled

apprehensible ; the

how

will

If

?

you

call

characterize

you

not say, take for an

this last writer s

example

was

he not

May

be placed along with Browning, the latter does transform the world

"

Bordello,"

rewritten

but take

"

which

make

to

it

The Ring and

take the most famous poems,

Book"

and the most of the verse he has

written,

extended

Evelyn

Hope

"

or

and

brief "

"

(excepting

The Pied Piper

of

Hame-

and what does the average reader make of them ? But Browning, in spite

lin

"),


of thick obscurity, and what seems latterly like intolerable affectation, enters into large

account with deal with

all

who attempt

writers

he

English poetry;

and measured, a

society

is

is

to

marked

formed around

name, and he has the unmistakable

his

of having caused reams of be written over with most careful

distinction

paper

to

or

praise

the

most complimentary fault has yet sounded the true

finding.

Who

note

in

respect

Who,

in

fact,

or

jmyjthoughtful Casual notice, ceived;

but,

to

Emerson

s

poems

?

has considered them with elaborate

of course, in

the

attention

they have

main, the

critics,

?

re in

consideration of his permitted

unimpeachable moral

flavor,

prose and have simply

condescended, in silence, to forgive him for

being a poet.

Very ing

is

likely

Emerson can

say, as

lately attributed with

Brown

saying to a


i8

friend

"

:

I

can have

little

doubt that

my

too hard for writing has been in the main

should have been pleased to

I

many

municate to

tried

but

puzzle people,

com

designedly

some of

as

my

have supposed.

On

the other hand,

never pretended to

offer

such literature

critics

I

with;

never

I

as should be a substitute for a cigar or a

game I

of dominoes to an idle

man."

must make a memorandum here

reference to this

do not

bugbear of obscurity.

Dante because

skip Shakespeare or

we must

labor with

in

We

them.

It

is

con

ceded that neither Emerson nor Browning can be called pellucid

writers.

What

they

not bring requires a faculty for resolving, inheres in wholly dissimilar to that which

the

contribution.

Is

it

unfair

that

reader should be asked to possess a

spark of the

fire

that

the little

went with so much

force to inflame the page?


But there

Emerson

a difference in opacities.

is

dimness seems more directly a necessary incident, and less an invention. It

s

not

is

so

English poet

and

is

not so

of inces

full

nominative case and

verb

the

contractions

syntactical its

the

as

he exploits new idioms

speech he

in his

sant

willful-appearing If

s.

the parts

all

of speech scintillating and careering about until

as

their condition

was Douglas Jerrold he

"Sordello,"

I

becomes

drunk, or

am

I

s

when, accosting

obliged to

felt

as doubtful

sober?"

ask,

Nor

is

"Am

there

such a conglomeration of broken sentences gluing together fragments of thought which

he begins

Browning

way

to

utter,

uses

and then drops,

leaving you

to pursue

as

your

out of darkness into light as best you

may. /

Emerson

s

opacity relates

and reasonably

to

the

more

logically

magnitude of

his


20

has, as I shall show,

which ought to

words,"

however, he

abundant

fluid beauty,

to

as

to

whom

the

the best poetry has

He

offer.

with lightning

it

be familiar and accessible

to

any reader

anything

all,

Apart from

thought.

uses

Germans

"

say,

thunder-

which

fill

the circuits of the sky;

all

but they are there for a purpose.

Oftener

which troubles the

than anything,

I suspect,

average mind

that approaches this

parably fine body of verse,

is its

incom

unremitting,

tremendous condensation of thought.

Emerson were

to touch a

trifle,

If

the blow

would be delivered with the weight of a trip-hammer;

yet,

as

that

instrument

is

sometimes successfully used to crack a wal nut, so his reserve force, always apparent

and dominant, gives weight expression.

He poem

most

airy

does not certainly write

vers de societe, as Locker

but in his

to the

of

and Dobson do;

"The

Romany

Girl"


21

we can

see

his hands.

how

the lighter

It is the

theme

gypsy who

fares in

speaks and

says:

The sun goes down and with him takes The coarseness of my poor attire The fair moon mounts, and ay the flame Of gypsy beauty blazes higher. ;

Pale Northern Girls!

you scorn our race;

You captives of your air-tight Wear out indoors your sickly

halls,

******

But leave us the horizon

days,

walls.

Go, keep your cheek s rose from the rain, For teeth and hair with shopmen deal:

My

swarthy

tint is in the

The rocks and

forests

grain

know

it

real.

The wild air bloweth in our lungs, The keen stars twinkle in our eyes, The birds gave us our wily tongues, The panther in our dances flies.

How The

well thought out this imagery

lines,

hard and tensely drawn,

is.

fall

the air with tingling, metallic force.

upon Emerson cannot abide the

frail

texture


22 so fashionable in a great deal of

and

verse,

technical

mere perfumery,

"

The

Amulet,"

without reduction firmness

In

correctness.

titled

poem,

that a spinal system

insists

preferable to

and

love,

doubt

(so

color,

brief

which

is

given

with

what

force he imprints the intense

separated

and

is

and

another

see

below,

and scalding thought of the while

modern

it

fram ever

the is)

lover, a little

object

of.

his

of his agonizing

:

Your picture smiles as first it smiled; The ring you gave is still the same; Your letter tells, O changing child !

No

tidings since

it

came.

Give me an amulet That keeps intelligence with you, Red when you love, and rosier red,

And when you

love not, pale and blue.

Alas! that neither bonds nor vows

Can certify possession; Torments me still the fear that love Died in its last expression.

I


23

A

purely academic writer, or a feebler

genius would not have ventured to invert the verb in the final couplet, or to change

the music and motion so suddenly as is

done

in

He

stanza.

second

would probably have

said, in

Give

line

first

the latter instance

me

:

a trusty amulet,

some other

or would have used

adjective

But

to piece out a uniform rhythm.

chord

broken

fits

exactly

moment.

A

in discords purposely,

to

"judge

of

ture,"

questions

full

piece

who know

everything, from

pencilling of a Circassian

deepest

that

at

great musician puts

which the

resolves; but your Fadladeens,

how

of

this

sudden

the

and passion

shock of eagerness particular

it

of the

the

the

s eyelids to the

science

and

litera

see only the technical deficiency or

redundance, as the case

may

be.


24

Among has

the few

keyed

to

poems which Emerson

the

for

conspicuous

beauty, which,

if

an I

movement,

lighter

have always thought

his

"Una"

ineffable, I

could,

I

stands

haunting

should not

With what captivating touches he has shaped these stanzas and care

to

explain.

couplets which I take from

it

below

Roving, roving, as it seems, Una lights my clouded dreams Still for

We

journeys she

wander

If from

far

by

is

east

:

;

dressed;

and west

home chance draw me Una sits beside.

wide,

Half-seen

But

if

upon the

seas

I

sail,

Or

trundle on the glowing rail, I am but a thought of hers,

Loveliest of travelers.

One

can best understand the nature of

Emerson

s

poetry by taking some account


25

of the view-point,

it

is

bard

or perspective,

which

His own conception of what

he employs.

making of the true some measure define his own

that goes to the will in I

position.

open

book

oldest

his

poems almost by accident at and hear him say

of

"

Merlin,"

:

The trivial harp will never Or fill my craving ear

please

;

chords should ring as blows the breeze, Free, peremptory, clear.

Its

No Nor

jingling serenader s art, tinkle of piano-strings,

Can make In

the wild blood start

its

mystic springs. The kingly bard

Must smite the chords rudely and As with hammer or with mace ;

That they may render back Artful thunder, which conveys Secrets of the solar track,

Sparks of the supersolar blaze.

Great

is

the art,

Great be the manners, of the bard.

hard,


26

He

shall not his brain

With

the coil of

But, leaving rule

He

encumber rhythm and number and pale forethought, ;

shall ay climb

For

his

Pass

rhyme.

the angels say, pass In to the upper doors, Nor count compartments of the floors, "

in,

in,"

"

But mount

By

to paradise

the stair-way of

surprise."

He shall not seek to weave, In weak, unhappy times, Efficacious

rhymes

;

Wait

his returning strength. Bird, that from the nadir s floor

To

the zenith

The soaring journey I detect

in the final

s

top can soar,

orbit of the s

muse exceeds

that

length.

an almost playful Persian touch cadences of

this extract,

as if

the author were mounting to his purpose "by

the stair-way of

surprise"

or,

as

if

Hafiz or Firdousi himself were speaking. It is said that Persian poetry and, in fact,


27 all

admits of endless license

oriental verse

rhythm and versification, no less than three systems of there being metre, marked by different rules, which need

in the matter of

not be kept separate, and which are often

made

allowably

coalesce

to

in

a

single

But Emerson not only takes an piece. oriental freedom in his measures; he em ploys,

the

as

Asiatic

bards

do,

all

the

machinery of subtle, unexpected and fan

His

tastic conceit.

in the air

many

sensitive

tones.

You

harp catches

find echoes of

Marlowe, Chapman, Milton, Marvell, Her bert, Herrick, and Donne, and of all schools; chords which

go

round

the

world and

and notably that

through the centuries;

rich, that prodigal, luxurious, quintessential

attar rising

which flows from the realm of the sun.

Spanish

poet

Houghton

s

What Goethe Calderon forcible

(I

says

quote

translation)

of

the

Lord serves


28 equally well

Emerson

s

if

you

name

substitute for his

:

a light the Orient throws,

Many

O er the midland waters brought; He alone who Hafiz knows Knows what

Calderon has thought.

May-Day volume some of Emerson s own characteristic epigram verses In

the

"

"

are

"

Quatrains

(the

")

in

placed

juxta

position

to

oriental,

and the kinship of the mintage

is,

in

some

that

moved fiz

this

Yankee

chiefly

we say

Shall

homogeneity that the

but another Yankee

is

the

translations,

respects, curious.

on account of Oriental

terse

his

is

?

the

merely

Or

is

it

Oriental

At any rate, what Hahimself, and what Emerson

farther west.

addresses to

says of him, are wondrously alike in mood, texture,

and

Thou

Know

tune.

This

foolish Hafiz

the

!

worth of

is

what Hafiz sings

say,

do churls

Oman

s

pearls ?

Give the gem which dims the

To

the noblest, or to none.

moon

:


29

And

Emerson

this is

follows

s

portraiture

which

:

Her

passions the shy violet Hafiz never hides ;

From

Love-longings of the raptured bird

The

Nor

is

bird to

him

confides.

the generic similarity of which I

speak, which these two quatrains

partially

to the fact that

Emerson

indicate, all

The

truth it

(as

own

his

puts

owing

his

evidently does)

the

own

translation.

it

a

more

little

like

does like Hafiz, the bal

more than preserved by

is

his steeping

original quatrain in a little tincture

of the wine and

When

into

the translation here seems

is, if

Emerson than ance

flavor

spirit

of oriental thought.

he translated Hafiz, he was probably

thinking of his

own workmanship

;

when he

described him, he was simply absorbed in the milieu of the Persian poet.

One which

of his draughts on the Persian is

so alive

and

fluent that

it

muse y fairly


3

and dances

sings

of

the mystic

is

brain,

Kuhistan,"

reader

the

itself into

s

Song of Seid Nimetollah is sung and danced by

"

which

the Dervishes in one of their religious exer I give

cises.

whole

is

only the

first

worth the reader

Spin the ball!

s

but the

stanza attention

I reel, I

:

burn,

Nor head from foot can I discern, Nor my heart from love of mine, Nor the wine-cup from the wine. All

my

my leaving, my perceiving;

all

doing,

Reaches not to

Lost in whirling spheres

And know Saadi

objective verses

s

anecdote of

won

will recall, it,

The

Many

have

"

and also

and compliment of

of his

devoted readers

before they reach this reference

his enthusiastic

Poetry,"

the ethics

Gulistan

the high regard

Emerson.

to

"

I rove,

only that I love.

article

on

"

Persian

published twenty years ago in the

Atlantic Monthly, in which he interspersed,


31 with great

relish, bits

Hammer

drawn from Von

authors,

Purg-

Persian anthology.

stall s

It is difficult, I

son

and nuggets of various

s

poetry

speak of

find, to

without

frequently

Emer

thinking

over or stepping over the line which sepa rates

it

from

the spiritual border

his prose

land being so

faint, elusive,

and

indefinite.

Both have been often accused of being inconsecutive ical,"

"

not logical, but

of shining thoughts

son "

s

The

preface to Gulistan,"

ful is the

poets.

*

and

;

I note, in

Gladwin

s

"

:

of

Wonder

inconsecutiveness of the Persian * * No topic is too remote

or Kassida,

is

colors,

The

Ghaselle,

a chapter of proverbs, or

proverbs unchaptered, all

Emer

translation

that he says

for their rapid suggestion.

of

analog

a disarranged jumble

as Alcott says

sizes,

and

unthreaded beads values.

Out of

every ambush these leap on the unwary


32

Of

reader."

and

like

and

Montaigne,

he speaks

old bard life

"Through

to all nations,

Homer, Shakespeare, Cervantes,

In his long

his

he says:

Saadi,

his Persian dialect

up

is

poem who is into

perpetually

modern."

dedicated to this serene said

to

sections

have divided

of about

thirty

years for experience, meditation, and travel,

and who devoted the

last thirty

and more

of them, until he died, aged 102, to medi tation

and

literary

Emerson

work

says:

His words, like a storm-wind, can bring Terror and beauty on their wing; In his every syllable .

Lurketh nature veritable; And though he speak in midnight dark, In heaven no star, on earth no spark,

Yet before the listener s eye Swims the world in ecstasy.

The The

forest waves, the

morning breaks, pastures sleep, ripple the lakes, Leaves twinkle, flowers like persons be,

And

life pulsates in rock or tree. Saadi, so far thy words shall reach

Suns

rise

and

set in Saadi s

speech

;

!


33

How

dearly

wide utterance.

Emerson

likes a deep and welcomes and hugs

He

the thought which

sweeps over a broad

swath.

Nothing less than the curve which reaches from sunrise set will

satisfy

our monotony

him.

is

our

littleness,

he would

tell

us

of

that

speech,

a remote manner provincial.

terms

universality,

scope,

attains

to

and

It

a foreign garb

reprobates

whole to sun

give

largeness

an

against

of

extent

his

of

and depth which he outlines

cartoons

unlimited his

the

breadth

which

rest

The

background.

draught,

Thor took from

or

The

like

that

which

the drinking-horn of the

Jotunheim, seems to imply an oceanic ebb and the motion of cosmic giants

at

currents. I

am

perpetually

impressed with

the

high majesty and solemnity of Emerson

muse.

If

3

it

touches anything

trivial

s

or


34

commonplace, "

When we

sense,"

he

not

does

it

leave

of the poet in

speak

"

writes,

we

it

so.

any high

are driven to such

St. John examples as Zoroaster and Plato, and Menu, with their moral burdens."

If the spiritual purpose

Greek

old

the

behind

its

oracles

utterance,

more

more

earnest or

uses

and respects

by

this

extract

it

his

and pretension of stood

buttressed

could not well be

How

oracular. art

he

may be judged The

from his poem of

"

Problem."

a vain or shallow thought His awful Jove young Phidias brought; Never from lips of cunning fell

Not from

The

thrilling

Delphic oracle;

Out from the heart of nature

rolled

The burdens of the Bible old; The litanies of nations came, s tongue of flame, from the burning core below, The canticles of love and woe

Like the volcano

Up

;

The hand

And

that

rounded Peter

s

dome Rome,

groined the aisles of Christian


35

Wrought

in a sad sincerity

;

Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew,

The

A

conscious stone to beauty grew.

sense of dignity and reverent beauty

transfuses

never artist,

his

the

of Nature and the he, too,

is

of

soul

out the

faithfully spelling

Emersonian

and

"love

human

terror."

things; elusive

heart, finds that

adjudged a part of the great

In the same

poem he

says:

Earth proudly wears the Parthenon, the best gem upon her zone ;

As

And morning To gaze upon

O

er

and,

secrets

scheme.

England

As on

is

The

thought.

in the

works in

translates

and

expression, his

whoever he be

horoscope

He

artistic

from

absent

its

opes with haste her the Pyramids s

lids

;

abbeys bends the sky, kindred eye,

friends, with

For, out of thought

These wonders rose

s

interior sphere,

to

upper air;


36

And Nature

gladly gave

them

place,

Adopted them into her race, And granted them an equal date With Andes and with Ararat.

Who, now, recognizes,

is

poet that

the

and how

shall

we

Emerson

describe

In a suggestive summary he puts the of this interpreter in "

exquisite

Woodnotes

"

:

When

the pine tosses its cones the song of its waterfall tones, Who speeds to the woodland walks? birds and trees

who

talks?

Caesar of his leafy Rome, There the poet is at home.

He

goes to the river-side, line hath he;

Not hook nor

He

stands in the

Nor gun nor

?

traits

the opening of his

To

To

him

meadows

scythe to see

wide, :

Sure some god his eye enchants

What he knows nobody

wants.

Knowledge this man prizes best Seems fantastic to the rest:

:


37 Pondering shadows, colors, clouds, Grass-buds and cater pillar -shrouds,

Boughs on which the wild bees

settle,

Tints that spot the violet s petal, Why Nature loves the number five,

And why

the star-form she repeats

Lover of

all

Wonderer Wonderer

Who

can

he meets,

at all

chiefly at himself,

him what he

tell

Or how meet

Coming and

The

in

human

past eternities

is

an almost

priestly

a mediatorship between the ineffa

habit

And

and man.

whole range of

illustrated

lineage,

he

by is

I

know

literature

conception as

tions,

?

not to be divorced from a cer

tain religious sanctity

this

is ?

elf

poet, then, in this stoutly painted

character,

ble

:

things alive,

the

of none in the

who

Emerson.

so answers to

This fiber

circumstance

that,

is

in

the product of eight genera

from no one of which, either on the

paternal or maternal side, was the minister absent.

The

fact of this

long ministerial


who

descent enables Burroughs,

has uttered

vivid sayings about his prose, to de

some

him

clare of

that

"

the blood in his veins

has been teaching and preaching, and think ing and growing austere these * * The virtues of tions.

England

and

ministers

sermons are in

this

all

many all

from

casket."

he

you ex

in prose or prints, either

a savor of Sinai and the moral law.

verse

He

all

New

those tomes of

It is a strong spiritual effluence

tract

genera

those

edelweiss plants the flower

and alpine

A most beauty on these high glaciers. searcher he is importunate and patient after

the inmost

would miss nothing that will

crowd the universe

makes

every line

weaker

writers

is

the very pith

things.

He

significant;

he

meaning of

bear

is

into a nutshell,

the

burden

bestow on a whole page.

and that It

and marrow of the matter

which he wishes

to

unfold; and nothing


39 satisfies

him

that

less

is

than a piercing

stroke into the deep below the deep.

With what

the

into

he chooses

pure selection

His whole

every word.

life-time

has gone

making of a few volumes

much more

than half a dozen in

not

and

all

more he cramps and but what wit, and strength,

the longer he lives the

bereaves them

;

and beauty, and eloquence they uphold!

What

a supreme, audacious splendor

the slow

manner

in

which he

!

writes,

In

and

erases; in the long time he holds his proof-

sheets for perusal, reperusal,

and retouching

of the text, to the great perplexity of his publishers

(if

come used

they have not long since be

to

it),

is

shown the

intense

thoroughness and winnowing he applies to each separate part and piece. In his poem * * The muse which speaks here Muse or, as Mr. Kennedy says, ;

Life;

but,

in

a

described justifies

more limited

my

is

the

World-

the Genius of

sense, the process

illustration.


40 of

The

"

Test"

(Musa Loquitur) he

betrays with what searching scrutiny each line is

put into

final

shape

:

I hung my verses in the wind, Time and tide their faults may find. All were winnowed through and through,

Five lines lasted sound and true, Five were smelted in a pot

Than

the South

These the

more

fierce

Five their fiercer flaming

And

the

and hot

siroc could not melt; felt,

meaning was more white

Than July

s

meridian

light.

Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, Nor time unmake what poets know.

Have you eyes to find the five Which five hundred did survive

?

Endless and persistent with him fiery "

is

this

expurgation, collation, and revision.

In reading

sitive as

prose,"

he

"

says,

I

am

sen

soon as a sentence drags, but

poetry as soon as

one word

drags."

in

Such

a value he puts upon perfect expression.

A

properly termed extemporaneous utter-


ance

when

not natural with him, and,

is

he seems

have yielded to occasional

to

utterance, as in the

Hymn

"

"

the completion of the Concord

and one or two other

written for

monument,

pieces, the

tions are voided of force

excep

by the probable

coincidence of a genuine inspiration with

But the theory which

the occasion. his

habit

one of

earliest

his

readers

the

muse

silence,

his

not

is

his

that

s

compels

force

As

quacity."

either

his

No

;

The

am

or

It

teaches

the

inspiration

checks lo

beloved Herrick says:

Tis not every day Fitted

inspiration

bard to report only

of a few words, and in the

to

proportion

inexorable rule in

moments.

supreme

enormous

the

In

he confides to

essays,

"the

court,

rules

without proof.

left

that I

to prophesy.

but when the

spirit fills

fantastic pinnacles


Full of

fire,

then I write

As the Godhead doth indite. Thus enraged my lines are hurled, Like the Sibyls, through the world. how next the holy fire Either slakes, or doth retire;

Look,

So the fancy carols, till when That brave spirit comes again.

It is

interesting to

as they stand

book now

in

his

current,

compare the poems first book with the

which contains every

thing already offered in book form

he cares to preserve. are not so

The

real

many; but some of

that

changes the most

competent and loyal lovers of Emerson poetry grieve at any change. tate in

having any

line

They

s

hesi

that he has ever

written blotted or blurred.

I

discern in

volume four poems that I do in either of the two volumes pre

the latest

not find

ceding of

the

it,

viz.

"

:

^Eolian

"

April,"

Maiden Speech and Cupido,"

"

Harp,"


43

Nun s

"The

that

his

zine contributions of late* years. entitled

"The

simply

first

appeared

poem has

itself

and

of

merely a as

"May- Day"

"

May-Day new in its undergone

addition

guise, in

variety

;

maga

Another,

is

Harp,"

long episode taken from it

a few

besides

Aspiration,"

have been picked out of

to

"

this

this

long

elision,

to

similar

permutations

a

that

which would happen if half its paragraphs were to be taken and shuffled like a pack

The

of cards. nal

as

this

the

unity logical ing.

it

that

fact

Emerson

admirer of

the

it

such a

survives

spiritual content of

shock the deep feels that

sig

an evidence of invalidity in

the poem, but sees in

would

traditional critic

it,

and

has filaments which secure

against

all

succession Sufficient

to

accidents or

of

disrupted

mere verbal weld

each part

meaning, while each

its

also

is

its

own

conspires to a


44 ravishing wholeness quite beyond an ordi

nary writer

reach.

s

A

few lines

are omitted, but the transformation

find

I is

the

chief change.

In the

"Woodnotes,"

the

first

six lines

and those which immediately accommodated to this change;

are omitted,

follow are

but farther on a large paragraph is dis carded, and a considerable part of another is

placed in the section marked Part

In Part these

II.

electric

missing

II.

there are fewer changes; but lines,

among

others,

are

:

teach the bright parable

I will

Older than time,

Things undecla/able, Visions sublime.

In the

"

Waldeinsamkeit,"

first

stanza

is

wholly changed, and the

penultimate stanza lin,"

Part II.

is

the last line of

is

omitted.

entirely omitted

In

"

Mer

from the


45

These do not include

revised poems.

the changes .plete the

but

;

list,

what

for

that, is

to

com-

more about them

or to say

than to remark

made

do not care

I

all

when allowance

wholly

is

out or sim

left

ply re-arranged, there were but few verbal

seemed

or essential modifications that to

be made even to the author I notice

judgment.* occurs in the

Part

I.

of the

new

to a dash.

a typographical error

Woodnotes,"

end with a

My

at

end of

which makes

comma

joined

copy of this edition bears

date of 1879; though

have

fit

fastidious

edition at the

"

the final line

s

hand, the

of 1846) and the

also possess,

I

"

"

and

edition (copyright

first

May-Day

collection.

These three books contain, with the ex ception of a part of the motto-poems in "

The Conduct

works,

all

of Life

"

Emerson

of *

and other prose s

See Appendix.

poetry,

I

be-


46 has so

lieve, that

far

found

its

way

into

covers.

As a pendant of

my subject,

I

to the bibliographical side

venture to think the follow

written

ing poem,

by Emerson when he

was twenty-six years

and which has

old,

never appeared in any edition of his works, will

be of

debted

interest to the reader.

for

it

to a friend

bears a preface by Col. T.

which

says,

called

The

"it

is

its

intrinsic

volume

little

value

early

toward

its

groping

of

the

1829."

not small,

is

piques curiosity from the fact that the

it

author

present mold of form

it

exhibits s

mind

:

FAME. cannot a man Ah, Fate Be wise without a beard? !

From

it

which was published by

the Cambridge Divinity Students in

While

in

W. Higginson,

taken from a

Offering,

am

I

whose copy of

East to West, from Beersheba to Dan, Say, was it never heard


47 That wisdom might in youth be gotten, Or wit be ripe before twas rotten?

He

pays too high a price

For knowledge and

Who

for

fame

gives his sinews to be wise,

His teeth and bones

to

buy a name,

And crawls through life a paralytic, To earn the praise of bard and critic. not better done, dine and sleep through forty years, loved by few, be feared by none,

Is

it

To

Be

Laugh

life

away, have wine for

tears,

And

take the mortal leap undaunted, Content that all we ask was granted?

But Fate

will not

permit

The seeds of gods

Nor

suffer sense to Its

to die,

win from wit

guerdon in the sky; hide, whate er our pleasure, s light underneath a measure.

Nor let us The world

Go, then, sad youth, and shine! Go, sacrifice to fame;

Put

And Thy And

upon the shrine, to fan the flame!

love, joy, health, life

hapless self for praises barter, die to

Fame an honored

martyr.


48 I

do not forget the

and cultured

Emerson

s

people It

poetry.

some wise

fact that

confounded by portentous and

are is

unfathomable, and they skip the page which Like some who dis offers them nothing. like felt

A

the key-note.

nal has that

music, they have never yet

Wagner s

made

Emerson

critical

English jour

the unqualified is

declaration

not a poet; and what, for

the want of a real academy,

we may term

academical tradition, sides largely with the dissidents.

But argument

this state of

mental inaptitude as

is

as futile with it

is

with

no delinquency of perception so unhelpable as that which discerns but one literary fashion. A candid There

the color-blind.

and broader view beauty

exhausts

Genius

is

itself,

and

for is

will

itself

the most

is

not in

a

part

believe single

that type.

a law unto

usually the element which

certain to escape

your most precise

is

defini-


49 tion.

You demand

not find

a logical order, and do

Remember,

it.

to the careless eye

the clear stars of a winter evening are but so

many

single points

;

but to the astron

and omer, the mechanism of the universe, are the music of the spheres of which they the symbols, are not less imagined

Emerson

I find in

s

and

real.

obser poetry (and the

vation touches his prose as well) a constant relation to the breadth of some endless

Each

horizon.

line

an

is

arrow swept

of the universe across, or into the center and it is not a common divinity that has ;

drawn the bow.

"The

he

poet,"

says,

eminent experience only gives us the a god stepping from peak to peak, nor foot but on a mountain." planting his

"

"Jewels

all,"

*

*

*

*

stars,"

wide."

much

fair

says

but, "

Alcott.

"vistas

There

is

"Separate

opening

far

and

substance, sod, sun

;

weather in the seer as in his


5

The whole quaternion

leaves.

of the sea

sons, the sidereal year has been poured into

Afternoon walks furnished

these periods.

rounded and melodized

their perspective,

It is the art

them."

and

overload

his

Emerson

of

words with

to load

most

the

urgent beauty and meaning. They are suggestive in unnamable directions, stress of

Lowell

as

and,

"

says,

fecundative

divining-rod to our deeper

ning says of them

The

circles of thy

natures."

"

"a

Chan-

:

thought shine vast as

stars,

No glass shall round them, No plummet sound them, They hem the observer

like bright limpid as the sun, as bright waters run

steel- wrought bars,

And Or

From Or

the cold fountain of the Alpine springs, diamonds richly set in the king s rings.

What like

bee

and grace stream from lines where he terms the Humble-

force

these,


51

Thou animated

Sailor of the

torrid zone

!

atmosphere ; the waves of

Swimmer through

Voyager of light and noon Epicurean of June

air

;

;

;

and one may read

as well for the

Or

qualities the whole poem.

taken

below, "

with

little

same

these lines

selection

from

"

May-Day

:

The youth

reads omens where he goes, all languages the rose.

And

speaks

Is

Daedalus

it

Or walks

?

Is

it

love

?

mask almighty Jove, And drops from Power s redundant horn in

All seeds of beauty to be born

But

soft

!

?

a sultry morning breaks

The ground-pines wash their The maple-tops their crimson

;

rusty green, tint,

On

the soft path each track is seen, The girl s foot leaves its neater print.

The pebble loosened from the Asks of the urchin to be tost.

frost


52

Or read in

the

of

"The

the

"

to

an

"

Threnody

?

the whole

than

What

Snow-Storm," Sea-Shore."

"The

ever

elegy

touching depths "

paragraphs

or

"The

and

Rivers,"

did

final

Beauty,"

Rhodora,"

"Two

Where

and

the second

Ode

the

more

strike

incomparable

farewell to the muse,

you find more tender Terminus ? But the

or to authorship, will or pathetic

than

"

"

aggravation of quoting from our author is,

you leave so much which might

that

just as well be quoted.

exercise

is

also

To

All,"

and the

this

to incur the grievous dis

appointment described in his

and

attempt

where the "delicate

poem

"

sparrow

sea-shells"

"

Each

in his nest

"

were taken

from the large setting which gave them I cannot drop their prime significance.

my

reference to the

"

Threnody,"

however,

without repeating what a gifted English poet

who

is

a felicitous

critic

by

inter-


53 vals

has uttered with reference to elegiac

He

verse.

Milton, "

"

The

"

three elegiac

and

we know

this

poems

the

all

of Italian,

group, s

must

Their

no

inferior

Emerson

melody

supreme

of

all

Greek."

add

to

is

s

in

this

inspiration

of

them

which

only

unique,

a melody born of melody, melts the world into a sea. Toil could never compass it, its

in

words are matchless. not

Which

It

long

shining

:

Art

s

member

which, though so

Threnody,"

company The stimulus and in

that they

elegiac poetry

Tennyson

also

are

"

is

different,

I

of

and

Shelley,

of sorrow as a worthy

Emerson

here

of

so great

Noting, as he does not,

poem

"Lycidas"

Matthew Arnold,

of

efface all

;

the

"Adonais"

Thyrsis

eclipse

that

says

the

height could never

came never out of

wit.

hit,

but


54

Burroughs

s

testimony

written

plenty

of

as melodious

as the

hum

"has

*

Not

that

poems

are

of a wild bee

chords of wild seolian music.

in the air

*

Emerson

that

is

in the poetry of

temporaries

is

any of

his

con

there such a burden of the

mystery of things or such

round wind-

and resonant, harp tones, lines so tense from the breeze a and blown upon by highest

of

heaven

quotes Rossetti,

who

thought." "

says

:

He

And he is

a Druid

who wanders among the bards and strikes with even more than bardic the harp

stress."

I

admit that Emerson has done what

Carlyle did in his

mold of speech, and that he himself

perfected a

own way,

for

does not always obey the prescribed poet defies them, in fact, with ical canons; unusual license.

He

pours forth at times

broken, irregular verses;

deals

in

abrupt


55

employs occasion

transitions of thought; ally astonishing

rhymes; and leaves

to the

reader some discretion and part in weaving together the continuity of his ideas.

may

not think that

success

and

pecker,

and the

down and

Eumenides, bear like

One

dimension,

and wood

have any more right

be married in rhyme, than have the elephant and the kangaroo; but he puts

to

them together with a strange felicity, and the archaism becomes a beauty rather than a blemish. here with

But

I

am

full intent.

citing extreme cases

In other couplets

as in these, for instance to barrows, trays, and pans, Grace and glimmer of romance;

Give

Is the ancestor of

And

wars

the parent of remorse

;

Love shuns the sage, the child it crowns, Gives all to them who all renounce


56

he secures such a flavor

as haunts

and

holds you long after their spell has been uttered. feels

The wish which

to get out of ruts,

the poet often

and abandon the

Delia Cruscan tameness of such frequently

repeated rhymes as day and May, fly and sky, breeze

and

trees,

hour and flower,

is

easily compassed by Emerson through the virility of his vocabulary, and the strange

and

subtle

words and

force

he can put

syllables

The new English

school of poets, some

times called the preraphaelites,

Swinburne, Rossetti, and chiefs,

attain a similar

with marked

in his final

the rhyming chords.

effect,

of which

Morris are the

end by making

of

such

use,

rhymes

as

thing and thanksgiving, her and harp-player,

where the

must of necessity fall, in the rhyming word, on the penultimate syllable, instead of on the rhyming one. It

ictus

should not be hard for a trained and

cultivated ear to acquire a liking for the


57

magic of Emerson

mind

is

melody; and when the

s

sympathy with

in

the

thought, and beats in time with befalls

a ravishment which

a thinner tune;

watered

phrases

which

it,

there

unfits the recipi

He

ent for any lesser strain. tolerate

scale of

will

no longer and

the weaker before

delighted

seem emptied forever of their old charm and power. It is a music in which color, aroma, and

prismatic

Not Offenbach

s

light

passional,

are

blended.

laughter-like

and giddy but rather a symphony like Beethoven s, which would pierce, or leave the gates of paradise ajar. will

Inevitably there

be no popular, applauding crowd to

keyed for a select group in a vast cathedral, whose roof is the overarching

listen.

sky,

are

It is

and whose

made

of the

We

to

awaken the deepest imaginings

human shall

long, resounding corridors

soul.

never have a second Emerson,

any more than we

shall

have a second


Shakespeare.

Let us not be afraid to cele

We

brate him.

are told that he has limita

that he could not produce an epic

tions

or a drama, and, most likely, would find

an acceptable love-story

to write

difficult

for

He

magazines and newspapers.

the

it

commits the unpardonable sin, with ortho dox theories of literature, in writing about Shakespeare as he does, and

calling his dramatic

traditions

all

counter to

know

I

"

secondary."

that

power

Shakespeare

picked up his plots from Boccaccio and

how am

others;

had the power

I

to

know

to

that even he

produce a plot

his habit, certainly, to take the

at

second hand.

I

take

it,

they are idealism

is

did

It

was

most of them

But Emerson

s

argument,

that, after they are

produced,

merely the

frame for his large

his masterly, colossal,

ing, spermatic thought. get,

?

any one

ever

overpower

Can Shakespeare get,

one stroke


59

power of pure, primitive Does any one hold that there thought is a primum mobile in mere mechanism? the

beyond

?

not

is

Finally,

this

all

talk

because splendor of the drama, the glory of the epos or tale

much we

it is

the

drama

simply so

laudation of the spoon from which

eat

and drink?

conveyed

am

much

thing that

is

captivated by the delicious

stories

any one can

be.

and dramatic

situations as

Childhood not only craves

this pleasure, but

grow the

the vehicle

?

as

charm of

Or can

sanctify the

and

supersede

I

about

we

ourselves never out

child-like desire to

behold a social

take the places of orrery in which persons their related planets, and range through orbits.

If a few minds

have outgrown the crutches to help to help

them

notably Emerson necessity for

them walk, these

see,

s

these glasses

and can dispense with


6o literary

jack-straws,

or

complicated

figures, must they be set down as bereaved? It is no disparagement

drama

we

if

nounced

insist that

it

as a shibboleth.

lay-

fatally

to the

not be pro

shall

Let a master use

what medium he pleases he shall be a master still and whether Emerson is really ;

limited or self-limited, I hail

him

as a

mem

ber of that inspired choir which he de

one of those

scribes

Olympian bards who sung Divine ideas below,

Which always

And

Our

delight in

largely from

perspective

he never

his is

falls

find us

young,

always keep us

Emerson, loftiness

so.

in fact, springs

of vision.

that of the aeronaut

or falters below

it.

s,

There

not a line which descends from the

high

level.

writer that I

Such uniformity of

know

His

and

altitude

is

first

no

of so steadily maintains.


6i

Here

is

so high a voice that

the sunshine

but, like the final

never leaves

one

in

Longfellow

s

falls

"Excelsior,"

"like

A

it

never swathed in shadows

is

a falling

star."

of tone, proverb-like fullness, purity

magnetic phrases, the beating of the Puri tan pulse, are in his speech. In his poems, the

His sentences

are half-poems.

titles

He

tingle with tense, metallic vibration.

You

a perpetual surprise.

is

read deep secrets

through him as Coleridge read Shakespeare

Kean s

through

We

lightning."

acting

Two

note of tumult or turbulence.

which occur poetry

the ^Eolian

Tree (which fitly

in his prose

express

these that

is

of

flashes

"by

miss in his page the

symbols

and recur

Harp and

first

the

in his

Pine-

but another ^Eolian Harp) his

we have

genius.

access to

It

is

through

and communi-


62 cation with

the

immensity and

Many me a slip

deep, vague whispers of

eternity.

of paper, at the end of an inter

view, on which he his its it

own, which,

had written a couplet of

I think,

into print.

way

Emerson handed

years ago Mr.

has never yet found

I give

it

below because

partakes of his essential quality, and also

because

Thus

it

it

helps

reads

A

me

to point a reflection.

:

score of airy miles will smooth

Rough Monadnock

The

gem.

reader will perceive at once

alert

that this thought in purport to

below

to a

is

substantially equivalent

Campbell

s

well-worn distich

:

Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, robes the mountains in their azure hue.

And

But one direct

and

is

delicate, suggestive

prosaic.

The

first is

;

the other

cloth of silk


63

and gold

the second

;

is

calico, in

compari

He who makes

son, or, perhaps, fustian.

choice between these two forms discloses

and

defines his

puts

ception

own measure himself

on

of poetic per the

empyreal

summit, or settles in the shallows of

com

monplace.

cannot be too often repeated that

It

Emerson

s

poetry

is,

above

all

its

felici

with moral purport and motive.

ties, alive

Emerson no more

deals

in

art

for art s

sake than you build your house for the dis play of a cornice and picturesque angles.

has to say leaps forth from an a weight of com overpowering burden

What he

of the pulsion restrained up to the point irresistible.

made the

as

it

His poetry is

is

received and

not so

much

retold.

It is

mouth-piece of the moral sentiment,

the transpiration of original and primitive

promptings

the breath of the Oversoul.


64

And is

yet there

is

no part of

its

form that

The

not carefully studied and shaped.

most wayward as

paragraph, are

run,

ied

the

indentations

sense

of

and type stud

strictly

The pedant,

plan.

and

scansion

never went

rhythm

a

after

adjusted

and conscientious

whose

most frolicsome

the

line,

balanced

than

farther

Pope

heroic couplet, looks up confounded at

s

it,

and thinks he has discovered an escape from Bedlam.

He

finds his

"

settled liter

ary opinions and tastes disturbed," and he has no conception of any other.

The

late

Prof.

Reed, who made some

acute observations on this limited literary sense, said

"

:

It is the highest attribute

of

original

powers to enlarge the sphere of

human

sensibility.

how

Think, for

the light of Spenser

s

instance,

imagination at

once disclosed to view the untraveled tudes of his mavelous allegory.

When

a poet of

original

*

powers

lati

*

*

arises,


65 his very originality

can be shown only by

extending the light of his genius to regions of thought and feeling unillumined

original

dwells

genius

:

Each poet of

an atmosphere

him must

"

who

of his own, and he

Emerson

live in s

*

it.

for a brief

it

attitude

to

know

seeks to

learn to breathe

must needs

before."

in

In another place he says

*

space."

the universe has

a certain resemblance to Swedenborg is

but

s,

without the slightest touch, though, of

that hallucinated seer

s

mechanical contrivance.

an immanent

spirit

ences between pression.

dogma, and

He

coarse,

reports from

the closest correspond

the soul and material ex

There

is

wonder; even the the hue of miracle.

no

limit to his reverent

slightest thing takes I

am

his

his

verses, of

applying to his ear

The convolutions 5

on

often reminded,

manner of evolving Wordsworth s curious child,

by

He

of a smooth-lipped shell.


66

As the roaring

sea,

unseen and afar

his

continual

awe and wonder,

sky,

and

sea

speak to

rapture with Nature to

spiration

Shown

Rhodora

!

if

This charm

score of examples, I

The Rhodora

:

the sages ask thee why wasted on the earth and sky,

is

its

if

eyes were

own

made

for seeing,

excuse for being

Why thou wert there, O I never thought to ask my

con

"

is

Then beauty

But, in

perennial in

as an instance, the

Tell them, dear, that

The

His

Emerson.

a serene, excessive delight.

only quote here, clusion to

so the earth,

rises to

equally in a

"

off,

inland imagination, evoking

spoke to

rival of the I

:

Rose

!

never knew;

simple ignorance, suppose

self -same

power

that

brought

me

there

brought you.

This ecstasy and raptness melt at times into a subtle mysticism, or burst into

braic austerity of enunciation. like

these

the

oracular

voice

He

In moods

becomes,


67 occasionally, so intent

on

utterance, as

its

appear enigmatic and puzzling.

to

Per

haps the quatrain given below, written for Mrs. Sargent, and which Emerson himself has

never

printed, It

suggest.

and

charity

a

is

I

am

will

exhibit

what

I

sermon on

miniature

quoting Mr. Sanborn,

I think, in saying that

we have

here

"his

exact oracular words, such as he chooses for verse, leaving the reader to

best of them,

and

careless if

makes the worst of them

make

the

he sometimes

"

The beggar begs by God s command, gifts awake when givers sleep

And

:

Swords cannot cut the giving hand,

Nor

It

is

stab the love that orphans keep.

Mr.

Sanborn,

says this apropos of is

the privilege

at

any

Emerson

s

who

rate,

verse

"

:

It

of exquisite beauty, and

of that nobility of soul which

is

the coun-


68

terpart

and masculine response to

instantly

deprive

to beauty,

power of

all

like

are

They

comparison.

of

us

nothing in

our experience, they suggest nothing but themselves and each other, and in their all

brightness

the

dust in

had

this

appear but as Whoever has not

else

things sunshine.

vision,

nor

kindling of

this

felt

the soul in reading or listening to son, at

must have

all,

and

meet

failed to

therefore

Emer

his

thought be as incapable of

to ap understanding him as the deaf are

music.

preciate

*

*

It

was said of

that he Socrates, in a doubtful compliment,

from heaven to brought philosophy down It might as truly be said of Emer earth. son that he raises earth to the level of di vine philosophy in this

loftier art.

a purely poetic one,

is

fore, while

creative

a

he lacks what

power

in

is

verse,

His method

and there

ordinarily called

he moves more


69 constantly

than

any recent

Spenser, no man equaled Emerson

personal beauty,

poet in the

Milton and

Since

atmosphere of poesy.

not even Goethe in

this

trait,

as

has

been

which, like said,

If

for

you do not see

none of us can

A

brilliant

it,

God

can

There

neither be explained nor criticised. it is.

has

help you

!

!

French writer remarks that

well-selected words are sentences abridged. "

Schelling says, is

of the Pandits in the

as

In good prose every word

that

"

favorite saying

an author rejoice th

economizing of half a short vowel

much

Apter

was a

It

underscored."

as

the

in

illustrations

birth

of

this

of

a

son

emphasis

"

!

of

brevity cannot be found than in Emer son s style. How constantly he surprises

by not only pressing

all

the

meaning out

of a word, but by crowding voluminous

and unsuspected

force

into

it?

All

his


7

Mr. F. H.

verses bristle with this power.

Hedge pronounces Problem

"

all

scending of

as

contemporary verse

said

all "

:

breeze from the

the

They

life

in

demand,

of the

in

something which makes breath, and, as

a

spell

grandeur

as a

World, in a in

life,

in

expec

me draw

a deeper

were, in a larger and freer

escapes.

What he

is

the

web

gift

for

says of Saadi,

one poem not yet

submitted by him to the public,

fits

equally

:

Northward he went to the snowy hills; At court he sat in grave Divan. His music was the south-wind s sigh, His lamp the maiden s downcast eye;

And

a

hope,

of beauty from which he never

moment

own

tran

me

to

all

New

faith,

in a part of a fragment of

his

"The

Frederika

Joined to this strength

world."

and

it

in

poems

are

certain illimitable vastness of tation,

of

poem

wholly unique, and

"

Of

style."

Bremer

his

ever the spell of Beauty came,


71

And turned the drowsy world to flame, By lake, and stream, and gleaming hall, And modest copse and forest tall, Where er he went, the magic guide its

Kept If tion,

place by the poet

we

return

and

ask,

now

that

"

Boileau

is

is

us.

poetry

When

poetry,"

Pope

To many, with

a

a thousand

Joubert said

also

poetry

"

says

!

is

his final phrase "

flashed with illumination.

of

?

a powerful poet, but only in

the world of half

is

side.

to the previous ques

What

answers confront

s

How

true that

Matthew Arnold.

indissolubly confounded

and a

counting of their fingers;

consciousness of this prevalent faith

an

irreverent critic say that

made

any one who can

measure tape can write the poetry of Pope. The witty mot had a grain of truth under its

extravagance, but

overlooked

Pope s

No sane direction. prodigal power in one Essay critic now, I am sure, considers the "

on

Man"

as anything

more than an admi-


72 rable piece of worldly wit put in is

Still, it

epigram.

the best

that the world of the

had

show.

to

entire,

has for but

nation;

rhymed

half poetry

"

century

eighteenth

Poetry that

is

"

whole,

or

fountain-head the imagi

its

a theme too large for

this is

subsidiary discussion, or for treatment as an

episode.

Carlyle sical

as

s

averment that poetry

it

himself

And,

goes.

of

says

if

"

mu

so

far enough we take what he

good

is

thought"

is

music,

the

description

some of the deep and far-away tones of Emerson s muse. That applies perfectly to

haunting, undulating

and

vates the soul

through, and

is in,

more;

for

it is

which

capti

defies expression pulses

the very midst of

offering cannot always

exact phrases

thrill

it.

Its

be translated into

meaning so much and no kind of inarticulate, un

"a

fathomable speech, which leads us to the


73

edge of the Infinite, and ments gaze into that

lets

mo

us for

"

!

Emerson s genius I

have is,

though

it

contains, as

said, the core and heart of the East

in

Gothic;

form,

not

essentially

or

tropical,

and

Northern equatorial.

It

and sometimes

a hyperborean birth, shows a touch of sturdy Berserker wrath.

has

The volcano

within

snow above lect.

It is

is

capped with

ice

emotion subservient to

power,

intel

passion, infinite restraint,

and repose working

The beauty

in unison.

of his lines has sometimes the effect

me

and

of an arctic landscape.

I

upon

walk through

the enchantments of Niflheim.

I

see the

splendors of icebergs and ice-clad forests, frosty

and prismatic wonders,

stalactites

gleaming auroras, and talline

And

delight.

the fable so as to ually dead,

it

is

all

that gives a crys

yet, if

make

it

"poetry

you

mean

interpret

the spirit

which, like the


74 verses

inscribed

Breidablik, to

is

on

Its regenerative

life."

measured

to those

column

s

at

power cannot be

who have once caught

the focus of the lens. it

Balder

capable of restoring the dead

If

you look toward

from the dull end of the kaleidoscope,

you

will see

only a handful of colored beads.

Put your eye on the right line, and you cannot shuffle them or jostle them from the

most serene

and

exquisite

and

purpose

order.

do not expect the world

I

will

be con

verted to the enthusiasm that requires so

much

preparation to receive, or that there

will ever

be a popular deference

mode and how much easier son

s

perspective.

to, I

Emer know

toy with and enjoy the colored surfaces of things than to

explore

the

trate into the

Bacon,

"

it

is

to

higher altitudes, or pene

abysmal depths.

prefer to the

"

Men,"

says

diamond the deeper-


75

colored

The

gems."

the

are

majority

telling objects to the

ones,

transparent

and

the average reader, only aroused languidly, cares for nothing but that note which

Rings

down

a tinkling pebble

like

"

a tinkling

path."

Whoever chooses

to reflect sees there

is

an essence of poetry which none of the definitions

perfectly

genius, Joubert,

turned

who "

critic,

says

:

define.

writes as

That dainty if Ariel had

The poet must be not

only the Phidias and the Daedalus of his verses

;

he must also be the Prometheus

with form and

them

life."

movement he must

also give

Accosting the perplexing prob

lem that has come down

to us

from the

time of Aristotle, he puts himself the "

questioners

What

moment

on "

is

I

:

poetry

?

this

he

cannot say.

theme. "

replies

But

:

I

among Asking

At

this

maintain


76

that, in is

words used by the true poet, there

found

a certain phosphor

for the eyes

ous, for the taste a certain nectar, for the

attention an ambrosia not found in

them

Was

there

when used by any one ever any

one

to

applies better than Is there

whom

this

description

does to Emerson

it

any one now living

any old Greek master

who

else."

is

?

there

the dead

among

more majestic or spoke sonorous, more strident, more enchanting or more appealing emphasis, than the one

we have dared find

with

ever

to extol

?

Where

the fountain of beauty,

are not bathed in

it ?

if

Where

shall

his

the sea of

thought, or the sky of imagination, pinions have not touched them

we

words

if his

?

One profound New England

scholar,

and widely versed in various literatures, himself a poet, has very lately said: place Emerson poets

at

of America.

the

In

head of the this

"I

lyric

judgment

I


77 anticipate wide after

so

going

much

far,

that

he does not so

to his poetic art, in

refer

limitations,

recognizes

But he explains,

dissent."

*

*

spontaneity.

as

"

More than

of his contemporaries, his

most part are

which he

his

to

utter

any one for the

poems

are not

They of them come given; they He speaks of them as "bursting inspirations.

made, but selves."

from the soul with an irrepressible neces sity

sometimes with a rush

of utterance

that defies the shaping

has written lines that are

builded better than he

or that line from another

And

now

as well es

Take, as a ready instance

He

fired the shot

knew

:

;

poem:

heard round the world;

or, "The

silent

has

one that he

we quote from Shakes

tablished as those peare.

It

intellect."

been noted by more than

organ loudest chants

The master

s

requiem."


78 Nature, tremulous with mind, and not

a soulless mechanism, tion

is

the great affirma

which runs not only through poetry, but through all that he

son

s

To

illustrate this,

Emer writes.

he commands every re source and makes even the denials of science fortify the truth on which the uni verse

is

always

It

suspended.

of Wendell

Phillips

give

you

used to be said

speeches that they

s

the

latest

news;

the

evening lecture would be as fresh as the and, after a similar sort,

evening paper;

you can discern the high-water mark wave of science

the lapse of the last

Emerson says

s

that,

periods. "no

Mr. W.

other poet

insight into

ency of mind

in the visible

Harris

since Shakes

peare has been endowed with

and sustained

T.

in

so

clear

the transcend world."

Of his employment of other factors than rhythm and rhyme in the formation of his


79

poems, the same writer gives a "

hint.

Emerson,"

uses the in

his

he

Hebrew device

And

rhythm."

says,

of

felicitous

very often

rhyme of thought

not

though

poetry,

sometimes slighting

and

"

the

omitting

external

if

rhyme

this is illustrated in the

following passage from his

poem

of

"The

"

Sphinx

:

The fate of the man-child; The meaning of man; Known fruit of the unknown; Daedalian plan

;

Out of sleeping a waking, Out of waking a sleep; Life death overtaking;

Deep underneath

To

the

criticism

brings a deep insight It

is

the

spirit,

arrests him.

of

deep.

poetry

an

Emerson

interior vision.

not the mold, which

To

first

a genuine inspiration he

can allow great latitude of manner and form. In detecting faults, or marking


8o verbal

yond

while looking mainly be

felicities,

none

these,

is

His

better than he.

emphasis on afhrmatives sometimes made him benignant where others would be severe

;

but what he saw was

certainly

His opinion of poetry, it is said, had, with his most noted friends, famous there.

themselves as poets, a high judicial value. If the world did not least,

listened

criticism

as

to

heed

his

his work, they, at

large

they listened

and to

minute

no

other.

Whatever the press might declare, or public silence and neglect imply, no great poet doubts that he stands monumentally high in his guild.

If there

is

a seeming exception to this

statement in one young English poet

break when piqued and offended plain speaking by Emerson over fully frenetic

and sensual

reason in that

fact.

fancies,

And

s

out

at a little

his frothit

finds a

yet I do

not


8i

doubt that

this writer

the lyric direction his

bitter

would

gifts in

and esteems

sees

does

s

as

exclude,

and

authority

and

not

Emerson

imply

In this coupling with Emerson

power.

name

retort

of marvelous

representing such contrast in

s

a

style,

one who thinks of them both can see how

Olympian calmness and

restraint

compare

with their extreme counterpart in the field

No

of poetical expression. "Parnassus"

revealed

in

doubt Emerson him,

to

s

some

minds, unexpected tastes and predilections, but it justifies, on careful study, catholicity of feeling and keen discernment.

Mr. Curtis says that long ago

applied to

Emerson

Channing

s

s

words,

poetry in

The Dial, could be

easily transformed to

describe his own.

It is of

beauty that

more

"

such extreme

we do not remember anything

perfect of

its

kind."

Enough

and confirmative utterances of

casual

similar pur-


82 port could be picked up to excuse the lone-

someness of or

if I

on

my

plea,

if it

cared to occupy

this

Whipple,

subject.

were worth while,

much

further space

Mr. Stedman and Mr.

I believe, are

considerable essays on

each contemplating

Emerson

s

poetry;

Mr. G. W. Cooke, who has nearly ready* a A Study of Emerson," will devote while

"

a chapter, at

least, to its

high quality.

In a few years,

take

I

for,

voices

it,

the

significance

these are

let

to

neglect which

and

us hope

be favorable has

hitherto

been conspicuous will begin to be repaired. It has been remarked that certain preg nant

lines

Problem

"

from Emerson

poem have been embalmed s

minster Abbey; and those

of in

"

The

West

who have read

* This book has now appeared under the title, Ralph Waldo Emerson His Life, Writings, and Philosophy," and is one of the best tributes that

"

:

has

ever

memory.

been

paid

to

Emerson

s

genius

and


the one

and seen the other cannot well

question the

of the

felicity

But we may be permitted is

combination.

wonder which

to

bolder, the architecture of the poet, or

that of the cathedral.

am

I

impressed with the necessity, in

speaking of Emerson

s

poetry, of being in

a measure paradoxical. ing

forms of of

flower this

Gothic

If I say the flow

architecture

which

Nature

you

famous abbey symbolize I

verse,

am

compelled

innumerable places

its

this

also

in

form of note in to

kinship

that flower of Art.

severity

to

that

find

Doric

Who

is

it

that finds an absence of art (an absence

of

anything,

which these

is

in

fact,

but

notably absent)

commonplace,

in

such lines as

?

O

tenderly the haughty day blue urn with fire;

Fills his

One morn

And one

is

in the

mighty heaven,

in our desire.

Fourth of July Ode.


84 Guest of million painted forms,

Which in turn thy glory warms The frailest leaf, the mossy bark, The acorn s cup, the rain-drop s arc, The swinging spider s silver line, The ruby of the drop of wine, The shining pebble of the pond, Thou inscribes! with a bond !

In thy momentary play,

Would bankrupt Nature

to repay.

Ode

O O

ostrich-like forgetfulness

,

Bea

!

loss of larger in the less

Was there no star No watcher in the No angel from the

to

!

that could

be

sent,

firmament, countless host

That loiters round the crystal coast, Could stoop to heal that only child, Nature s sweet marvel undefiled,

And keep

the blossom of the earth,

Which

her harvests were not worth

all

?

Threnody.

Need we these

ask for more transparency than afford?

lines

And

is

fault instead of the writer s if

understood

?

it

not our

they are not

Those who wish

for

a mere


85 poetical veneer, or for poetry that goes

with fatal

need not, and

facility,

on

will not,

turn to Emerson. I

have not sought, however, to

hide

the fact that he has written a great deal

which

verses, is

dark on the

is

on the

third,

it

first,

and, perhaps,

Of

reading.

obscurer

his

must be observed that the theme

habitually the

highest.

one broad synthesis succession

with

after

He

bewildering

prodigality.

are hints rather than finished state

They ments.

The words chosen

startle

by

deep suggestion. Their polarized rich

out

strikes

another in close

symbolism,

and

shock the mind, and

strong

their

vitality,

percussion

celestial vistas, or

un-

fathomed deeps, are opened. Who has ever found a passage in all he has written which does not repay, by

its

ing impulse, the study

poem

of

"

Brahma

"

pith, verve, it

provokes

and soar ?

In the

even, which became a


86 butt of ridicule

author

when

expressed

subtle, ideas

must have

first

it

some

appeared, the

very

so that the critics

;

seen, at

if

definite,

who laughed

a later day, that they

had merely advertised their ignorance of the deeply poetical and significant struct ure of the

The

Hindu mythology. of

subtlety

awfulness of

life

itself,

in a few mystical

its

which he describes

form of

Subtle rhymes with ruin Murmur in the house of

Sung by

analogue

in the

and wonderfully melodi

ous lines in the older "

these

thought in

his

graver instances has, too,

"

Merlin

"

:

rife, life,

the Sisters as they spin;

In perfect time and measure they Build and unbuild our echoing clay,

As

the

two

twilights of the day

Fold us music-drunken

But, to

linger

would lead

me

ter will

in."

further with

too

far.

my

theme,

The whole mat

be best concluded by borrowing


87

Lowell

s

description of a

years ago, which

experience

forth

sets

one

in

dozen or more his repeated

Emerson

of

lecture

s

audiences at Cambridge.

Those who have heard Emerson

know

tures

times distributed through them

with the melody of the prose

not a that

seem

is

true

unfit

to

depict

"

says

of their

little

what

:

I

can

highest

the

never

help

speaker,

speaking. sorious.

more less

full

will

so

not

Lowell

applying

said of

to

Bacon

:

time one noble

of gravity in his

His language was nobly cen

No man

pressly,

ever spake

more

emptiness,

uttered.

my

in

who was

them

charm;

other.

Emerson what Ben Johnson There happened

mingled lent

one

of the

lec

s

some

that the original verses

less

weightily, or

idleness

No member

consisted of his

own

more

of his

graces.

in

neatly,

suffered

what he

speech but

His hearers


88 could not cough, or look aside from him, without

spoke

?

loss.

He commanded

where he

Those who heard him while

their

natures were yet plastic, and their mental

nerves trembled under the slightest breath of diviner

air, will

never cease to

feel

and

say: "

Was never eye did see that face, Was never ear did hear that tongue, Was never mind did mind his grace, That ever thought the travail long; But eyes and ears and every thought

Were with

his sweet perfections caught.

"


APPENDIX. late

THE of

Mr. John A. Dorgan, a young writer

rare promise, and the author of a book of Studies," wrote a very able essay, poems, called as I remember it now, some eighteen years or more "

ago, for the Boston

Commonwealth, on Emerson

s

poetry, with special reference to the changes made I have not been able to find this, or to recall in it.

any part of pression

it

for consultation.

may be

trusted, I

am

But, sure

if

a vivid

it

is

im

worth

reprinting.

On comparing

the early edition of Emerson s the so-called blue-and-gold one of 1865, which I have done, line for line, I find the most

poems with

numerous changes occur in the poems titled "Astrsea" and Monadnock." A bad typographical error de "

serves pointing out in this blue-and-gold edition the substitution of the word Like for Life, in the

seventh line of the second stanza, in the "The

But

poem

of

Sphinx."

reference here would

my

be inexcusably should forget to mention, as a doc ument of interest in this connection, Mr. William Sloane Kennedy s fine article on "The Discarded

incomplete

Poems

of

World si

if I

Emerson."

Oct.

7,

It

appeared in the Literary

1882. 89



AN

EMERSON CONCORDANCE. Contributed by

WILLIAM SLOANE KENNEDY

World"

and used Jiere

A

^

to the Literary by special permission.

PARTIAL INDEX TO

FAMILIAR PASSAGES

IN HIS

POEMS.

Page-references are to Selected Poems [Copyright, 1876, Co.]; for the convenience of those using Houghton, Mifflin earlier editions, the name of the poem is given with each In making the index, the plan has been to select reference.

&

paragraph the most striking and significant Quite a number of poems that appeared in the familiar brown-cloth editions were omitted by Mr. He has also changed Emerson in the final 1876 edition. line or

from each

word or words.

many

lines

him

in the

poems given

in

that edition.

we

Our

love

hardly dare say, against wishes, that we hope every scrap of his poetry will be cluded in some complete edition, after the expiration of But, certainly, many of the poems present copyright. omitted are too good to be lost. for

is

so

great

CADEME.

A \-

that

One

in the

A.

his in

the

he

S. of Nat.,

p. 161.

ACORN

S.

ADORNING. Ode

The

a.

Ode to Beauty, p. 81. with thoughts of thee a.

cup.

Itself

to Beaiity, p. 83. 91


92

Sunny

.

Love,

sleeps./. D. and

JE.

C.

p. 108.

Thou grand

AFFIRMER.

a. of.

Monadnock,

P- 153.

AGES. AIR.

A. are thy days.

Flowing azure

,

And on my

AISLES.

Problem, p.

Monadnock, p. 153. Ode to Beauty p. 83.

a.

heart

monastic

a.

14.

ALBEIT. Unknown,

a.

lying near.

/.

D. and

C. Love, p. 103.

ALL.

Each and

A. are needed by each one.

All, p. 12.

ANDES.

Smite A. into dust.

Sea-Shore, p.

113-

APPROACHING. Monadnock,

ARAB. p.

On

I

hear the

a.

feet.

mound an A.

a

Hermione,

lay.

94.

ARCHETYPES. C.

Well

p. 150.

Love,

ARTFUL.

p.

In their

A. thunder.

ASTONISHED. Love,

a.

endure./. D. and

1 08.

Seaman

Merlin, sails

p. 114.

a./.

D. andC.

p. 104.

ASTRONOMY.

Far-reaching concords of Musketag., p. 166.

a.


93

No

ATOM.

worn.

a.

Here was

S. of Nat., p. 162.

this a. in full

breath

Titmouse

Hurling defiance at vast death.

-,

p. 63.

ATOMS.

A. march in June.

Monadnock,

p.

149.

The journeying

and

the

dream of A.-d. /.

D.

of Nat.,

p.

each the other shall

C. Love, p.

a.

no.

One by A.

stream.

He

of the

AVON.

p. 8.

p. 47.

When

AVOID.

Sphinx,

Dream

AUBURN-DELL. May-Day,

a.

S.

161.

Axis.

is

AZALEAS. Day,

the

a.

star.

Woodnotes,

140.

II., p.

A. flush the island

floors.

May-

p. 48.

ALL.

Over the

lifeless

b.

Wealth,

170.

The shadow Woodnotes,

BANKRUPT. Ode

to

sits

close to the flying b.

II., p.

Would

Beauty, p. 81.

b.

138.

nature to repay.

p.


94

The kingly

BARD. BE.

BEAD.

String

b.

Merlin,^. 114.

Nun s Aspiration,

rush to B.

I

Monadnock

p. 185.

Monad-

like a b.

nock, p. 150.

BEAUTY.

B.

s

not beautiful to me.

Her-

mione, p. 94.

To die for b. Beauty, p. 178. Carves the bow of b. there. Woodnotes, 135.

II., p.

B.

is its

own excuse

for being.

The Rho-

dora, p. 58.

As

BEE.

the b. through the garden ranges.

Woodnotes,

p.

II., p.

139.

Who shall tell what

BEFALL.

did b.

Wealth,

170.

BEFALLS.

Day, BEING.

B. again

what once

befell.

May-

p. 47.

Firm ensign of the

Monad-

fatal b.

nock, p. 153.

Winds of remembering Of the ancient b. blow. BELLY. p.

Wine

Bacchus,

in b. of the grape.

p. 118.

Bacchus,

117.

BERYL. Beauty,

B.

beam

p. 198.

of the

broken

wave.


95

The

BEST.

Who

BIDES.

BIND.

Wealth,

BIRD.

b. at

the

B.

man

fiend that

of the b.

Is love

harries

Sphinx; p. home. Fate,

9.

p. 89.

of Nature wild.

strength

p. 171.

B. trims her to the gale.

Terminus,

p. 187.

The punctual

BIRDS.

O

b.

p. 166.

Musketaq., your perfect virtues bring.

Day,

\>.

May-

p. 53.

Named

without

a

gun.

Forbearance,

P- 77-

Wildb. start. Drop of manly b.

BLOOD.

Merlin,

B. of the world.

BLUEBIRD.

Myb. BOAT.

Bacchus,

Musketaq., s note.

p. 114.

Friendship,

p.

177.

p. 117.

p. 164.

May-Day,

p. 47.

This round sky-cleaving

b.

Monad-

nock, p. 150.

BOND.

Thou

inscribest

Ode

with a b.

to

Beauty, p. 81.

BOWERS.

What

Woodnotes,

recks such Traveler

II., p.

BOY. B. with his games undaunted. Soul, p. 24.

if

the b.

140.

World-


96

BRAWLERS. Saadi,

Heed not what

the b. say.

p. 37.

BREAD.

Than

BREEZE.

live for b.

As blows

the b.

BRIDGE. The ruined

Beauty,

p. 178.

Merlin,

p. 114.

Cone. Fight, p. 202. Cone. Fight, B. that arched the flood. p. 202.

He

BUILDED. Problem,

BULLET.

p.

B.

b.

b. better

than he knew.

The

14.

of the earth.

Monadnock,

p.

152.

BURDENS. p.

B. of the Bible old.

The Problem,

14.

BUTLER.

Drug

May -Day,

the cup, thou

b.

sweet.

p. 48.

/CALENDAR.

Into

c.

months and

days.

Uriel, p. 19.

God

CANISTER.

fills

the scrip and

c.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 130.

The

CANTICLES.

of love and woe.

c.

Prob

lem, p. 14.

CAPTAIN.

Who

Monadnock,

p.

is

the

152.

c.

he knows not.


97

CARNIVAL. Gods kept CASCADES.

My

leaves

S. of Nat., p. 160.

c.

and

my c.

S. of

Nat. ,

161.

p.

CENTURIES. Thou meetest him by

Wood-

c.

notes, II., p. 140.

Gathering along the

S. of Nat. , p.

c.

"59;

CHARMED.

Every wave

is

c.

Terminus,

p.

187.

CHASTE-GLOWING. To Eva,

lids.

Who

CHIPS.

underneath their

C.-g.

p. 92.

builds yet

makes no

Monad-

c.

nock, p. 149.

CHOIR.

Mighty

Love,

c.

descends.

7.

C

D. and

p. 104.

CHURCH.

I

like

CHURCHMAN.

a

c.Tke

Problem,

That cowled

c.

be.

p. 16.

The Prob

lem, p. 14.

CIPHER.

We cannot read the

c.

World-Soul,

p. 25.

CIRCLES.

and

C.

CITIES. p. 26.

7

The

c.

of that sea are laws.

Love,

p.

109.

What

if

Trade sow

c.

7.

D.

World-Soul,


98

CLERK.

The

spruce

CLIMB.

Aye

c.

Monadnock,

c.

for his

p. 151.

Merlin,

rhyme.

p.

115.

the c.-m. burrs.

Running over Each and All, p. 13.

CLUB-MOSS.

Like

COCKLES.

by the main.

c.

May-Day,

p. 47-

COINED.

Or ever

the wild time

c.

Uriel, p.

18.

In

COLUMBINE. Day,

c.

and clover-blow.

May-

p. 47-

C. with horn of honey.

Humblebee,

COMPASS. Toil could never c. Alike the

CONQUEROR.

c.

it.

p. 60.

Fate, p. 88.

silent

sleeps.

Cone. Fight, p. 202.

Works

CONSPIRACY. Beauty,

C. COOPED. Monadnock,

CORAL. p.

1

in

close

c.

Ode

to

p. 82.

in

a ship he cannot

steer.

p. 152.

Building in the

c.

sea.

S. of Nat.,

60.

CORSE.

The glowing

Woodnotes,

COSSACKS.

and

II., p.

angel, the outcast

c.

140.

Right C.

C. Love, p. 98.

in their forages.

/.

D.


99

COURIERS.

come by squadrons.

C.

6".

of

Nat., p. 161.

Amid

COWARD.

these

c.

Monad-

shapes.

nock, p. 153.

COWL.

I

COWLED.

a church;

like

Problem, p.

like

I

c.The

a

14.

The Problem,

C. portrait dear.

p.

16.

CRAMP. Nat.,

C. elf and saurian forms. p.

1

S. of

60.

CREATION.

Ever fresh the broad

c.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 138.

Brims

CUP.

my

little

Dafs

c.

Ration, p.

167.

D. plan.

.

D^MON. C. Love, p.

The

Sphinx,

p. 7.

Flickering D. film./. D. 1

and

08.

patient D.

sits.

World-Soul, p. 27.

DAIMON-SPHERE. The path D. and C. Love, p. 103. DAIMONS. The potent 7. D. and C. Love, p.

to the d,-s.

plain of d. spreads. 103.

7.


100

DAUGHTERS.

D. of Time.

Made one

DAY. DAYS.

The

of d.

Days,

S. of Nat., p. 161.

hypocritic d.

Days,

DEAD.

Happier

DEEP.

D., d. are loving eyes.

Love,

to

p. 172.

be

d.

p. 172.

Beauty, /.

p. 178.

D. and

C.

p. 107.

Ever by

DELICATE.

d.

powers.

S. of Nat.,

159.

p.

DELUGE.

Pour the

d.

S. of Nat., p.

still.

159.

DENS.

D. of passion.

To

DESPAIR.

Beauty, p. 178.

Like barefoot

DERVISHES.

d.

my

master

Days,

d.

p. 172.

Friendship,

p. 177.

DEW.

Gives back the bending heavens in

d.

S. of Nat., p. 162.

Too much

DOFFING.

of donning and d.

S. of Nat., p. 161.

DOME. DOUBT.

Rounded Peter s Souls above d.

d.

Problem,

Give All

to

p.

14.

Love,

p. 84.

DOUBTER. Brahma,

I

am

p. 73.

the d. and the doubt.


IOI

Ode

D. power but dear.

DREAD.

to

Beauty,

p. 83.

DROP.

With one

Woodnotes,

DRUGGED.

sheds form and feature.

d.

139.

II., p.

D.

my

boy

s

The Sphinx,

cup.

p. 9.

DUMB. p.

D. in the pealing song.

S. of Nat.,

159.

DUTY.

D. whispers low, Thou must.

Volun

taries, p. 211.

T^AGLES. Carries the z.Fate, p. 89. *^ EARTH-SONG. When I heard the E.-s. Hamatreya, ELECTRIC.

p. 72.

E.

thrills

and

ties

of

law.

Wealth, p. 171.

ENORMOUS.

Through Heaven

s

e.

year.

Wealth, p. 170.

ENSIGN.

Firm

e.

of the fatal being.

Monad-

nock, p. 153.

EROS. Strong E. struggling through. ty, p.

178.

Beau


102

He

ESSENCE.

is

the

Wood-

that inquires.

e.

notes, II., p. 140. /.

rolls.

Holy e. ETERNITY.

D. and

of

Stars

e.

C.

p. 108.

Love,

Wood-notes,

II.,

139-

P-

Ask on thou EVE.

clothed

The Sphinx,

e.

ii.

p.

Obey

EYELESS.

the voice at

e.

on

e.

Plunges

Terminus, forever.

p. 187.

Monad-

nock, p. 152.

Lowly

T^AITHFUL. JL

minus,

p.

Love,

FANNED.

Free be she,

F. the dreams II., p.

Ter-

f.-f.

Give All

FARMERS. Embattled is

he

never brought. town-incrusted

F.-f.,

Monadnock,

This

it

130.

FARM - FURROWED.

FATE.

fear.

p. 85.

Woodnotes,

sphere.

banish

187.

FANCY-FREE. to

f.,

p.

Cone. Fight, p. 202.

f.

men

152.

miscall F.

Worship,

p. 183.

FATHERS. p. 200.

Our

f.

built

to

God.

Hymn,


FELL. p.

It

in the ancient periods.

f.

Uriel,

19.

Under her solemn

FILLET.

Days,

f.

p. 172.

FIRES.

Fanning secret f. May-Day, p. 47. FISHERS. F. and choppers and ploughmen. Bost.

Hymn,

Why

FIVE.

Woodnotes,

FLINGS.

p.

stream.

FORGET.

if

Thought

s

causing

p. 26.

he can.

Monadnock,

152.

FORM. to

F.-b. along

me

f.

139.

World-Soul, F.

drop himself he

fifth

II., p.

FOAM-BELLS.

f.

126.

Into the

Woodnotes,

p.

p. 204.

Nature loves the number

Gliding through the sea of

Beauty, p. 82. In one only f. dissolves. , Love, p. 1 08.

FORTHRIGHT. Nat.,

p.

FOUNT. Nat.,

1

my

planets

D. and S.

roll.

C.

of

60.

By p.

F.

/.

Ode

f.

the shining

f.

of

life.

S. of

and

in fires.

159.

FOUNTAINS.

Thou

asketh in

f.

Woodnotes, II., p. 140. F. of my hidden life. Friendship,

Spouting

f.

cool the

air.

p. 177.

Art, p. 181.


104

FREEDOM. FUND.

Ere

f.

out of man.

Sober on a

f.

Ode, p. 208.

of joy.

Waldeinsam-

keit, p. 157.

GALAXY. II., p. 140. GAME.

Too long

Nat.,

g.

is

p.

GENERATIVE. 1

taq., p.

S. of

played.

Waters that wash

Garden,

GEM.

the

Woodnotes,

g.

161.

p.

GARDEN.

My

In globe and

As

Miracle of

p.

GENESIS.

side.

g.

g.

Muske-

force.

66.

the best

Problem,

my

174.

g.

upon her

zone.

The

15.

Sweet the

Wood-

of things.

g.

notes, II., p. 133.

GERMAN S. p.

G. inward sight.

Monadnock,

151.

GIBBOUS. GIRDS. I.

G. moon.

S. of Nat., p. 159.

G. the world with bound and term.

D. and

GLORY.

With

C.

Love,

p.

firmer g.

108. fell.

S.

g.

strong.

of Nat.,

p. 159.

GOBLIN.

Musketaquit,

Rivers, p. 156.

a

Two


I0 5

GODS.

and

Shadows

flitting

up and down.

/.

D.

C. Love, p. 109.

Delight in

Speak

it

All are

World-Soul,

g.

p. 27.

firmly, these are g.

ghosts beside.

Voluntaries, p.

213. It

whispers

of the

World-

glorious g.

Soul, p. 25.

The strong g. pine Brahma, p. 73. GODHEAD. From world Woodnotes,

changes.

GOOD-BYE.

G.-b.

my

abode.

world

the

for

to

II., p.

g.

139.

proud world.

[Not re

printed in the final (1876) edition.]

GRACE. So sweet to Seyd

as only g.

Beauty,

p. 178.

GRANDEUR.

So nigh

is

g.

to our dust.

Voluntaries, p. 211.

GRANITE. Through

Monad-

the g. seeming.

nock, p. 149.

GRASS.

Poor

chus, p.

1 1

g.

shall plot

and

plan.

GREETING. Need is none of forms /. D. and C. Love, p. no. GRIM. 152.

Bac

8.

G., gray rounding.

of g.

Monadnock,

p.


io6

GROUND-PINE. G.-p. curled Each and All, p. 13.

GULF. GYPSY.

its

pretty wreath.

G. of space. S. of Nat., p. 159. G. beauty blazes higher. Romany

Girl, p. 86.

Whenh.-g.

HALF-GODS. to Love, p. 85. HALTETH.

H. never

in

Give All

go.

one shape.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 139.

HARBINGER. Nat.,

p.

1

Rainbow smiles

his h.

S. of

60.

HARP.

Thy trivial h. Merlin,^. 114. HEARKEN. H.! h.! if thou wouldst know. Woodnotes,

II., p.

133.

the storm of h.

May-

Day, So pours the deluge of the h. Broad northward o er the land.

May-

HEAT.

Hither

rolls

p. 44-

Day, p. What god

47is

this imperial h.

May- Day,

p. 45.

HEAVEN. Find me and Brahma, p. 73.

turn thy back on H.

Already H. with thee

Sursum Corda,

its

p. 79.

lot

has

cast.


io 7

HIGHER.

and

H.

far into the

/.

D.

The Problem,

HONEY.

Like

D. and H.

accent of the H. G.

One

HOLY GHOST.

/.

pure realm.

C. Love, p. 108.

p. 16.

sucked from

fiery h.

roses.

C. Love, p. 99.

cloy.

Waldeinsamkeit,

157.

p.

Girds with one flame the countless h.

HOST.

-The

Problem,

HOUR.

15.

p.

Spirit strikes the h.

Threnody, p.

197.

We

HOUSE.

love the venerable h.

Hymn,

p. 200.

H. wrong-doers down.

HURL.

Worship,

p.

183.

HYSON.

One

scent to h.

Divine

Xenophanes,

below.

I.

Ode

to

p. 163.

Beauty,

IDEAS. p. 82. IMAGE.

Molded an

IMPROVISATION. II., p.

INN.

I.

i.

A

S. of Nat., p. 161.

divine

i.

Woodnotes,

138.

where he lodges

notes, II., p. 140.

for a night.

Wood-


io8

To

INSIGHT.

Sphinx,

profounder.

i.

INUNDATION.

hear the

I

i.

sweet.

p. 10.

Two

Rivers, p. 156.

Walks

JOVE.Day, J.

p.

in

mask almighty

45

who deaf

to prayers.

JUD^AN.

In a J. manger.

JUSTICE.

J.

ries, p.

May-

J. ?

conquers

Worship,

p. 183.

5. of Nat., p. 161.

evermore.

Volunta

212.

See Voluntaries,

p. 213.

For there s no sequestered grot, Lone mountain tarn, or isle forgot, But J. journeying in her sphere, Daily stoops to harbor there.

Astrtza,

P- 75-

And

KEEP. Beauty, KING.

us so.

always k.

Ode

to

p. 82.

Conscious

Law is k.

of kings.

Wood-

tired of k.

Bost.

notes, II., p. 139.

God

KINGS.

Hymn, KITE. 152.

said,

I

am

p. 203.

This treacherous

k.

Monadnock,

p.


109

T AKE. *-*

Smote the

LAUGHTER.

der.

Threnody,

LAVISH.

L.,

1.

Beauty,^. 178. woodland thun

1.

L. rich as 197.

p.

Ode

promiser.

to

Beauty,

p. 80.

Baked the

LAYERS. LEGS.

Among

the

1.

S. of Nat., p. 160.

of his guardians

1.

tall.

Experience, p. 169.

Found

LIBERTY. 1

1.

true

1.

Musketaq.,

p.

66.

LIGHT.

Through

L,

through

life.

Two

Rivers.

LIKE.

L.

and

A

LILIES.

unlike.

Experience,

bunch of fragrant

1.

p.

be.

169.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 140.

Love laughs, and on a

LION.

and

C.

Love,

LITANIES.

1.

rides.

/.

D.

p. 105.

The Problem

L. of nations came.

p. 14.

LORDS.

The dear dangerous

1.

Musketaq.,

p. 164.

L. of

life.

Experience, p. 169.

LORE. L. of colors and of sound. p.

1

66.

Musketaq.,


no LOVE. Deep 1. lieth under These pictures of time.

Sphinx,

p. 9.

LOVER. L. rooted stays. Friendship, p. 177. Have I a 1. who is noble and free? The p. 10.

Sphinx,

Low.

and mournful be the

L.

Volun

strain.

taries, p. 209.

Them.-c.

MAN-CHILD. Nat, p. 60.

glorious.

5. of

1

The

MAPLE- KEYS.

May -Day,

MAPLE-JUICE. Monadnock,

MARL. 1

scarlet

m.-k. betray.

p. 44.

Drain sweet m.-j. in

vats.

145.

p.

Granite m. and

S. of Nat., p.

shell.

60.

MASK.

Merry

is

only a m. of sad.

Waldein-

samkeit, p. 157.

The

MASTER.

passive

M.

The Problem,

p.

15-

MATTER.

Build

Wealth,

MEAN.

It

in

m. home

for

mind.

p. 170.

was not

Love, p. 84.

for the

m.

Give all

to


Ill

MEANINGS. Their noble m. are /. D. and C. Love, p. no. MELIORATING. M.

A

MELODY. Day,

pawns.

S. of Nat., p. 159.

stars.

m. born of m.

MEMORIES.

their

Fate, p. 88.

Smacks of m.

far

May-

away.

p. 42.

MERRY.

M.

is

only a

mask

Waldein-

of sad.

samkeit, p. 157.

The rushing m.

METAMORPHOSIS.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 133.

MILL-ROUND. p.

M.-r. of our fate.

Friendship,

177.

MILLION-HANDED.

The m.-h.

painter pours.

May-Day, p. 47. MIND. And his m. is the sky, Than all it holds more deep, more Woodnotes,

MINE.

M.

are the night

high.

140.

II., p.

and morning.

S. of

Nat., p. 159.

MINIATURE. MIRE.

In soft m.

lies.

Leaves us in the m.

Sphinx,

p. 8.

World-Soul,

p.

25.

MISERIES. Our insect m.

Mix.

M.

the bowl again.

Monadnock,^.

153.

S. of Nat. p. 162.


112

And

MOAN.

joy and m.

Melt into one.

D. and

/.

C.

Love, p.

108.

MOANINGS.

M.

of the tropic

Volun

sea.

taries, p. 209.

MONADNOCK. Sphinx,

MORN.

p.

M.

She stood

s

The

head.

ii.

Painting with m.

MOURNFUL.

M. be the

Problem,]). 15. strain.

Voluntaries,

p. 209.

Who

MUSIC.

World-Soul,

Thy summer

MUSKETAQUIT.

Two

Ode

heard the starry m.

Beauty, p. 82. M. pours on mortals.

voice,

to

p. 25.

M.

Rivers, p. 156.

N.

the

NAIL. Threnody,

wild-star

NAPHTHA. Flowed with and C. Love, p. 107. NATURE.

Him by

Experience,

p.

to

its

track.

p. 198.

the

n. fiery sweet.

hand dear N.

D.

/.

took.

169.

The

Out from the heart of

n.

Problem, p. 14. Universal N. through.

Xenophanes,

163-

rolled.

p.


NEW

To

HAMPSHIRE.

World-Soul,

NEVADA.

N. coin thy golden crags.

Hymn,

Bost.

p. 206.

One over

NILE.

the uplands of N. H.

p. 24.

mouths of N.

against the

S. of Nat., p. 161.

NOBILITY.

N. more nobly to repay.

For

bearance, p. 77.

NOBLE.

I

will

have never a

n.

Bost.

Hymn,

p. 204.

NYMPHS. Shun him, n., on the /. D. and C. Love, p. 100. LD.

Time

to

OLYMPIAN.

be

o.

The youth

horses

Terminus,

O. bards

Divine Ideas below.

OMENS.

fleet

p. 186.

who sung

Ode

reads

!

to

o.

Beauty,

p. 82.

May-Day,

p.

42.

OMNIPRESENT.

O. without name.

Experi

ence, p. 169.

ONWARD.

Right

o.

drive

unharmed.

Termi

nus, p. 187.

OPAL-COLORED. 55-

8

O.-c. days.

May-Day,

p.


OPTION.

By

not

fate,

o.

Xenophanes,

p.

163.

OPULENT.

O. soul, mingled from the gener

Ode

ous whole.

ORCHIS.

Where

Woodnotes,

p.

Beauty,

p. 81.

grew.

p. 127.

I.,

ORGAN. The

to

in far fields the o.

silent o. loudest chants.

Dirge,

189.

Or

dip

thy p. in the lake.

PADDLE. Woodnotes,

II., p.

P^EAN.

abroad the

Aloft,

135. p. swells.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 133.

PALLID.

Thousand

p.

towns.

May-Day,

p.

47-

Onward and

PAN.

notes, II., p.

on, the eternal P.

Wood-

139.

PARADISE. The point is P. where their glances /. D. and C. Love, p. 107. meet.

PAROQUET.

An

Xenophanes,

PARTHENON. The Problem, PAST.

infinite p.

,

Repeats one note.

p. 163.

Earth proudly wears the P. p. 15.

P., Present, C. Love, p. 1 08.

Future shoot.

/.

D. and


PEBBLE.

Shining

Beauty,

p.

Ode

of the pond.

to

p. 81.

PEBBLES.

Flung

in p. well to hear.

Beauty,

p. 178.

PENTECOST. And ever the

fiery

P.T/ie Prob

lem, p. 14.

PEREMPTORY.

clear.

Free,

p.,

Type

of p.

Merlin,

p.

114.

PERMANENCE.

Monadnock,

p.

153-

PIANO. Tinkle of

PICTURE.

Merlin,

p. strings.

All was p. as he passed.

p. 114.

Humble-

bee, p. 60.

PICTURES.

These

The Sphinx,

p. of time.

p. 9.

PINE.

I

that to-day

am

a

p.

Woodnotes,

II.,

through

my

139-

P-

PINE-TREE. thought. PITS.

So waved the Woodnotes,

p.-t.

II., p.

130.

P. of woe.

Beauty, p. 178. S. of Nat., p. 159.

P. of air.

PLAIN-DEALING.

P.-d. nature gave.

Mus-

ketaq., p. 166.

PLUMULE.

Fled the

Monadnock,

p.

151.

last

p.

of the

dark.


n6 POLES.

POOR.

By their animate p. Sphinx, p. 8. The outrage of the p. Bost. Hymn,

p. 203.

POUNDING. With

my hammer p.

Sea-Shore,

113.

p.

POWER S.

Drops from

May-Day, Their too

PRAYERS. PRIG.

much

Deaf

Little p.

PRIME.

redundant horn.

p.

to p.

S. of Nat., p. 160.

Worship,

p.

183.

Fable, p. 155.

Obeyed at p. Terminus, p. 187. At rich men s tables eaten bread and

PULSE.

Forbearance,

p.

P.

p. 45.

With a

PUZZLED.

p. 77. p. look.

Experience, p.

169.

PYRAMIDS.

To

Morning opes with haste her lids, The Problem, p. 15. gaze upon the p.

And

RAIN. Rivers,

p.

RAINDROP S. RANSOM.

ages drop in

R.

Pay

it

like

r.

Two

150.

r.

s a.

Ode

to

to the owner.

Beauty, Bost.

p. 81.

Hymn,

p. 206.

RAY.

No

r.

is

dimmed.

S. of Nat., p. 162.


RECOUNT. RECUT.

R.

the

numbers

Ode

well.

to

p. 82.

Beauty,

R. the aged prints.

Bacchus,

p.

119.

RED RIGHT ARM. REDRESS.

Voluntaries, p. 212.

R. the eternal scales.

Volunta

ries, p. 213.

REEF.

R. the

REQUIEM.

sail.

Terminus,

The master

REVOLVES.

Visibly

s r. /.

r.

p. 187.

Dirge, p. 189.

D. and

C. Love,

p. 108.

RHODORA.

The

fresh

r.

in the woods.

Rho-

Victors

daily

dora, p. 58.

RIGHTS.

Eternal

wrongs.

RlMS.

Day,

over

R. the running silver sheet.

May-

p. 47.

A

RINGS.

Day,

R.,

Voluntaries, p. 213.

subtle chain of countless

r.

May-

p. 42.

RIPPLES.

R. in rhymes the oar forsake.

Woodnotes,

RIVAL.

II., p.

Why

135.

thou wert there,

The Rhodora, p. 58. RIVER- GRAPES. A quest of r.-g.

O

r.

of the

rose.

p. 166.

Musketaq.,


n8 ROAD.

and

to build

Love delights C.

ROBE.

Love,

a

D.

S. of Nat., p. 161.

R. of snow.

Grace and glimmer of

ROMANCE.

I.

r.

p. 105.

r.

Art,

181.

p.

ROSE.

Speaks

Day,

languages the

all

r.

May-

p. 43-

Through thee Fresh

r.

the

Friendship,

r.

p. 177.

S. of Nat.,

on yonder thorn.

162.

p.

ROUNDING.

Grim, gray

r.

Monadnock,

p.

152.

ROUTINE.

Smug r. Man the

RUDDER.

Mithridates, p. 33. r.

Terminus,

p. 187.

R. drop of manly blood.

RUDDY.

Friend

ship, p. 177-

SAILING. history. SALVE. p.

1

S.

S. through Monadnock,

my

stars with all their p.

150.

worst wounds.

Musketaq.,

66.

SANDS.

S.

whereof

I

m made.

p. 81.

SANNUP.

Musketaq.,

p. 165.

Ode to Beauty,


And his eye is s., Fate, p. 89. Threatening, and young.

SCORNFUL. SCOWL.

on him with

I s.

my

Monad-

cloud.

nock, p. 152.

Rock and

SCROLL.

fire

the

S. of Nat., p.

s.

160.

And

SEA-SAND.

one of the

As

SECRET-SIGHT. Woodnotes,

SEER.

It

raise.

if

by

s.-s.

he knew.

127.

I., p.

Forests.

SEEMED.

Woodnotes,

I., p.

127.

seemed that Nature could not

Woodnotes,

SEEMING-SOLID. p.

S. of

salt s.-s.

p. 161.

Nat.,

I., p.

127.

S. - s walls of use.

Bacchus,

118.

SEETHE.

S.,

Fate!

the ancient elements.

S. of Nat., p. 162.

He

SERVETH.

and

C.

SEVEN.

Love,

that feeds p.

1 1

men

s.

few.

I.

D.

1.

Pine in vain the sacred

S.

Brahma,

P- 73-

SHAMS.

I

tire

of

s., I

rush to Be.

Nun s

Aspiration, p. 185.

SHARD.

Two

Of s. and

flint

Rivers, p. 156.

makes pebbles

gay.


120

As

SHEEP.

Wood-

go feeding in the waste.

s.

notes, II., p. 139.

SHELL.

Masters of the

Ode

s.

to

Beauty,

p.

82.

SHUDDERED.

Cold

s.

the sphere.

Sphinx,

p. 9.

SILVER.

S. to

creep and wind.

s.

C. Love, p. 109. S. hills of heaven.

SIN.

S. piles the

p.

loaded board.

117.

Woodnotes,

130.

II., p.

SINCERITY. p.

Bacchus,

D. and

/.

Wrought

in a

sad

s.

Problem,

14.

SKY.

Through thee alone the

s.

is

arched.

Friendship, p. 177.

SLAVE.

The

Hymn, SLAYER.

If

Brahma, SLIME. P-

s.

owner, and ever was.

Bost.

the red

s.

think

he

slays.

p. 73.

Flood

s

subsiding

S.

Britain s

s.

Woodnotes,

II.,

133-

SLOWSURE. Monadnock,

SLUMBER. p.

is

p. 206.

159.

In

secular

might

p. 151. s.

I

am

strong.

S. of

Nat,


121

SOBER.

S.

on a fund of joy.

Waldeinsamkeit,

157.

p.

SOLAR.

Secrets of the

track.

s.

Merlin,

p.

114. I

bide in the

SPADE.

my

All

Musketaq.,

He

SPARKLE.

s.

my

garden

s.

can heal.

166.

p.

the

is

S. of Nat., p. 159.

glory.

hurts

s.

of the spar.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 140.

The world

SPELLS.

Woodnotes,

SPENDING.

II., p. I

is

the ring of his

s.

139.

hear the

s.

Two

of the stream.

Rivers, p. 156.

SPENT. 1

and aged

S.

things.

S. of Nat., p.

60.

SPHINX. Uprose the merry SPIDERS. Beauty,

Swinging

s.

s.

silver

Sphinx, line.

S.

May-Day,

to

over

the

mountain- chains.

p. 47.

SPIRES.

Through all the s. of form. Day, p. 42. SPORTIVE. S. sun. S. of Nat., p. S.

Ode

p. 81.

SPILLING.

SPRING.

p. 11.

May159.

Daughter of Heaven and Earth, coy

May-Day,

p. 41.


122

SPRUCE.

up hither the

Pants

Monadnock,

Wave

STAFF.

clerk.

s.

151.

p.

thy

in air.

s.

Woodnotes, p.

135-

STAINLESS.

S. soldier

on the

Volun

walls.

taries, p. 212.

S.-d.

and

II., p.

133.

STAR-DUST. Woodnotes,

Why

STAR-FORM. Woodnotes,

Rhea,

pilgrimages.

s.-f.

she repeats.

127.

p.

Fetch her

STARS.

the

star

s.

to

deck her

hair.

71?

p. 22.

STREAM. Dark

Cone.

that seaward creeps.

s.

Fight, p. 202.

The

love

s. I

Love,

p.

SUCCESSION.

SUCCORY.

Two Riv

goes.

156.

ers, p.

SUBSTANCES. C.

unbounded

S. at 1

base divided.

7.

D. and

08. swift.

S.

S. to

Experience,

match the

sky.

p.

169.

Humblebee,

p. 60.

SUN.

Will take the

s.

out of the skies.

Ode,

p. 208.

The

s.

himself shines heartily.

Soul, p. 26.

World-


123 Singing in the s.-b square.

SUN-BAKED. Art, p. 181.

SUNBURNT.

world a

S.

man

shall

breed.

S. of Nat., p. 162.

SUN-PATH.

S.-p. in

thy worth.

Friendship,

p. 177.

Sparks of the

SUPERSOLAR.

s.

blaze.

Mer

lin, p. 114.

SURFACE.

and Dream.

S.

Experience, p.

169.

SURGE. p.

summer s

S. of

beauty.

Musketaq, ,

164. S. sea

SURGING.

Friendship, p.

outweighs.

177.

Stair-way of

SURPRISE.

Merlin,

s.

p.

Time and Thought were

SURVEYORS.

115.

my

s.

S. of Nat., p. 160.

SWATHED. Nat., p.

S. their

too

SWORD.

Masters the

SYNOD.

Airy

p.

103.

much

power.

S. of

1 60.

s.

s.

bends.

Fate, p. 89. /.

D. and

C.

Love,


124 Counted

A

my

S. of Nat., p.

t.

159.

TAP-ROOTS.

T.-r.

the Andes.

reaching through under

Bacchus,

p. 117.

TAYLOR. T., the Shakespeare The Problem, p. 16.

TEEM. T. with unwonted and C. Love, p. 103.

TENDENCY.

of divines.

thoughts.

T. through endless ages.

/.

D.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 133.

TENDERLY.

T. the haughty day.

Ode, p.

207.

TENEMENTS.

Innumerable

t.

of beauty.

Musketaq., p. 166.

TENSE.

Affirmer of the present

t.

Monad-

nock, p. 153.

THANKS.

T. to the morning light.

World-

Soul, p. 24.

THATCH.

T. with towns the prairie broad. p. 26.

World-Soul,

THOUGHT S. Threnody,

T. p.

Out of T. p.

perilous,

whirling

pool.

197.

interior sphere.

The Problem,

15.

T. causing stream.

World-Soul,

p. 26.


I2 5

THREADING. Worship,

THROB.

T. dark ways, arriving

late.

183.

p.

mound

This

shall

t.

Monadnock,

p. 150.

Time and

TIDE. p.

t.

forever run.

S.

of Nat.,

161.

TINTS.

Refresh

the

faded

t.

Bacchus,

p.

119.

TIRE.

T. of globes and races.

S. of Nat.,

p. 161.

TORRENT. Nat.,

Rest on the pitch of the

TORRENTS.

Wine

Like the

Up

S.

t.

of

p. 159.

t.

that

is

shed

of the sun

the horizon walls.

TOWN-SPRINKLED. Monadnock, TRAILS.

T.-s.

p. 118.

lands that be.

p. 150.

To hunt upon

Forerunners,

Bacchus,

their

shining

t.

p. 68.

He

TRANSPARENCY.

hides in pure

t.

Wood-

notes, II., p. 140.

TRAVAIL.

T. in pain for him.

S.

of Nat.,

p. 161.

TRIBES. p. 159.

T.

my

house can

fill.

S. of Nat.,


126

Comes

TROUBADOUR. Monadnock,

p.

TRUE. He serves D. and C. Love,

TUMBLING.

p.

Monadnock,

deep.

TUNE. Nature beats II., p.

TWICE.

who

all

dares to be

/.

t.

in. uncontinented

steep in the

T.

T.

cheerful

that

150.

p.

152.

in perfect

Woodnotes,

t.

135.

T.

I

have molded an image.

S. of

Nat., p. 161.

T TNCONTINENTED.

U

U.

deep.Monad-

nock, p. 152.

Beam

UNIVERSE. Beauty,

p.

UNKNOWN.

to the

bounds of the

u.

178.

Known

fruit of

the u.

Sphinx,

p. 7-

UNMAKE.

U.

me

Ode

quite.

to

Beauty,

p.

81.

UNTAUGHT -Fate,

STRAIN.

You must add

the

u. s.

p. 88.

URN.

Fills his blue u.

USE.

U. and surprise.

with

fire.

Ode,

p. 207.

Experience, p. 169.


I2 7

On

T TAN. *

thy broad mystic

v.

May-Day,

p. 55-

VAULT.

This

Woodnotes,

v.

which

II., p.

immense.

glows

140.

VEGETABLE GOLD.

Guy,

p. 91.

VICTIM.

V. lying low.

VOICES.

Through a thousand

Voluntaries, p. 212. v.

Sphinx,

ii.

p.

1TTEB. VV

Play not in Nature

My

Garden,

p.

s

lawful w.

174.

WHEEL. In a region where the w. and C. Love, p. 108. WHEELS. W. which whirl the sun. Nat.,

D.

S. of

p. 161.

WHIRL. W. p.

/.

the glowing wheels.

S.

of Nat.,

162.

WHOLE.

The

Musketaq., I

of

the w.

yielded myself to the perfect w.

and All, WlNGS.

WINE.

linked purpose

p. 166.

I

am

p.

the w.

Brahma,

p. 73.

Pouring of his power the w.

notes, II., p. 139.

Each

13.

Wood-


128

WOODGODS.

The

partial

w.

Musketaq.,

p.

164.

WOOD-ROSE.

Loved the

its stalk.

W.

WOODS.

and

w.-r.

left it

on

Forbearance, p. 77. heart are

at

glad.

Waldein-

samkeit, p. 157.

WORKETH. W. high and wise. Ode, WORLD. W. rolls round, mistrust it May-Day,

WORM. Love,

1

not.

p. 47.

Starred p.

p. 208.

eternal

w.

/.

D. and

C.

08.

Striving to be

man, the w.

May -Day,

p.

42.

WORSE.

Alike to

Woodnotes,

W.

WREATH. Nat, WRITE.

p.

Nat.,

p.

W.

shall

miss.

the past in characters.

Y.

S.

of

S. of

the

Humblebee,

pit

of

the

Dragon.

p. 9.

YELLOW - BREECHED.

p. 82.

nothing

1 60.

Sphinx,

YOUNG.

the better, the w.

140.

159.

A^AWNS. *

him

II., p.

Y.-b.

philosopher.

p. 60.

Always

find us y.

Ode

to

Beauty,


I2 9

YOUTH.

Y. replies,

I

can.

Voluntaries, p.

211.

On

7 GDI AC.

*~*

the half-climbed

i.Thren-

ody, p. 198.

ZONES. of Nat.

Of ,

all

p.

the

162.

z.

and countless days.

5.



EMERSON AS A MAGAZINE T HE

/r

-*

N

following

list

TOPIC.

of magazine

and

peri-

for essays upon Emerson was the most part contributed to the Chicago

odical

Dial, by Mr. Poole, from his new "Index to Periodical Literature," and we have permis sion to use

it

here.

But we have found

it

necessary to append a number of recent titles, to bring the list down to our present date :

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (R. Buchanan), Broadway, 2: 223. (J. Burroughs) Galaxy, 21: 254,543.

M. Colton) Continental Monthly, i (G. Gilfillan) Tait s Magazine, n. s., 15:

(D. 49.

:

Same article, Living Age, 16: 97. (J. Connor) Catholic World, 27 90. (G. Pren Dublin tice) Methodist Quarterly, 24: 357. North British Review, 47: Review, 26: 152. 17.

O

:


132 BlackWestminster Review, 33 345. wood, 62: 643. (F. H. Underwood) North American Review, 130: 479. (B. Herford) :

319-

Dial (Ch.), 2:

114.

Address, July,

Boston Quarterly,

1838.

i

:

500.

Address on Forefathers

Day, 1870.

(I.

Tarbox) New Englander, 30 175. and his writings (G. Barmby). Howitt

N.

:

nal^:

Christian Review, 26

315.

and History.

:

s

Jour

640.

Southern Literary Messenger,

18: 249.

and Landor. Living Age, 52 371. and the Pantheists (H. Hemming). :

minion, 8: 65. and Transcendentalism.

New Do

American Whig Re

See Transcendentalism. and Spencer and Martineau. (W. R. Alger) Christian Examiner, 84 257.

view,

I

233.

:

:

Conduct of 19: 496. Culture.

Age, 98

(N. Porter) New Englander, Eclectic Review, 46 365. Life.

:

Fraser, 78:

I.

Same

art.,

Living

358. English Traits. :

Essays. tic

See England. Democratic Review, 16: 589.

Eclec

Magazine, 18: 546.

23: 344. 3 o: 253.

Living Age, 4: 139; (C. C. Felton) Christian Examiner, Boston Eclectic Review, 76 667.

Quarterly, 4

:

:

391.

Biblical

Review,

1

:

148.


133 Prospective Review, n.

s.,

1

Tait

232.

:

s

Magazine

8: 666.

-Home and Haunts

(F. B. Sanborn) Scrib-

of.

ner, 17: 496. -

Hewitt

Lectures at Manchester.

Journal, 2

s

:

370-

Visit to Scotland.

Douglas Jerrold

s

Shilling

Magazine, April, 1848. -

Lectures and Writings

of.

Every Saturday, 3

680; 4: 381. -Letters and Social Aims.

International

:

Re

view, 3 249. -New Lectures. :

Christian Review, 15: 249. -Poems. (C. E. Norton) Nation, 4: 430. American Whig Review, 6 197. (C. A. BarSouthern tol) Christian Examiner, 42: 255. :

Brownson, 4:

Literary Messenger, 13: 292.

Democratic Review,

262.

1

:

Christian

319.

Remembrancer, 15 300. Prose Works. Catholic World, Recent Lectures and Writings. :

-

-

Same

1 1

202.

:

Fraser, 75

:

Living Age, 93 581. (C. A. Bartol) Christian -Representative Men. Eclectic Review, 95 568. Examiner, 48 314. 586.

article,

:

:

:

British Quarterly,

and Solitude.

Society

March)

New

Writings.

38 13

:

:

n

87.

539-

281.

Fraser, 82

Englander, 8

(F. (J.

:

:

:

i.

(D.

186.

H. Hedge) Christian Examiner,

W.

Alexander) Princeton Review,


134 Chambers s Journal, 21, 382. Emerson number of Boston Literary World, May, 1 88 1. North American Review, July, 1882. Lippincott

s

Magazine, November, 1882.

Atlantic Monthly, August, 1882.

Harpers Monthly, July and September, 1882. Baldwin s Monthly, December, 1881. Demorest s Monthly, July, 1882.

Harpers Weekly, June

10, 1882.

The Century, July, 1882. The Modern Review, October,

1882.

Fortnightly Review, June, 1882.

London Illustrated News, May 6, London Graphic, May 6, 1882. London Athenaeum, May 6, 1882. London Academy, May 6, 1882.

1882.

Gentleman s Magazine, November, 1882. Colburn s New Monthly Magazine, December, 1882.

Various articles upon Emerson have also appeared in French, German, and other con tinental magazines; but, as we cannot com mand the dates necessary to make an account of

them reasonably complete, we forego the

attempt.



PRESS OF THEO.

L.

DE VINNE A CO.

N.




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