The Project Gutenberg eBook ofPoemsThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: PoemsAuthor: Ralph Waldo EmersonRelease date: July 7, 2004 [eBook #12843]Most recently updated: October 28, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Etxt produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed ProofreadersHTML file produced by David Widger*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: PoemsAuthor: Ralph Waldo EmersonRelease date: July 7, 2004 [eBook #12843]Most recently updated: October 28, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Etxt produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed ProofreadersHTML file produced by David Widger
Title: Poems
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Release date: July 7, 2004 [eBook #12843]Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Etxt produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed ProofreadersHTML file produced by David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS ***
CONTENTS
PREFACE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
I —POEMS
GOOD-BYE
EACH AND ALL
THE PROBLEM
TO RHEA
THE VISIT
URIEL
THE WORLD-SOUL
THE SPHINX
ALPHONSO OF CASTILE
MITHRIDATES
TO J.W.
DESTINY
GUY
HAMATREYA
THE RHODORA:
THE HUMBLE-BEE
BERRYING
THE SNOW-STORM
WOODNOTES I
WOODNOTES II
MONADNOC
FABLE
ODE
ASTRAEA
COMPENSATION
FORBEARANCE
THE PARK
FORERUNNERS
SURSUM CORDA
ODE TO BEAUTY
GIVE ALL TO LOVE
TO ELLEN AT THE SOUTH
TO ELLEN
TO EVA
LINES
THE VIOLET
THE AMULET
THINE EYES STILL SHINED
EROS
HERMIONE
INITIAL, DAEMONIC AND CELESTIAL LOVE
II. THE DAEMONIC LOVE
III. THE CELESTIAL LOVE
THE APOLOGY
MERLIN I
MERLIN II
BACCHUS
MEROPS
THE HOUSE
SAADI
HOLIDAYS
XENOPHANES
THE DAY'S RATION
BLIGHT
MUSKETAQUID
DIRGE
THRENODY
CONCORD HYMN
II —MAY-DAY AND OTHER PIECES
MAY-DAY
THE ADIRONDACS
BRAHMA
NEMESIS
FATE
FREEDOM
ODE
BOSTON HYMN
VOLUNTARIES
LOVE AND THOUGHT
UNA
BOSTON
LETTERS
RUBIES
MERLIN'S SONG
THE TEST
SOLUTION
HYMN
NATURE I
NATURE II
THE ROMANY GIRL
DAYS
MY GARDEN
THE CHARTIST'S COMPLAINT
THE TITMOUSE
THE HARP
SEASHORE
SONG OF NATURE
TWO RIVERS
WALDEINSAMKEIT
TERMINUS
THE NUN'S ASPIRATION
APRIL
MAIDEN SPEECH OF THE AEOLIAN HARP
CUPIDO
THE PAST
THE LAST FAREWELL
IN MEMORIAM E.B.E.
III —ELEMENTS AND MOTTOES
EXPERIENCE
COMPENSATION
POLITICS
HEROISM
CHARACTER
CULTURE
FRIENDSHIP
SPIRITUAL LAWS
BEAUTY
MANNERS
ART
UNITY
WORSHIP
PRUDENCE
NATURE
THE INFORMING SPIRIT
CIRCLES
INTELLECT
GIFTS
PROMISE
CARITAS
POWER
WEALTH
ILLUSIONS
IV —QUATRAINS AND TRANSLATIONS
QUATRAINS
HUSH!
ORATOR
ARTIST
POET
POET
BOTANIST
GARDENER
FORESTER
NORTHMAN
FROM ALCUIN
EXCELSIOR
BORROWING
NATURE
FATE
HOROSCOPE
POWER
CLIMACTERIC
HERI, CRAS, HODIE
MEMORY
LOVE
SACRIFICE
PERICLES
CASELLA
SHAKSPEARE
HAFIZ
NATURE IN LEASTS
TRANSLATIONS
SONNET OF MICHEL ANGELO BUONAROTTI
THE EXILE
FROM HAFIZ
EPITAPH
FRIENDSHIP
FROM OMAR KHAYYAM
FROM ALI BEN ABU TALEB
FROM IBN JEMIN
THE FLUTE
TO THE SHAH
TO THE SHAH
TO THE SHAH
SONG OF SEYD NIMETOLLAH OF KUHISTAN
V —APPENDIX
THE POET
FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT
FRAGMENTS ON NATURE AND LIFE
NATURE
THE EARTH
THE HEAVENS
TRANSITION
THE GARDEN
BIRDS
WATER
NAHANT
SUNRISE
NIGHT IN JUNE
MAIA
LIFE
REX
SUUM CUIQUE
THE BOHEMIAN HYMN
GRACE
INSIGHT
PAN
MONADNOC FROM AFAR
SEPTEMBER
EROS
OCTOBER
PETER'S FIELD
MUSIC
THE WALK
COSMOS
THE MIRACLE
THE WATERFALL
WALDEN
THE ENCHANTER
WRITTEN IN A VOLUME OF GOETHE
RICHES
PHILOSOPHER
INTELLECT
LIMITS
INSCRIPTION FOR A WELL IN MEMORY OF THE MARTYRS OF THE WAR
THE EXILE
VI —POEMS OF YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD
THE BELL
THOUGHT
PRAYER
TO-DAY
FAME
THE SUMMONS
THE RIVER
GOOD HOPE
LINES TO ELLEN
SECURITY
A MOUNTAIN GRAVE
A LETTER
HYMN
SELF-RELIANCE
WRITTEN IN NAPLES
WRITTEN AT ROME
WEBSTER
FROM THE PHI BETA KAPPA POEM
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
INDEX OF TITLES
In Mr. Cabot's prefatory note to the Riverside Edition of the Poems, published the year after Mr. Emerson's death, he said:—
"This volume contains nearly all the pieces included in the POEMS and MAY-DAY of former editions. In 1876, Mr. Emerson published a selection from his Poems, adding six new ones and omitting many[1] of those omitted, several are now restored, in accordance with the expressed wishes of many readers and lovers of them. Also some pieces never before published are here given in an Appendix; on various grounds. Some of them appear to have had Mr. Emerson's approval, but to have been withheld because they were unfinished. These it seemed best not to suppress, now that they can never receive their completion. Others, mostly of an early date, remained unpublished, doubtless because of their personal and private nature. Some of these seem to have an autobiographic interest sufficient to justify their publication. Others again, often mere fragments, have been admitted as characteristic, or as expressing in poetic form thoughts found in the Essays.
[1]: Little Classic Edition.
"In coming to a decision in these cases it seemed, on the whole, preferable to take the risk of including too much rather than the opposite, and to leave the task of further winnowing to the hands of Time.
"As was stated in the preface to the first volume of this edition of Mr. Emerson's writings, the readings adopted by him in the Selected Poems have not always been followed here, but in some cases preference has been given to corrections made by him when he was in fuller strength than at the time of the last revision.
"A change in the arrangement of the stanzas of 'May-Day,' in the part representative of the march of Spring, received his sanction as bringing them more nearly in accordance with the events in Nature."
In the preparation of the Riverside Edition of thePoems, Mr. Cabot very considerately took the present editor into counsel (as representing Mr. Emerson's family), who at that time in turn took counsel with several persons of taste and mature judgment with regard especially to the admission of poems hitherto unpublished and of fragments that seemed interested and pleasing. Mr. Cabot and he were entirely in accord with regard to the Riverside Edition. In the present edition, the substance of the Riverside Edition has been preserved, with hardly an exception, although some poems and fragments have been added. None of the poems therein printed have been omitted. "The House," which appeared in the first volume ofPoems, and "Nemesis," "Una," "Love and Thought" and "Merlin's Songs," from theMay-Dayvolume, have been restored. To the few mottoes of the Essays, which Mr. Emerson printed as "Elements" inMay-Day, most of the others have been added. Following Mr. Emerson's precedent of giving his brother Edward's "Last Farewell" a place beside the poem in his memory, two pleasing poems by Ellen Tucker, his first wife, which he published in theDial, have been placed with his own poems relating to her. The publication in the last edition of some poems that Mr. Emerson had long kept by him, but had never quite been ready to print, and of various fragments on Poetry, Nature and Life, was not done without advice and careful consideration, and then was felt to be perhaps a rash experiment. The continued interest which has been shown in the author's thought and methods and life—for these unfinished pieces contain much autobiography—has made the present editor feel it justifiable to keep almost all of these and to add a few. Their order has been slightly altered.
A few poems from the verse-books sufficiently complete to have a title are printed in the Appendix for the first time: "Insight," "September," "October," "Hymn" and "Riches."
After much hesitation the editor has gathered in their order of time, and printed at the end of the book, some twenty early pieces, a few of them taken from the Appendix of the last edition and others never printed before. They are for the most part journals in verse covering the period of his school-teaching, study for the ministry and exercise of that office, his sickness, bereavement, travel abroad and return to the new life. This sad period of probation is illuminated by the episode of his first love. Not for their poetical merit, except in flashes, but for the light they throw on the growth of his thought and character are they included.
In this volume the course of the Muse, as Emerson tells it, is pursued with regard to his own poems.