Ralph Waldo Emerson’s concept of poetry and the poet

Contents

1. Introduction

2. The poet and poetry: a closer look
2.1 Emerson’s understanding of poetry
2.2 Emerson’s understanding of the poet

3. The poets functions
3.1 The poet as representative
3.2 The poet as Seer
3.3 The poet as Prophet
3.4 The poet as Namer or Language-maker

4. The Importance of the poet
4.1 The importance of the poet to society
4.2 The poet and America

5. Emerson’s “perfect poet”

6. Conclusion

7. Works Cited
7.1 Primary Sources
7.2 Secondary Sources

1. Introduction

Ralph Waldo Emerson today is known as one of the leading figures of the American transcendentalist movement. After his studies at Harvard Divinity School he became minister at Second Church in Boston. In 1832, he decided to give up his original profession as a Unitarian Minister, when he realized that he did not agree anymore with the views of the Christian Church which proclaimed that Jesus was the only real prophet, and that revelation is something which is already over (cf. Woodlief). Emerson especially made his opinion clear concerning these views in his provocative lecture and essay “Divinity School Address”. Instead of his religious profession as a minister, he then pursued a career as an orator, a writer, and a poet, but still then religion played an important role in his life, and religious influence can be seen throughout his writings.

Emerson regarded the person of the poet as one of the most important and greatest figures among men. He refers to the poet, his abilities and his importance in many of his works like “Nature”, Representative Men and “The American Scholar”. He even dedicated a whole essay, which is called “The Poet”, to this topic. In this essay he reflects upon the person and the importance of the poet as well as his poetry which he also considered as highly significant for men.

This essay will show that Emerson’s concept of the poet plays a central role in his idea of how men can gain insight into the secrets and the truths of the world and how they can regain access to the Oversoul. It will do so, by especially focusing on the works mentioned above. At first, it will look at Emerson’s understanding of the terms “poet” and “poetry” which serves as a basis for the following exploration of the poet’s functions as representative, Seer, Prophet and Namer or Language-maker. Afterwards, the poet’s role in society in general and especially his importance for America, on the basis of his functions, is analyzed. In the last part, Emerson’s idea of the “perfect” poet and his value for society is described before the essay finishes with a concluding statement.

2. The poet and poetry: a closer look

Emerson’s understanding of poetry and the poet differs from our current understanding of these terms. In this section his concepts of poetry and the poet are explored.

2.1 Emerson’s understanding of poetry

According to the statements in Emerson’s essay “The Poet” almost any text can be seen as a poem: words, language in general and even nature if it can be deciphered as a ‘book of God’. In his opinion “a poem does not have to be long, or written in verse” (“The Poet” 18) to be recognized as a poem. He even describes America as a poem (cf. “The Poet 38, 42-43). Unfortunately, Emerson does not clearly define the term “poetry” in his essay, but he gives some hints about the nature of poetry with which the reader is enabled to understand, or at least guess, what poetry could mean for him.

First, Emerson states that poetry is based on nature. He traces this connection back to the direct relationship between words and natural facts (cf. “Nature” 42). “Every word which is used to express a moral or intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed from some material appearance” (“Nature” 43). As examples he uses the word “heart” which expresses emotions or “head” which is a symbol for thought (cf. “Nature” 43). This means that there exists an “immediate dependence of language upon nature” (Mott 84). Additionally, Emerson holds the opinion that the “finest poetry was first experience”
(Representative Men 215) which explains further the close connection between natural facts and words. The poet creates poetry out of his own experiences with nature which shows as well that poetry is based on nature and therefore nature is mirrored in poetry at the same time
(cf. Representative Men 213).

Furthermore, Emerson states in “Nature” that “Every natural fact is a symbol of a spiritual fact” (“Nature” 43), a statement that implies that spirituality is contained within nature. But if spirituality lies within nature and poetry is based on nature then poetry itself has a divine nature (cf. Buell 15). Hallengren even goes so far as to say that “the language of God is poetry” (Hallengren 303) and that “poetry came out as the sacred, the highest truth” (Hallengren 300) when man became an intellectual (cf. Hallengren 300). With that he awards a very a high status to poetry, namely that poetry is created by God himself and that it serves as the tool with which truth should be brought to the people.

Additionally, according to Emerson “Every word was once poem” (The Poet 18) and “language is fossil poetry” (“The Poet 22). These statements show that the essence of language and even words can be seen as poetry because they reflect the image which lies at their bottom (cf. Mann 473) and therefore every word which is a symbol of nature at the same time fulfills his expectations of a poem. In his view, poetry also can be seen as the first language which existed. For Emerson even a single word, when it is created on the basis of nature, can be already identified as poetry. So, poetry is something which – in his view – is produced out of human experience on the basis of nature and thus has a symbolic characteristic.

But poetry also serves a purpose. “In Emerson’s view, poetry is essentially an approach to truth, a decoding of the enigma of nature and man” (Hallengren 281). By naming things of the world in poetry people are enabled to understand the secrets of the world and to gain insight into its truths. This works because people are inspired when they read a poem which touches them and therefore they are “set free of our [their] chains” (“The Poet” 12), see the meaning behind things and begin to interpret them. In this case, things become clear to them and they are enabled to gain insight into the higher truths of the world which are reflected in poetry (cf. “The Poet” 12).

2.2 Emerson’s understanding of the poet

Emerson states in his essay Representative Men that “The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome” (Representative Men 3). The poet belongs to this class of men through whose lenses “we read our own minds” (Representative Men 5) and who were “entitled to the position of leaders or law-givers” (Representative Men 20) because of some extraordinary quality.

A prerequisite for being a genius is self-reliance. A true genius, which a true poet is, has to believe in his own thoughts and he has to trust in himself (“Self-Reliance” 210). The poet needs this quality because if he cannot trust himself other people, namely the readers, are also not able to believe in his statements. In this case he would loose his representative function and his position as leader.

[...]