from Cliff notes
Emerson’s “The Poet”
Paragraphs 1–9 - The Poet as Interpreter
Emerson considers the nature and the
functions of the poet, "the man of Beauty," to whom he ascribes a
superior calling. Unlike the intellectual, who sees no dependence between the
material world and the world of thoughts and ideas, or the theologian, who
relies exclusively on historical evidence for truth, the poet acknowledges an
interdependence between the spiritual and the material worlds. This
relationship between the ideal — that which we aspire to be — and the real —
that which is — is a central issue in the discussion. Continuing the image of
the child from the epigraph, Emerson states that we are "children of the
fire," and the energy and brilliance of this fire is similar to the spirit
in each of us.
Following this introductory paragraph,
Emerson defines the poet as representing all humanity. The poet is "the
complete man" whom Americans can look to as an ideal. Isolated from
society, the poet has a spiritual affinity with nature. We need interpreters of
what nature expresses, Emerson reasons, because too many of us have distanced
ourselves from nature's life-affirming spirit: "Too feeble fall the impressions
of nature on us to make us artists. Every touch should thrill." The best
interpreter of nature is the poet, who sees what most of us only dream about.
The poet must act as a conduit, exposing nature's hidden secrets to us.
Likening the poet to one of three
"children" of the universe, Emerson constructs a system of threes:
cause, operation, and effect. Instances of this three-fold structure include
Christianity's Father, Spirit, and Son, and the Knower, the Doer, and the
Sayer. These triads stand for the love of truth, the love of good, and the love
of beauty, respectively, with the poet representing the last element in each
set: He is both the "sayer" and the lover of beauty. Emerson creates
an argument formally known as a syllogism: If, as he maintains, "Beauty is
the creator of the universe"; and if the poet is "the man of
Beauty"; then the poet is the creator of the universe.
Emerson continues his discussion of the
poet as the creator of the universe by arguing that "poetry was all
written before time was . . ." He is not suggesting that every poem was
written long ago, but that the recurring subject matter of poems — namely, our
lives and the reasons for our being — existed since the beginning of time.
Because our basic concerns of survival and our questioning why we exist
influence each age, he can legitimately characterize the poet's writings as
"primal warblings," present at time's beginning and shared by all of
humanity. The person who mines this spiritualism is "the true poet,"
true in the sense of being fundamental and essential to our lives and our
living.
Contrasting the true poet with the mere
versifier, Emerson joins the age-old fray about which is more important, how a
poem is written or what a poem is about, by arguing that content is only
slightly more important than a poem's form for two reasons. If the thought that
the poet is writing about "adorns nature with a new thing," then the
form of the poem will naturally follow the content and will not feel contrived.
Also, a poem's subject matter occurs prior to the form that a poem eventually
takes: We cannot write poetry without first having a subject to write about. A
person may be proficient in meter and rhyme but lack the inspiration and vision
of the true poet, who is not tied to a single age or format, but who writes
about nature's inner truths.
Paragraphs 10–18 - The Poet, Language, and Nature
In this second part of the essay,
Emerson discusses the poet's medium — language — and its relationship to
nature. Central to his thinking is the concept of language as a natural
phenomenon. Original, primitive languages tended to be highly image-based, and
Emerson believes that this characteristic can still be verified through
etymologies, which trace the history of words back to their original meanings,
usually constructed from concrete nouns. For instance, recalling the examples
presented in Nature, the word heart is used today to express emotion,
and we use the term head to
characterize thought. This is all part of what Emerson understands as the
symbolic function of language, which should not surprise us if we recall his
saying, "Things admit of being used as symbols because nature is a symbol,
in the whole, and in every part."
This symbolic language is universal,
but it is obscure to most people. One of the poet's main tasks is to interpret
nature for us. Hence, Emerson calls the poet "Namer" and "Language-maker."
He is not suggesting that a person who is not connected with nature is wholly
oblivious to its wonders, for such a person is "commanded in nature by the
living power which he feels to be there present." However, the "living
power" remains illusive and inexplicable to such a person, and especially
to the city dweller.
In this section, Emerson spends much of
his time reemphasizing his beliefs concerning the language of nature and the nature
of language, and the poet as the intermediary between the two. He also develops
two themes that are interrelated to each other: Every individual object in
nature is a microcosm of the whole, and these microcosms establish order in
nature. For example, most of us take a landscape's objects for granted, ".
. . but the poet sees them fall within the great Order not less than the
beehive or the spider's geometrical web." By interpreting a landscape for
society, the poet infuses each object with a power that makes it new: An object
is re-created into something new that the public has never seen before. Emerson
also touches on a favorite theme — evolution when he assures us that the poet
notes every object's spirit, which compels each object to ascend into a higher
form. Later in the essay, he will expand this theme to include the passage of
the soul into a higher form.
Through a highly elaborate comparison,
Emerson reflects on the relationship between the poet and the poet's work. The
poet is under the care of nature, just as a mushroom is. A mushroom grows wild,
with no one to ensure that it propagates and survives; nature, however, sees to
it that the fungus drops spores, which become new mushrooms. These spores are
comparable to poems leaving the poet's control and going out into the world
like immortal descendants, a process much like the Olympian bards' eternally
young songs from the epigraph. This notion of immortality is furthered by the
image of wings, which allow the true poet's poems to escape the censure of
small-minded critics, whose words are wingless and plodding. These poems,
winged with spiritual beauty, are able to escape mortality.
The poet, who uses nature's language to
interpret the world for society, benefits greatly from imagination, "a
very high sort of seeing." Emerson begins his inquiry into the nature of
imagination by telling the story of a local sculptor. This man was inarticulate
and inexpressive in words, but his statues conveyed a beauty and a meaning
beyond words. In similar fashion, the poet perceives the spiritual essences of
things: Whereas the sculptor shapes marble, the poet patterns language to
create art. A poem may not always have realistic details, but, by using
imagination, the poet depicts an inner reality, a poetic expression that often
seems wild and irrational.
From this idea Emerson moves to the
frequent association of poets with overindulgence, especially with alcohol or narcotics,
which is to be understood, he says, because the poet always seeks contact with
what is below the surface of things, what he terms "the true nectar."
Furthermore, the poet, because he deals in images of physical beauty, is more
attuned to the life of the senses, to appetites and sensations. However, the
true poet, who reaches the highest understanding, takes the greatest care to
ingest only what is pure and most unsullied: "The sublime vision comes to
the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body." This true poet
realizes that imagination itself is the most satisfying and effective
intoxicant.
Emerson now returns to the importance
of the poet to humanity, and this time he stresses that the poet is not only an
interpreter of nature: He is akin to "liberating gods." The poet
releases the liberating power of our imaginations, and those of us whose
imaginations struggle to make sense of the world can find our inspiration in
his words. The image of children signifies the unrestrained and refreshing joy
Emerson says touches those whose imaginations are free from everyday, urban
worries. Note the uncharacteristic buoyancy in this reference: "We seem to
be touched by a wand which makes us dance and run about happily, like
children." Later in this passage, Emerson uses the terms
"liberation" and "emancipation" as equivalents for
"transcendence." Liberation, he says, is similar to the transcendence
he describes in other essays. Here, the transcendent state is presented in such
phrases as "a new sense" and "within their world another world,
or nest of worlds."
If the poet is humanity's liberating
god, what is it that humanity needs liberating of? Emerson answers this
question by using the image of a shepherd lost only a few feet from his cottage
door. This shepherd, who perishes in a snowstorm because he is unable to find
the security of home, is emblematic of the floundering state of humanity, which
is "on the brink of the waters of life and truth . . . miserably
dying." We are so locked into our private thoughts and our selfish
actions, Emerson says, that the greater truths that bind us together have been
lost; we are at the edge of the water that is universal truth, but we do not
realize our thirst and are slowly wasting away in our personal prisons. The poet
is the key to unlock these prisons, the cup that can quench our thirsts,
because he creates new thoughts that liberate us of our own selfish wants.
In discussing this liberating aspect of
poetry, Emerson invokes the name of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish mystic and
philosopher who is mentioned in many of his essays. Swedenborg is an example of
the visionary who sees what others do not, and whose strange and original
images allow us to view our world in a new light. Note Swedenborg's
nationality, and recall Emerson's invocation in "The American
Scholar" for an American literature free from the confines of the European
tradition. At first glance, Emerson seems to be contradicting his own
proclamations concerning this new American vision when he admiringly discusses
Swedenborg. However, Swedenborg represents an ideal that Emerson hopes
Americans will achieve for themselves, which is why Emerson, in the next
section, will launch his characteristic summons for an American literature and
an American poet whose voice celebrates America's rich character — not
Europe's.
Paragraphs 19-29 - The Poet and Imagination
The poet, who uses nature's language to
interpret the world for society, benefits greatly from imagination, "a
very high sort of seeing." Emerson begins his inquiry into the nature of
imagination by telling the story of a local sculptor. This man was inarticulate
and inexpressive in words, but his statues conveyed a beauty and a meaning
beyond words. In similar fashion, the poet perceives the spiritual essences of
things: Whereas the sculptor shapes marble, the poet patterns language to
create art. A poem may not always have realistic details, but, by using imagination,
the poet depicts an inner reality, a poetic expression that often seems wild
and irrational.
From this idea Emerson moves to the
frequent association of poets with overindulgence, especially with alcohol or
narcotics, which is to be understood, he says, because the poet always seeks
contact with what is below the surface of things, what he terms "the true
nectar." Furthermore, the poet, because he deals in images of physical
beauty, is more attuned to the life of the senses, to appetites and sensations.
However, the true poet, who reaches the highest understanding, takes the greatest
care to ingest only what is pure and most unsullied: "The sublime vision
comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body." This true
poet realizes that imagination itself is the most satisfying and effective
intoxicant.
Emerson now returns to the importance
of the poet to humanity, and this time he stresses that the poet is not only an
interpreter of nature: He is akin to "liberating gods." The poet
releases the liberating power of our imaginations, and those of us whose imaginations
struggle to make sense of the world can find our inspiration in his words. The
image of children signifies the unrestrained and refreshing joy Emerson says
touches those whose imaginations are free from everyday, urban worries. Note
the uncharacteristic buoyancy in this reference: "We seem to be touched by
a wand which makes us dance and run about happily, like children." Later
in this passage, Emerson uses the terms "liberation" and
"emancipation" as equivalents for "transcendence."
Liberation, he says, is similar to the transcendence he describes in other
essays. Here, the transcendent state is presented in such phrases as "a
new sense" and "within their world another world, or nest of
worlds."
If the poet is humanity's liberating
god, what is it that humanity needs liberating of? Emerson answers this
question by using the image of a shepherd lost only a few feet from his cottage
door. This shepherd, who perishes in a snowstorm because he is unable to find
the security of home, is emblematic of the floundering state of humanity, which
is "on the brink of the waters of life and truth . . . miserably
dying." We are so locked into our private thoughts and our selfish
actions, Emerson says, that the greater truths that bind us together have been
lost; we are at the edge of the water that is universal truth, but we do not
realize our thirst and are slowly wasting away in our personal prisons. The
poet is the key to unlock these prisons, the cup that can quench our thirsts,
because he creates new thoughts that liberate us of our own selfish wants.
In discussing this liberating aspect of
poetry, Emerson invokes the name of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish mystic and
philosopher who is mentioned in many of his essays. Swedenborg is an example of
the visionary who sees what others do not, and whose strange and original
images allow us to view our world in a new light. Note Swedenborg's
nationality, and recall Emerson's invocation in "The American
Scholar" for an American literature free from the confines of the European
tradition. At first glance, Emerson seems to be contradicting his own proclamations
concerning this new American vision when he admiringly discusses Swedenborg.
However, Swedenborg represents an ideal that Emerson hopes Americans will
achieve for themselves, which is why Emerson, in the next section, will launch
his characteristic summons for an American literature and an American poet
whose voice celebrates America's rich character — not Europe's.
Paragraphs 30–33 - The Poet and America
In this final section, Emerson reflects on the need for a
true poet of the American experience who can be to Americans what Shakespeare
is to the British, and what Dante is to Italians. Such a poet has not yet
emerged. ("The Poet" was published eleven years before the
publication of Leaves of Grass by
Walt Whitman, who is generally recognized as an answer to Emerson's call for an
American poet, just as Robert Frost might be considered a contemporary example
of what Emerson is seeking.) Emerson calls for a new American poetics that
reveals the nature of this new continent, just as in "The American
Scholar" he calls for a new philosophy commensurate with the new world.
The last two paragraphs express an almost ecstatic
invocation of the poet: Always the diligent craftsman, Emerson's invoking the
muse reminds us of Greek mythology and returns us to the essay's epigraphs. He
bids his idealized American poet to rise to new heights of expressiveness and
insight.
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