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The Poet
"The Poet" is an essay by U.S. writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, written between 1841 and 1843 and published in his Essays: Second Series in 1844. It is not about "men of poetical talents, or of industry and skill in meter, but of the true poet."
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
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Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Our logrolling, our stumps and their politics, our fisheries, our Negroes, and Indians, our boasts, and our repudiations, the wrath of rogues, and the pusillanimity of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, the western clearing, Oregon, and Texas, are yet unsung."
"Wherever snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble."
----
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
----
Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Our logrolling, our stumps and their politics, our fisheries, our Negroes, and Indians, our boasts, and our repudiations, the wrath of rogues, and the pusillanimity of honest men, the northern trade, the southern planting, the western clearing, Oregon, and Texas, are yet unsung."
"Wherever snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble."
22 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1844
About the author
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3,522 books5,428 followersRalph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803. Educated at Harvard and the Cambridge Divinity School, he became a Unitarian minister in 1826 at the Second Church Unitarian. The congregation, with Christian overtones, issued communion, something Emerson refused to do. "Really, it is beyond my comprehension," Emerson once said, when asked by a seminary professor whether he believed in God. (Quoted in 2,000 Years of Freethought edited by Jim Haught.) By 1832, after the untimely death of his first wife, Emerson cut loose from Unitarianism. During a year-long trip to Europe, Emerson became acquainted with such intelligentsia as British writer Thomas Carlyle, and poets Wordsworth and Coleridge. He returned to the United States in 1833, to a life as poet, writer and lecturer. Emerson inspired Transcendentalism, although never adopting the label himself. He rejected traditional ideas of deity in favor of an "Over-Soul" or "Form of Good," ideas which were considered highly heretical. His books include Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), Divinity School Address (1838), Essays, 2 vol. (1841, 1844), Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849), and three volumes of poetry. Margaret Fuller became one of his "disciples," as did Henry David Thoreau.
The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.
The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one- (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being" (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15, 1838). He demolished the right wing hypocrites of his era in his essay "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856). "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). He influenced generations of Americans, from his friend Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, and in Europe, Friedrich Nietzsche, who takes up such Emersonian themes as power, fate, the uses of poetry and history, and the critique of Christianity. D. 1882.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was his son and Waldo Emerson Forbes, his grandson.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
February 7, 2015
What this essay says, in case you don't feel like reading it:
1. Good poetry is pretty. Great poetry feels inevitable.
2. Good poetry can tell the story of an age; great poetry is for the ages, and lives on long after the poet and his culture have rotted away.
3. Great poetry makes us feel as if we've learned something new and, at the same time, as if we knew it all along.
4. Great poetry makes us feel as if we were just let out of prison.
5. Poetry is awesome, and it's for everybody. The idea that poetry can only be enjoyed by high-minded preshus snowflake-types is a load of hooey.
6. The idea that poets should be total drunkards and druggies? Also a load of hooey.
7. Poets shouldn't booze it up, but they should make their readers feel as if they just had a beer or three.
8. You can lead an exciting life or you can write great poetry, but you can't do both. At least not at the same time.
9. Great poetry is its own reward, for both the reader and the writer.
1. Good poetry is pretty. Great poetry feels inevitable.
2. Good poetry can tell the story of an age; great poetry is for the ages, and lives on long after the poet and his culture have rotted away.
3. Great poetry makes us feel as if we've learned something new and, at the same time, as if we knew it all along.
4. Great poetry makes us feel as if we were just let out of prison.
5. Poetry is awesome, and it's for everybody. The idea that poetry can only be enjoyed by high-minded preshus snowflake-types is a load of hooey.
6. The idea that poets should be total drunkards and druggies? Also a load of hooey.
7. Poets shouldn't booze it up, but they should make their readers feel as if they just had a beer or three.
8. You can lead an exciting life or you can write great poetry, but you can't do both. At least not at the same time.
9. Great poetry is its own reward, for both the reader and the writer.
Read
February 2, 2025Eu não li O Poeta quando devia ler para a aula em que me inscrevi de livre vontade, mas no outro dia li um excerto das Cartas a Milena em que o Kafka diz que a Milena em si é material de criação de poesia o que me fez questionar se o amor era poesia segundo a concepção do Emerson. O amor tem algumas das características que o Emerson aponta como poéticas: é original (pelo menos uma visão humanista dele que diria que cada amor é único), é invisível ao olho no e requer um olhar atento que veja os infinitos significados extra numa dada ação, não pode ser enganado com truques ou atalhos. Podemos dizer que como a natureza é autossustentável o amor também o é, morre e nasce constantemente entre os homens. No fundo a minha resposta derradeira de sim ou não é: não faço ideia desculpem.
September 2, 2019
[I read it in The Norton Anthology: American Literature (1820- 18865) Volume B]
This fifteen-page-long essay published in Essays, Second Series (1844) analyses the identity of poets and what makes one a unique and real poet, by exploring the human connections with the senses, nature, and the intellect. I found this read very eye-opening, so I highly recommend it.
In case you might be interested, some key words and phrases I underlined which were thoroughly remarked by Emerson throughout his essay: representation, expression, senses, symbols, thoughts, language, imagination, the intellect released, metamorphosis, the necessity of speech.
Here are other aspects and more concrete ideas which spoke to me considerably:
- "There is no accurate adjustment between the spirit and the organ."
- Despite being part and standing among men, the poet is representative of and for the unity of both.
- We are all capable of feeling, yet some are unable to express what we fell or have felt; unlike poets, who find a balance between these two powers.
- Miswriting poetry occurs when substituting a new thought that has come to us for one of our own in attempt to write it down, yet we lose part of its essence– the inmediacy is lost. This is due to the fact that "the observer is not yet active". The "true poet" is self-acknowledged and is able to perceive the independence of each thought on symbols. They are capable of unlocking a new thought and share it as a new scene, and just by the ejaculation of words as logos. Nevertheless, Emerson does not stop mentioning the fact that anyone can be a poet.
- Words were once a single poem, for they were created after some new relation and concept. They are suggestive and lead to imagination.
- Although the poet is aware of the facts, he employs them as facts.
- Language is: "a sort of tomb of the muses", "fossil poetry", "the archives of history".
- That which was once created by the poet, is no longer part of them once it is released– it flows, just like nature.
- When the intellect is released: imagination is most free, and a metamorphosis is possible. That's why Emerson refers to the poets as "liberating gods". "Poets are free, and they make free."
- It is inevitable to write conventional verses, despite having found something newly exciting to one's intellect and starts pursuing a beauty which flies before them.
I really liked the use of the personal pronoun, starting in third person and using the second person by the end of the essay– as a tone of encouragement and reassurance. I particularly enjoyed this part: Doubt not, O Poet, but persist. Say, "It is in me, and shall out." Stand there, baulked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand and strive, until, at last, rage draw out of thee at dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all limit and privacy.
Happy reading! x
This fifteen-page-long essay published in Essays, Second Series (1844) analyses the identity of poets and what makes one a unique and real poet, by exploring the human connections with the senses, nature, and the intellect. I found this read very eye-opening, so I highly recommend it.
In case you might be interested, some key words and phrases I underlined which were thoroughly remarked by Emerson throughout his essay: representation, expression, senses, symbols, thoughts, language, imagination, the intellect released, metamorphosis, the necessity of speech.
Here are other aspects and more concrete ideas which spoke to me considerably:
- "There is no accurate adjustment between the spirit and the organ."
- Despite being part and standing among men, the poet is representative of and for the unity of both.
- We are all capable of feeling, yet some are unable to express what we fell or have felt; unlike poets, who find a balance between these two powers.
- Miswriting poetry occurs when substituting a new thought that has come to us for one of our own in attempt to write it down, yet we lose part of its essence– the inmediacy is lost. This is due to the fact that "the observer is not yet active". The "true poet" is self-acknowledged and is able to perceive the independence of each thought on symbols. They are capable of unlocking a new thought and share it as a new scene, and just by the ejaculation of words as logos. Nevertheless, Emerson does not stop mentioning the fact that anyone can be a poet.
- Words were once a single poem, for they were created after some new relation and concept. They are suggestive and lead to imagination.
- Although the poet is aware of the facts, he employs them as facts.
- Language is: "a sort of tomb of the muses", "fossil poetry", "the archives of history".
- That which was once created by the poet, is no longer part of them once it is released– it flows, just like nature.
- When the intellect is released: imagination is most free, and a metamorphosis is possible. That's why Emerson refers to the poets as "liberating gods". "Poets are free, and they make free."
- It is inevitable to write conventional verses, despite having found something newly exciting to one's intellect and starts pursuing a beauty which flies before them.
I really liked the use of the personal pronoun, starting in third person and using the second person by the end of the essay– as a tone of encouragement and reassurance. I particularly enjoyed this part: Doubt not, O Poet, but persist. Say, "It is in me, and shall out." Stand there, baulked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand and strive, until, at last, rage draw out of thee at dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all limit and privacy.
Happy reading! x
May 6, 2023
Read for ENG 445: American Lit 1820-1870
June 19, 2019
Simply the work of a “man of genius”, as Emerson himself calls the poet. Exquisitely accurate and intentionally persuasive, this essay/lecture justifies the long wave of followers and artists that have been profoundly inspired by this man’s doctrine and ideals.
The language is rhetorical and does not proceed in a logical manner, but is nonetheless appealing to the mind of the reader, for which is deeply stimulating.
The language is rhetorical and does not proceed in a logical manner, but is nonetheless appealing to the mind of the reader, for which is deeply stimulating.
March 30, 2022
"Milton says, that the lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but the epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods and their descent unto men, must drink water out of a wooden bowl."
June 12, 2025
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 (at least for now)
I really like many of the sentiments in this essay. It’s when you think about them in a practical sense that things get messy—Emerson won’t say it, but he does suggest a hierarchy of imaginative powers, and while nearly all of us are guilty of that, we don’t actually say it out loud because that leads to rigidity and Puritanism and hopefully we don’t want that.
Emerson is also a bit pedantic in his veneration of nature as the absolute. (Though, as he’s a transcendentalist, I suppose it’s not actually pedantic, since his position is that nature is God?)
Still, unto itself, I found this essay thrilling, though not exactly persuasive. Yet also, kinda yes? Having a weird reaction to it.
I really like many of the sentiments in this essay. It’s when you think about them in a practical sense that things get messy—Emerson won’t say it, but he does suggest a hierarchy of imaginative powers, and while nearly all of us are guilty of that, we don’t actually say it out loud because that leads to rigidity and Puritanism and hopefully we don’t want that.
Emerson is also a bit pedantic in his veneration of nature as the absolute. (Though, as he’s a transcendentalist, I suppose it’s not actually pedantic, since his position is that nature is God?)
Still, unto itself, I found this essay thrilling, though not exactly persuasive. Yet also, kinda yes? Having a weird reaction to it.
December 21, 2020
puslapių mažai, tačiau minties daug
March 14, 2026
no bc i read this exactly the way i know FOR A FACT walt whitman read this, nodding and going, "yep, that's me"
(i cannot stress how much i mean this ironically)
(i cannot stress how much i mean this ironically)
January 17, 2025
The classes we had on this, and the reading of it, will always be one of my most treasured experiences in this stage of life.
October 2, 2015
...he stands one step nearer to things, and sees the flowing of metamorphosis . . . his speech flows with the flowing of nature...
and he speaks most adequately when he speaks somewhat wildly.
and he speaks most adequately when he speaks somewhat wildly.
March 9, 2026
Stunningly written. Absolutely Superb. Everything, literally everything, is highlighted. Emerson might take the cake for being the most quotable writer I've come across. Wow, just wow.
(read in tandem with Wordsworth's Preface):
I think both Wordsworth and Emerson are touching on something distinctly modern: overstimulation. That modern life dulls our sensitivity to the wonders of the natural world and to the beauty of ordinary experience. I think both writers seek to use poetry as a way for humans to be more human, to tap into the qualities that make us special as humans—our sensibilities, sensitivities, creativity, and our soul. In a way, it is a very contemporary and timely argument, especially in the time of AI. What makes writing special and human? When it reflects the soul, of ourselves, and of the world around us. Wordsworth writes during the upheaval of industrialization, criticizing a culture increasingly addicted to sensational entertainment, while Emerson imagines the poet as a figure who can recover humanity’s deeper relationship with nature and beauty. Their arguments remain remarkably timely in 2026, as society approaches a new technological threshold. At a moment when machines can imitate writing and creativity, Wordsworth and Emerson remind us that what makes poetry—and perhaps humanity itself—valuable is not technical production or drama, but the unique expression of the human soul.
Emerson pushes this insight even further in "The Poet." Like Wordsworth, he believes modern people have lost the ability to perceive the world deeply. “Too feeble fall the impressions of nature on us to make us artists,” he writes. The world is full of beauty and meaning, yet most people feel it only faintly. I really loved it when he wrote “every touch should thrill.” The poet is the person in whom these impressions fully awaken—“the man without impediment, who sees and handles that which others dream of,” and who possesses “the largest power to receive and to impart.” The poet becomes a kind of mediator between the world and humanity, translating experience into language.
For Emerson, this ability comes not from technical skill but from the soul. He criticizes a shallow culture of aesthetic taste, observing that those who are “esteemed umpires of taste” may know the rules of art, yet they lack genuine depth. Their appreciation of beauty is superficial because they fail to see the connection between spirit and form. True beauty emerges when the soul expresses itself through art. As he writes, people have “lost the perception of the instant dependence of form upon soul.”
The Preface of Lyrical Ballads expands this. Wordsworth observes that modern society, especially in cities, produces a constant stream of stimulation. He describes “an increasing accumulation of men in cities” and argues that readers have developed “a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies.” Newspapers, theater, and sensational literature bombard people with violence and drama, which causes people to require increasingly extreme stimuli simply to feel anything at all. Literature becomes entertainment rather than reflection or inspiration.
This feels eerily familiar today. We are oversaturated with news, and modern politics often feels like tabloid gossip. Short-term content on social media shows us beauty, tragedy, scandal, and violence within seconds—“reel culture” designed to keep us endlessly scrolling. The result is a strange emotional numbness. We scroll past death, war, and suffering with barely a reaction. We turn tragedy into memes! I think we have to ask ourselves, is this even human? Have we lost our humanity?
(read in tandem with Wordsworth's Preface):
I think both Wordsworth and Emerson are touching on something distinctly modern: overstimulation. That modern life dulls our sensitivity to the wonders of the natural world and to the beauty of ordinary experience. I think both writers seek to use poetry as a way for humans to be more human, to tap into the qualities that make us special as humans—our sensibilities, sensitivities, creativity, and our soul. In a way, it is a very contemporary and timely argument, especially in the time of AI. What makes writing special and human? When it reflects the soul, of ourselves, and of the world around us. Wordsworth writes during the upheaval of industrialization, criticizing a culture increasingly addicted to sensational entertainment, while Emerson imagines the poet as a figure who can recover humanity’s deeper relationship with nature and beauty. Their arguments remain remarkably timely in 2026, as society approaches a new technological threshold. At a moment when machines can imitate writing and creativity, Wordsworth and Emerson remind us that what makes poetry—and perhaps humanity itself—valuable is not technical production or drama, but the unique expression of the human soul.
Emerson pushes this insight even further in "The Poet." Like Wordsworth, he believes modern people have lost the ability to perceive the world deeply. “Too feeble fall the impressions of nature on us to make us artists,” he writes. The world is full of beauty and meaning, yet most people feel it only faintly. I really loved it when he wrote “every touch should thrill.” The poet is the person in whom these impressions fully awaken—“the man without impediment, who sees and handles that which others dream of,” and who possesses “the largest power to receive and to impart.” The poet becomes a kind of mediator between the world and humanity, translating experience into language.
For Emerson, this ability comes not from technical skill but from the soul. He criticizes a shallow culture of aesthetic taste, observing that those who are “esteemed umpires of taste” may know the rules of art, yet they lack genuine depth. Their appreciation of beauty is superficial because they fail to see the connection between spirit and form. True beauty emerges when the soul expresses itself through art. As he writes, people have “lost the perception of the instant dependence of form upon soul.”
The Preface of Lyrical Ballads expands this. Wordsworth observes that modern society, especially in cities, produces a constant stream of stimulation. He describes “an increasing accumulation of men in cities” and argues that readers have developed “a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies.” Newspapers, theater, and sensational literature bombard people with violence and drama, which causes people to require increasingly extreme stimuli simply to feel anything at all. Literature becomes entertainment rather than reflection or inspiration.
This feels eerily familiar today. We are oversaturated with news, and modern politics often feels like tabloid gossip. Short-term content on social media shows us beauty, tragedy, scandal, and violence within seconds—“reel culture” designed to keep us endlessly scrolling. The result is a strange emotional numbness. We scroll past death, war, and suffering with barely a reaction. We turn tragedy into memes! I think we have to ask ourselves, is this even human? Have we lost our humanity?
December 15, 2017
"If I have not found that excellent combination of gifts in my
countrymen which I seek, neither could I aid myself to fix the idea of the poet by reading
now and then in Chalmers's collection of five centuries of English poets. These are wits,
more than poets, though there have been poets among them. But when we adhere to
the ideal of the poet, we have our difficulties even with Milton and Homer. Milton is too
literary, and Homer too literal and historical."
It's interesting how Emerson criticises other forms of poetry to establish, define, and declare American poetry.
countrymen which I seek, neither could I aid myself to fix the idea of the poet by reading
now and then in Chalmers's collection of five centuries of English poets. These are wits,
more than poets, though there have been poets among them. But when we adhere to
the ideal of the poet, we have our difficulties even with Milton and Homer. Milton is too
literary, and Homer too literal and historical."
It's interesting how Emerson criticises other forms of poetry to establish, define, and declare American poetry.
June 5, 2020
The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imaginative men.
But nature has a higher end, in the production of new individuals, than security, namely ascension , or the passage of the soul into higher forms.
The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the common wealth.
For the experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems always waiting for its poet.
February 25, 2025
Li para universidade e gostei muito, sobretudo dos pontos em que Emerosn defende uma poesia democrática, a poesia é para todos e o poeta não precisa ser um esnobe (kkkkk), o que é contraditório em muitas mentalidades, afinal o estereótipo do poeta são dois extremos: ou extremamente miserável, viciado em substâncias ilícitas; ou um chato que tem síndrome de superioridade. Aqui o poeta é simplesmente quem nomeia, quem traduz o mundo através da sua beleza. Para Emerson, o poeta é uma pessoa moderada e representativa.
October 26, 2020
"Kiekvienas žodis jau yra buvęs eilėraščiu."
"Kiekviena idėja yra nepasiekiama, bet kai įsigauname į jos esmę, būna nuostabu. Netgi kai esi arčiausiai jos, atrodo, kad niekad nepasieksi, o kai nutolsti, ji atrodo visai šalia. Kiekviena mintis irgi yra nelaisvė, ir bet koks dangus taip pat."
Atrodo kaip supaprastintas ir susodrintas Rilkė.
"Kiekviena idėja yra nepasiekiama, bet kai įsigauname į jos esmę, būna nuostabu. Netgi kai esi arčiausiai jos, atrodo, kad niekad nepasieksi, o kai nutolsti, ji atrodo visai šalia. Kiekviena mintis irgi yra nelaisvė, ir bet koks dangus taip pat."
Atrodo kaip supaprastintas ir susodrintas Rilkė.
September 22, 2023
A very hopeful and motivating message for writers to discover the truth and beauty, everthing given to us in the chosen form of word. The language we create is a glimpse of the shadow which brought us all here. The true esssence of symbols gets lost, writing is the exercise to bring them all back and discover the new, yet the old, the universe that has always been here since it's beggining.
February 28, 2021
An essay read by this geezer today, written by some other geezer that is about 180 years old about yet another geezer that lived a few hundred years before the second geezer.
All in all another Emerson essay to whittle away some time with, unless you prefer whittling that is.
All in all another Emerson essay to whittle away some time with, unless you prefer whittling that is.
April 9, 2024
Emerson pulls a 180 and decides he loves things that beep and make loud noises and destroy property ??? Hi?? Remember nature???? What about the grass???
I take it back he actually regretted this so hard and this piece is stunning I am wide eyed
I take it back he actually regretted this so hard and this piece is stunning I am wide eyed
February 25, 2020
Pesadísimo este señor.
July 9, 2022
Worthwhile words
Not every Emerson essay contains a memorable quote, but many do. Some of his observations are actually quite radical, which surprised me.
Not every Emerson essay contains a memorable quote, but many do. Some of his observations are actually quite radical, which surprised me.
September 8, 2022
*read for class* Dramatic ass man
September 25, 2022
this is like emerson's love letter to poets- I STAND MY GROUND I WOULD HAVE KISSED EMERSON RIGHT NOW.
i felt so loved by this essay. i can forgive his redundancy.
i felt so loved by this essay. i can forgive his redundancy.
October 1, 2022
now THIS guy gets it
Read
February 8, 2023Read for American Lit 1820-1870
March 7, 2024
While hard to get through, I do enjoy his argument about the divinity of poetry.
November 26, 2024
muito chato
January 29, 2025
WE ARE ALL POETIC MYSTICAL GODS AND MUST RELEARN THE ARTS OF OUR STARDUST ORGINS
emerson cool guy
emerson cool guy
November 26, 2025
"Language is fossil poetry."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews