So Many Books

Last week I read the first half of Emerson’s essay Poetry and Imagination. The rest of the essay is very much a critique of poetry, a statement of what poetry is and should be, as well as what a poet is and should be.

First and foremost, Emerson says, a poet “must believe in his poetry.” A poet must also be sincere and tell the truth as she has experienced it and not write from pretended experience. If a poet clearly sees the truth, word choice is not a problem because the words will be provided. Since the poet is supposed to take the facts of experience and see to the truth beyond the facts, the poet is one who “affirms the laws” whereas “prose busies itself with exceptions,–with the local and the individual.”

Poetry should have structure and design. This is even more important to Emerson than the execution and something he believes is rare. The rhythm of a poem should be dictated by the sense instead of the other way around. In fact, Emerson believes “that the rhyme is there in the theme, thought and image themselves.” It does not matter what the poem is about, just so long as it is true:

It is not style or rhymes, or a new image more or less that imports, but sanity; that life should not be mean; that life should be an image in every part beautiful; that the old forgotten splendors of the universe should glow again for us;–that we should lose our wit, but gain our reason. And when life is true to the poles of Nature, the streams of truth will roll through us in song.

If this all sounds somewhat religious, that’s because it is. The poet for Emerson is a seer and teacher:

Poetry is the consolation of mortal men….A poet comes who lifts the veil; gives them glimpses of the laws of the universe; shows them the circumstance as illusion; shows that Nature is only a language to express the laws, which are grand and beautiful;–and lets them, by his songs, into some of the realities.

Emerson believes that poetry is science (because it is based on fact), but it is truer that science because it goes beyond form so that Emerson can declare, “Poetry is faith.”

As you can imagine, and as Emerson admits, the true poet is rare. However, “We must not conclude against poetry from the defects of poets.” What a comfort for all those poets out there.

You might be interested to know that this essay was taken from a lecture in which Emerson says, “The question is often asked, Why no poet appears in America?” It is a long passage in the lecture in which Emerson explains that while Americans of his time have many talents and skills, “we have no imagination, no constructive mind, no affirmative books.” As a result of this lack, “our lives are impoverished, unpoeted, that is, inhuman.” A harsh assessment. But, Emerson is not without hope. He has confidence that when the still young country reaches a certain point, a poet will step forth:

Yet there is an elasticity in the American mind which may redeem us, and the effect of popular institutions in continually sending back the enervated families into the realities of Nature and of toil may serve the highest medical benefit.

Walt Whitman is said to have become the poet Emerson was looking for. I can’t help but wonder, however, if Emily Dickinson, who was writing at the same time, had gotten her poems published in her lifetime, what Emerson would have thought of them?

Next week’s Emerson: Social Aims