of Hebrew antiquity, as if the divine creative energy had fainted in his own century." The poet should "not seek to weave, In weak, unhappy times, He is not to mingle in the base purposes of the world. "God, who gave to him the lyre, For all breathing men's behoof, Yet he is to love the race of men, nor immure himself in a den; for the people must hear him, and find inspiration in his words. He must meditate long and much, that his themes may be great and his inspiration sure. The chords of his harp In this same poem of Merlin he tells us what it is that makes the song of the true poet so masterful, when he says that his "blows are strokes of fate Chiming with the forest tone, When boughs buffet boughs in the wood; Of the ice-imprisoned flood; With the pulse of manly hearts; With the voice of orators; With the din of city arts; With the cannonade of wars; With the marches of the brave; And prayers of might from martyr's cave." The sympathies of the poet, too, must be as wide as the experiences of men, so that he can enter into appreciation of all their hopes and motives. This sympathy he has expressed in an allegorical poem, such as he often delights in writing: "There are beggars in Iran and Araby: That came to every festival; Said melted the days in cups like pearl; Served high and low, the lord and the churl; A cabin hung with curling smoke, Stately lords in palaces, Fenced by form and ceremony.”1 The most popular of Emerson's poems are those devoted to nature and its manifestations. Some of these have a richness of expression, a wealth of meaning, a simplicity of style, and a depth of insight, seldom surpassed. They seem to be almost perfect, so exquisitely true are they, and so grandly fine are their interpretations. They indicate the most intimate acquaintance with nature in all her moods, a close and a sympathetic study of her objects and creatures. Their power consists, not simply in their picturing for us, in the most 1 These lines have not appeared as from Emerson's pen, but are printed in Channing's Thoreau, p. 161. faithful manner, the phenomena of the outward world, but much more in that overflowing faith which reads in them the moral and spiritual truths of a Cosmos. He says that Nature is the representative of the universal mind," and this idea penetrates and absorbs all his poetry. Yet it never stifles and oppresses us with its religiousness; because, in the dogmatic and ordinary sense, it never is religious. It rises to a height far above all formal religion, to a calm, serene, and majestic faith in the Life that throbs in matchless wonder and ceaseless beauty all around, touching all things with its glory. The poet gives the true meaning of nature, only when he becomes its servant, and lets it sing through him the song of unceasing creation. The true poet finds his verse brought to him by the muse; and it is great and true when it sings through him, even against his will, rising far over his judgment into the unseen and awful heights where his weary feet can not follow. Yet Emerson is not merely a mystic, he does not deal in rhapsody, nor does he picture nature only from his imagination. He has studied nature in a careful manner, not, it is true, as a man of science, but as a poet. He has watched the various phases of nature, even in their details. His picture of "the forest seer, in Wood-notes, so often falsely regarded as a portrait of Thoreau, is an exact account of his own habits and experiences. Few poets have grasped nature as a whole so completely, or caught so clearly, and expressed so finely, that total effect it produces on the mind of man. In one of the most suggestive of his poems, Each and All, he has succeeded in stating the spiritual effect which nature produces, and the relations of objects. to each other in the total impression. In that poem he suggests the failure of science to understand nature as it is, when it sees only the dissected detail. Tyndall has admirably stated the same fact in these deeply important words: "The ultimate problem of physics is to reduce matter by analysis to its lowest conditions of divisibility, and force to its simplest manifestations, and then by synthesis to construct from these ele ments the world as it stands. We are still a long way from the final solution of this problem; and when the solution comes, it will be one more of spiritual insight than of actual observation." 1 Emerson has been an observer, a patient student; and he has described Nature with rare accuracy. Her humble forms he knows, and can make them the implements of his poetic skill. His poetry is inspired by the objects and scenes within sight of his own house. "In his delineations of Nature, even in her slightest hints of color and texture, of form and order, there is a marvelous accuracy of expression, showing a singularly acute and truthful eye, no less than a radiant imagination. In the grand procession of the seasons, no delicate phase escapes his notice. The wonderful processes of seedtime and harvest are watched with the severity of scientific research. He loves the secret haunts of Nature, and is never weary of spying into her mysteries. His acquaintance with her ways has been gained by face-to-face intercourse. He meets her disclosures with the love of an ancient, familiar friend." 2 The very health of spring is in May-Day. It is fragrant with the budding May. Equally perfect to nature are The Rhodora, The Humble-bee, The Titmouse, The Snow-storm, Wood-notes, and some others. The characteristics of these poems are shown in one of the shortest, Rhodora. There is an exquisite delight in nature itself, a quiet and yet an intense rejoicing in its sights, sounds, colors, and forms; a delicate sympathy with it. The flower, 66 Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,” is an object of keen interest. It is an interest, not merely worldly or inquisitive, but spiritual, and longing to know the secrets of things; that finds the solemn song of nature chanted beside a stagnant pool, in the fresh flower of the woods, which, budding anew into life, reads here afresh the perpetual marvel of the world. One may turn through the pages of many poets before finding again any lines so simple, apparently so trite in their theme, yet possessing so steady a 1 Fragments of Science, p. 100, An Address to Students. faith, and a sympathy with nature so intimate and noble, as these that close this little poem: "Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! I never thought to ask, I never knew; But, in my simple ignorance, suppose The self-same Power that brought me there brought you.” The Humble-bee is a gem, true in its descriptions and rich in its suggestions. Some of the lines are fine bits of word-painting, as these: 66 LIBRARY Burly, dozing humble-bee," REESE OF THE "Zigzag steerer, desert cheerer,IVERSITZ "Insect lover of the sun," "Rover of the underwoods.' And this ideal picture of the "epicurean of June" is delightful in its familiarity with the scenes the humblebee loves, and in its delicate sense of the healthfulness of nature: That faithful description of the Snow-storm, printed long ago in The Dial, has already become a classic in our language. The lover of true poetry knows it well. In the Wood-notes of the same period is a sketch of the poet's work, showing why Emerson is attracted, as a poet, to nature. The knowledge which the poet |