From boyhood he had written verses, at first correct in metre and stilted in expression, on eighteenth-century models; but in the ten years preceding his visit to England his verse had shown the influence of his growth; indeed the thoughts in all the essays had been cast in poetic mould, many of them showing the influence of the Bardic poems, the thought roughly cast at white heat. Many of his poems first appeared in the Dial. The Poems were published in 1846. May-Day, a second collection, more mellowed and finished, followed in 1867. Both are now included in one volume, in which the history of some of the poems will be given in the notes. Emerson was primarily a poet, whether in prose or rhyme, though he struggled long to attain rhythmical expression. He said, "I like my poems best because it is not I who write them." He consoled himself for not having a musical ear in having "musical eyes." He said, "Good poetry must be affirmative. Thus saith the Lord should begin the song." The reforms of the day were honored and helped by Emerson, but he would not "mistake others' chivalries for his own." He said: "My reforms include theirs"; and again, "I have quite other slaves to free than those negroes, to wit, imprisoned spirits, imprisoned thoughts." But in times of doubt and danger he failed not to bring his lance to help as a brave volunteer. Early and always he spoke out for human freedom. In his ode at the celebration of the Fourth of July in 1856 were the lines as he would write them again to-day As he was a good citizen of his village and a patriotic American, so he was a happy and trusting soul in the Universe, seeing everywhere, in Protean forms, the inseparable Trinity of Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Mr. Emerson tells us that as a boy he pleased himself as he lay on his bed with the beauty of the Lord's equilibrium in the Universe, instead of shuddering at the terrors of his judgment, - that all was so intelligible and sweet, instead of inscrutable and dire. Secure and happy in his assurance of the law of compensation, though in his manhood he fell on evil times, when even in Boston free thought, free speech, free action were unpopular to the verge of danger, Unitarian and Transcendental heresies scourged or ridiculed and the cause of human freedom, in the hands of a despised few, seemed almost hopeless, he lived to see these causes everywhere winning, and their champions honored. Mr. John Albee in his Remembrances of Emerson' said: "I am impressed with the fact that he never made any mistakes throughout his career. He faced one way and continued. to face that way. He never had to recant, to make a new start, to modify, or apologize." He said in his early manhood, "If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him." The year after the end of the Civil War, in the triumph of freedom, Mr. Emerson was again invited to give the Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard, and was shortly after chosen a member of the Board of Overseers. In 1870 and 1871 he delivered a course of lectures on Philosophy there, but the undertaking was too much for his I Remembrances of Emerson, by John Albee. strength, which had begun to fail. A friend carried him with a pleasure party to California for rest and recreation. Professor James B. Thayer, a member of the party, wrote the story of that trip.' But Mr. Emerson's forces had failed more than was then realized, and the next year the exposure and fatigue incident to the accidental burning of his house prostrated him seriously. Loyal friends took upon themselves the gracious task of restoring his house completely, and meanwhile sent him to the Old World to recruit his forces. A winter with his daughter in Italy and on the Nile helped, but could not restore him. On his return he found himself unable to prepare a promised book of essays (Letters and Social Aims). This task was cheerfully accomplished by his trusted and valued friend, the late Mr. James Elliot Cabot, who afterward, at the desire of the family, wrote the admirable Memoir of Emerson, and in 1883 prepared the posthumous edition of the Works. Mr. Emerson, unable to do active literary work, lived a quiet and happy life among his friends and his books, still going often to hear the song of the pines by Walden, until the last days of April, A Western Journey with Emerson, by James B. Thayer. |