Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803–1882
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was an American essayist, lecturer and poet from Boston, and the leading voice of Transcendentalism. A former Unitarian minister, he argued for self-reliance, intuition and the divinity of nature in essays such as “Nature” and “Self-Reliance”.
His poems, collected in Poems (1847) and May-Day (1867), include the “Concord Hymn”, with its “shot heard round the world”, as well as “The Rhodora”, “Days” and “Brahma”. He was a mentor to Henry David Thoreau and an early champion of Walt Whitman.
Best-known poems
-
Concord Hymn
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood, … -
Brahma
If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways … -
Uriel
It fell in the ancient periods
Which the brooding soul surveys,
Or ever the wild Time coin'd itself … -
The Rhodora
In may, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, … -
Terminus
It is time to be old,
To take in sail:
The god of bounds, … -
To the Humblebee
Burly, dozing humblebee!
Where thou art is clime for me;
Let me chase thy waving lines; …
All poems (27)
- BacchusBring me wine, but wine which never grew
- BrahmaIf the red slayer think he slays,
- CharacterThe sun set, but set not his hope:
- Concord HymnBy the rude bridge that arched the flood,
- DaysDaughters of Time, the hypocritic Days,
- Each and AllLittle thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown
- ForbearanceHast thou named all the birds without a gun?
- ForerunnersLong i followed happy guides,
- FriendshipA Ruddy drop of manly blood
- From "Woodnotes"“the heart OF ALL THE SCENE”
- Give All to LoveObey thy heart;
- Good-byeGood-bye, proud world, I’m going home:
- Hymn Sung at the Completion of the Concord MonumentApril 19, 1836
- MerlinThy trivial harp will never please
- OdeO tenderly the haughty day
- TerminusIt is time to be old,
- The EarthOur eyeless bark sails free,
- The Humble-BeeBurly, dozing humble-bee,
- The ProblemI like a church; I like a cowl;
- The RhodoraIn may, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
- The SeaBEHOLD the Sea,
- The Snow-StormAnnounced by all the trumpets of the sky,
- The TestI hung my verses in the wind,
- ThrenodyThe south-wind brings
- To the HumblebeeBurly, dozing humblebee!
- UrielIt fell in the ancient periods
- WavesAll day the waves assailed the rock,
