Ralph Waldo Emerson

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FlorenceDupuis
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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Post by FlorenceDupuis »

Hey everyone!
I was wondering, are any of you familiar with Emerson? I think that at this point, I'd have to say he is my favorite poet. Even more like, he is the reason I started reading poetry. I first heard of him through a book (which a lot of you must've read, as I think I remember seing a topic on this book here): Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar childen. At the beggining of the book, there is a quote, sort of to set the ambiance and atmosphere of the book, and it's one of Ralph's. He is acutally mentioned here and there throughout the book, as the main character's grandfather loved him and left the main character one of his book (I think it was selected poetry).
To be more specific, the poem at the beggining is "Illusions".
If I remember correctly, this would be the exerpt in the book:
"Sleep is not, death is not;
Who seem to die live.
House you were born in,
Friends of your spring-time,
Old man and young maid,
Day’s toil and its guerdon,
They are all vanishing,
Fleeing to fables,
Cannot be moored."
If you are interrested in reading the whole poem, you can find it here: http://www.bartleby.com/90/0609.html
This is of course public domain, after all these years.
Another I find particularly pretty would be this one, called The Rhodora:

"On being asked, Whence is the flower?

In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
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,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:

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. "
In black and italic is the reason I love this poem so much. What do y'all think?
Genaaa
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Post by Genaaa »

I'm not extremely familiar with Emerson's work but I've definitely read some of it. I remember doing an assignment on some of the poems a couple years ago.
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