What these strong masters wrote at large in miles, I followed in small copy in my acre; 61 As in broad orchards resonant with bees; 70 A quest of river-grapes, a mocking thrush, A wild-rose, or rock-loving columbine, Salve my worst wounds. For thus the wood-gods murmured in my 2 Prefixed to Emerson's Nature,' in the second edition (1849), ten years before the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species. 3 Compare Emerson's expression in prose of the same idea in his Works and Days': The days are ever divine, as to the first Aryans. They come and go like muffled and veiled figures, sent from a distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.' See Holmes's comparison of this passage with the poem, as typical of the essential differences between prose and poetry, in his Life of Emerson, pp. 310-314. Lowell calls this poem 'as limpid and complete as a Greek epigram.' (Life of Lowell, vol. i, p. 414.) 4 The Journal of 1856 shows the Two Rivers,' perhaps the most musical of his poems, as the thought first came to him by the river-bank and was then brought into form. Thy voice is sweet, Musketaquid, and repeats the music of the rain, but sweeter is the silent stream which flows even through thee, as thou through the land. 'Thou art shut in thy banks, but the stream I love flows in thy water, and flows through rocks and through the air and through rays of light as well, and through darkness, and through men and women. 'I hear and see the inundation and the eternal spending of the stream in winter and in summer, in men and animals, in passion and thought. Happy are they who can hear it." I see thy brimming, eddying stream For thou changest every rock in thy bed All is opal and agate, And at will thou pavest with diamonds; Take them away from the stream And they are poor, shreds and flints. So is it with me to-day.' (E. W. EMERSON, Emerson in Concord, pp. 232-233) 1 This simple and condensed figurative statement of one of the commonplaces of any idealistic philosophy, whether Hindu, Platonist, Berkeleian, or Hegelian, greatly astonished the matter-of-fact Americans of 1857, and aroused more ridicule and parody than any other of Emerson's poems. J. T. Trowbridge describes its effect as follows: 'It was more talked about and puzzled over and parodied than any other poem of sixteen lines published within my recollection. "What does it mean?" was the question readers everywhere asked; and if one had the reputation of seeing a little way into the Concord philosophy, he was liable at any time to be stopped on the street by some perplexed inquirer, who would draw him into the nearest doorway, produce a crumpled newspaper clipping from the recesses of a waistcoat pocket, and, with knitted brows, exclaim, "Here! you think you understand Emerson; now tell me what all this is about, - If the red slayer think he slays," and so forth.' (Quoted in Scudder's Life of Lowell, vol. i, p. 415.) Somewhat wiser was the little school-girl in the story vouched for by Mr. E. W. Emerson. She was bidden by her teacher to learn some verses of Emerson. Next day she recited "Brahma." The astonished teacher asked why she chose that poem. The child answered that she tried several, but could n't understand them at all, so learned this one," for it was so easy. It just means God everywhere.'" Lowell wrote to Emerson after the poem had appeared in the first number of the Atlantic Monthly, of which ་ 10 Lowell was editor: You have seen, no doubt, how the Philistines have been parodying your "Brahma," and showing how they still believe in their special god Baal, and are unable to arrive at a conception of an omnipresent Deity. . . . Let me thank you in especial for one line in Brahma," which abides with me as an intimate 'When me they fly, I am the wings. You have crammed meaning there with an hydraulic press.' It is this condensation of meaning which makes the great effectiveness of the poem, and also its difficulty, if difficulty there be. The direct source of this particular expression of Emerson's idealism seems to be Krishna's song in the Bhagavat-Gita, which in Edwin Arnold's translation is as follows: He who shall say, 'Lo! I have slain a man,' came 1 In July, 1857, Mr. Emerson, induced by Dr. Bartol, took his family to spend two weeks at Pigeon Cove, on Cape Ann. The day after our return to Concord, he into our mother's room, where we were all sitting, with his journal in his hand, and said, 'I came in yesterday from walking on the rocks and wrote down what the sea had said to me; and to-day, when I open my book, I find it all reads as blank verse, with scarcely a change.' Here is the passage from that journal, as he read it to us: July 23. Returned from Pigeon Cove, where we have made acquaintance with the sea, for seven days. 'Tis a noble, friendly power, and seemed to say to me, Why so late and slow to come to me? Am I not here always, thy proper summer home? Is not my voice thy needful music; my breath thy healthful climate in the heats; my touch thy cure? Was ever building like my terraces? Was ever couch so magnificent as mine? Lie down on my warm ledges and learn that a very little hut is all you need. I have made this architecture superduous, and it is paltry beside mine. Here are twenty Romes and Ninevehs and Karnacs in ruins together, obelisk and pyramid and Giant's Causeway; here they all are prostrate or half piled. And behold the sea, the opaline, plentiful and strong, yet beautiful as the rose or the rainbow, full of food, nourisher of men, purger of the world, creating a sweet climate and in its I know what spells are laid. Leave me to deal unchangeable ebb and flow, and in its beauty at a few furlongs, giving a hint of that which changes not, and is perfect.' (E. W. EMERSON, in the Centenary Edition.) LIFE A TRAIN of gay and clouded days No fate, save by the victim's fault, is low, For God hath writ all dooms magnificent, So guilt not traverses his tender will. THIS shining moment is an edifice Which the Omnipotent cannot rebuild. ROOMY Eternity Casts her schemes rarely, And many-chambered heart. BE of good cheer, brave spirit; steadfastly Serve that low whisper thou hast served; for know, God hath a select family of sons Now scattered wide thro' earth, and each alone, Who are thy spiritual kindred, and each one The riches of a spotless memory, gifts; And Time, who keeps God's word, brings on the day To seal the marriage of these minds with thine, Thine everlasting lovers. Ye shall be The salt of all the elements, world of the world. LOVE Asks nought his brother cannot give; Asks nothing, but does all receive. Love calls not to his aid events; |