New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1847-01-09
NEW-YORK TRIBUNE.
Emer.on's Poems.

POEMS. BY r. W EMERSON Up. <"i' i<ihoJ boston
Jsroes Munroe Co
y.s,s are those who say they can discern mel
,ter Poetry in the verse nor meaning IN the prose
"a Emerson and his schoOl--Only a part coOred
bs,e--a misty strsining after grand effects for
which there are no adequate csuses-a daring but
v.gpe aspiration, Of which the impulse is a wish
ns 10 do but merely 10 aspire, rather to seem to
be soaring heavenward. Dissenting utterly from
this estimate Of the writings Of those termed Tran
,cendentalists I'VE speak not here OF their Philos-
ophy, 50 far as they may be said to have any, but
q their utterances regarded as contributions to
Literature we have yet no argument to offer Tor
oor faith save the writings themselves. He who
can read the volume before Us for instance, and
no, feel that lis author IS in high and pure sense
e Poet, is not likely to be persuaded by anything
else we could offer.
But while we regard Ralph Waldo Emerson as
one Of Americas greatest Poets if not absolutely
her greatest Poet, We are aware that he can never
be deemed such by those who do not share and re-
ioce in his defiance OF prescription and formula
To all marinets in metre bis rhythm must frequent
~ seem most defective-scarcely bearsble Nay.
often unpleasing to Us, who love the man and ad-
mire his works. and that in the structure of his
verse he is inferior 10 Bryant or even Longfellow.
Bot on the other hand we feel that there is no
living man whose writings could so lily be spared
from our Literature as could those Of Emerson
Our reading public may be divided into two
classes the few who know our author as he is. and
the many who know of him next TO nothing. For
the former, we should quote from the larger and
profounder poems in this volume Woodnotes,
Initial, Demonic and Celestial Love, 'Saadi,
Threnody.' &c. But those who would delight in
these will not be satisfied with less than the entire
volume so that to quote from them would be
thankless labor We choose, therefore, 10 quote
instead for the mass Of readers a number OF the
smaller and in the main less characteristic pieces
which we trust VIII yet indicate TO many the rich-
ness Of the mine whence they are drawn But
first single quatrain from Woodnotes'
As supbesms stream through liberal space,
And nothing jostle or displsce
so waved the pine tree through my thought
And famed the dreams il never brought
With brief citation from Monadnoc We PISS
to the simple copying Without comment OF few
of the minor Poems which seem to US not so much
the finest as the least hkely 10 De pronounced Cd
scure by those unfamiliar with Emerson. And first
Of the mountain known to all who have visited
South W estern New Hampshire, as the grand Mo
nadroc:
In his own looms garment dresssi
BY his own bounty blessed
Fast sbides this constant giyer,
Pouring many cheerful river
To far eyes, aerial isle
Unplowed which inner spirits pile,
Which morn and crimson evening paint
For bard for lover and for saint
The eepntrys core
lnspirer, prophet evermore
Pillar which God aloit had set
so that might II not forget;
IL should be their LIES ornament
And mix itself with each event,
Their calendar and dial
Barometer and oherai' phial
Garden of berries perch of birds,
Pasture OF pool-hunting herds
Cirsced by each change oisum untold
Earth baking heat stone cleaying cold.