Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essays--First and Second Series
Reading notes--Adam Kissel
Form depends on soul, but connoisseurs merely have taste for
the elegant, without having/expressing beautiful souls; our current philosophy
does not rightly account for form as germination of spirit, 239-40
poetry: medium to express manifold spiritual meaning of
form, 240
Poet shows us ourselves, 240; we all need express the truth
we live by, though we mostly are pretty bad at expression (cf. 213-14)
but in the poet, the powers are in balance, receiving and
imparting, 241
Poets aspire to reflect the symmetry and truth of the universe, but
cannot fully do so, 254-55, 262-63
Trinities (in that they are equal, and the powers of all are
latent in each, 242):
cause-Jove-Father-Knower-love of truth
operation-Pluto-Spirit-Doer-love of good
effect-Neptune-Son-Sayer/Namer-love of beauty . . . . . . the poet
works on this level
The world is beautiful; Beauty is its creator, 242
poet should channel it, not adding his separate will, 243
on words and actions, 243
on true vs. everyday poets, 243
poet invites us into the science of the real, 245
so many poems fail their true task, 245-46
experience always enlarges, requiring new expression, therefore the
poet is needed, 244;
further, the genius realizes and adds, 245
expression of beauty makes a circles: new higher beauty; adds
values, for all nature is symbol, 246
Poetics/Symbols:
[Reality] into world
Being into Appearance
Unity into Variety
Soul/thoughts into Universe . . . . . . . 247
Life into Body
Supernatural into Natural . . . . . . . . . 248
Science progresses with self-knowledge, 247
Everyone uses and enjoys symbols/emblems, 248
On flourishing of symbols, 249
Even evil may have some being, therefore some good, and some use as symbol, 250--e.g.,
all things are thoughts, 251
Spiritual facts are embodied in many particulars, 250
New use for objects: use form according to the life/being, not the form, 251
Intellect loves discrete thoughts/things [see Intellect essay], 252
Nature’s energeia, 252
Nature is evolutionary: it produces not just new but higher
forms, 253
nature organic: liberation into a higher form, metamorphosis, 254
pattern of words-things-words-things (as in Nature), each
time moving to higher symbols
Poet attempts: intellect, insight, imagination of the divine
aura in all, 255, 260
attempt to abandon oneself to the nature of things; freed
inspirited intellect, 255
instinct the guide to metamorphosis, not booze and such, 256
one must escape the body to some degree [cf. here
as elsewhere the Romantics]
poet needs live close to nature (vs. artificial objects, cf. 250),
257
Use of symbols has power of emancipation and joy for all,
257-58
they show the immortality of our essence: poets are “liberating
gods,” 259
books: value is in the transcendent and extraordinary, 259,
279 . . . . . . . . . . like Emerson’s
in departure from routine, wild symbols are worth noting for
previously unknown truth, 259
Poet vs. the mystic: the poet always uses new symbols; uses
universal signs in variety, 260, 261
(evidently mystic just deepens understanding
using the same symbols?)
Poet sees nature and translates it into thought, and then words,
261-62
America an unsung poem, 262-63
On the poet’s art, 263-64: he finds the right conditions
that excite intellect; pursues beauty
has dream-power, 264-65
poet lets people go on in the world; his business is with nature,
265
the ideal is what is real to the poet; this nature is beautiful all
round, 266