(325) DAYS. First published in The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1857, from which the text is here taken-except for "or" (1. 6), which was changed to "and" in 1867. Emerson thought it perhaps his best poem. 17. pleached interwoven; the suggestion here is of tree-tops or vines interwoven and making a shade. pomp= procession.

(326) BRAHMA. The text is from the 1867 edition. First published in The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1857. The poem sprang from Emerson's reading in the Oriental sacred books. ¶ 1-4. Cf. the following: "These finite bodies have been said to belong to an eternal, indestructible, and infinite spirit. . . . . He who believes that this spirit can kill, and he who thinks that it can be killed, both of these are wrong in judgment. It neither kills nor is killed. It is not born nor dies at any time. It has had no origin, nor will it ever have an origin. Unborn, changeless, eternal both as to future and past time, it is not slain when the body is killed.”—Bhagavad-Gitá, chap. ii, J. C. Thomson's translation (1855). ¶9-12. Cf. the following: "And this deep power in which we exist, and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one."-"The Over-Soul," in Essays, First Series. "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."-Ps. 139:9, 10. "For in him we live and move and have our being."-Acts 17:28. "I [Brahma] am the origin of all gods. . . . . I am the soul. . . . which exists in the heart of all beings, and I am the beginning and the middle and also the end of existing things. . . . . Among th inferior gods I am Vásava. . . . . I am also eternal time. I am the preserver who watches in all directions. And I am Death, who seizes all, and the Birth of those who are to be. . . . . I am the Vrihatsáman among the hymns."-BhagavadGili, chap. x. 13. The strong gods: the Trinity of the earliest Hindu mythology -Indra, god of the sky, Agni, god of fire, Yama, god of death. ¶ 14. sacred Seven: the highest among the saints. ¶ 16. Cf. Bhagavad-Gitá, chap. xviii: "Abandoning all religious duties, seek me as thy refuge. I will deliver thee from all sin. Be not anxious." Cf. also "The Sphinx," 11. 85-88 (p. 323).

(326) VOLUNTARIES. Section 3. The text is from the 1867 edition. First published in The Atlantic Monthly, October, 1863.

(327) TERMINUS. The text is from the 1867 edition. ¶ 21. fault: i.e., in default.

CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM

"If we could forget that Almighty God has made us a revelation, and by faith solved for us the problem of man and the universe, . . . . we should greet these poems with a warm and cordial welcome, and saving the mere mechanism of versemaking, in which they are sometimes defective, assign them the highest rank among our American attempts at poetry. The author is no every-day man; indeed, he is one of the most gifted of our countrymen, and is largely endowed with the true poetic temperament and genius. He has a rich and fervid imagination, a refined taste, exquisite sensibility, a strong and acute intellect, and a warm and loving heart. He is earnest and solemn, and, taking his own point of view, a man of high and noble aims. . . . . But the palm of excellence, even under the relation of art

594

belongs not to poetry which chants falsehood and evil. The poet is an artist, and the aim of the artist is to realize or embody the beautiful; but the beautiful is never separable from the true and the good. Truth, goodness, beauty are only three phases of one and the same thing. . . . . Mr. Emerson's poems, therefore, fail in all the higher requisites of art. They embody a doctrine essentially false, a morality essentially unsound, and at best a beauty which is partial, individual. . . . . His volume of poems is the saddest book we ever read. The author tries to cheer tries to smile, but the smile is cold and transitory; it plays an instant round the mouth, but does not come from the heart or lighten the eyes. . . . . There is an appearance of calm, of quiet, of repose . . . . ; but it is the calm, the quiet, the repose of despair. Down below are the troubled waters. The world is no joyous world for him. It is void and without form, and darkness broods over it."-Brownson's Quarterly Review, April, 1847.

up,

"He is a chartered libertine, who has long exercised his prerogative of writing enigmas both in prose and verse, sometimes with meaning in them and sometimes without-more frequently without. Many of his fragments in verseif verse it can be called which puts at defiance all the laws of rhythm, metre, grammar, and common sense were originally published in "The Dial,' lucus a non lucendo, a strange periodical work, which is now withdrawn from sunlight into the utter darkness that it always coveted. . . . . It is only in his prose that Mr. Emerson is a poet; this volume of professed poetry contains the most prosaic and unintelligible stuff that it has ever been our fortune to encounter. . . . . As original in his choice of subjects as in his mode of treating them, Mr. Emerson has some dainty lines addressed to the humble-bee. We can quote only the two concluding stanzas, which show the minuteness and delicacy of the poet's observation of nature. ... We mean to be fair with the poet. Having read attentively-horresco referens!-the whole book, we affirm that the specimens now laid before our readers fairly represent far the larger portion of it. Here and there a gleam of light intrudes, and we find brief but striking indications of the talent and feeling which Mr. Emerson unquestionably possesses. But the effect is almost instantly marred by some mystical nonsense, some silly pedantry, an intolerable hitch in rhythm or grammar, or an incredible flatness and meanness of expression."-The Southern Literary Messenger, May, 1847.

....

"His converse with creation is intimate and endearing. . . . . He seems (particularly in his 'Woodnotes') an inspired tree, his veins full of sap instead of blood; and you take up his volume of poems, clad as it is in green, and smell to it as to a fresh leaf. . . . . The sounds-how manifold-of the American forest say to his purged ear what they say to few others, and what even his language is unable fully to express. . . . . In calling him the truest poet of America we are not forgetful of the claims of Longfellow. . . . . But in two points we deem Emerson superior to Longfellow-in originality and in nationality-two points which, indeed, run into one. Longfellow is rather a German than an American. . . . Emerson, on the contrary, has grafted his Germanism upon a strong gnarled trunk of aboriginal power; and his mind is often intuitive into principles, as well as fermenting with golden imagery."-George Gilfillan, in Tait's Magazine, January,

"Of hardly any other living American author can it be so confidently assumed that he will hold a place among the universal classics. . . . . Mr. Emerson's inspiration comes from ideas rather than from actual life. There is nothing in it of a dramatical or lyrical quality. The emotions and interests of individuals do not appeal to him in such a manner as to lead him to seek to give expression to them in his poetry. None of his poems are, in a proper sense, studies of character; none of them are narrative or have to do with events and stories. They are, consequently, not poems of delight so much as poems of invigoration. It is not men but man with which they are concerned; not human nature but Nature, the mother of us all, whom the poet has studied, and whose aspects and influences he reproduces in his poems. . . . . It is perhaps due in part to the absence from Mr. Emerson's genius of any controlling æsthetic element that he not infrequently indulges himself in mysticism and makes his verses puzzles and enigmas, not only to the common reader, but even to the trained student of poetry. 'Brahma,' which excited so much cheap amusement and wonder when it first appeared, some years ago, in The Atlantic Monthly, was not, indeed, one of these riddles, but is plain and intelligible as an expression of Hindu pantheism. It is a sign of the change brought about by years that there is far less of this obscurity in the new volume than in the old. But Mr. Emerson is, however, still careless about the shape in which his thought embodies itself, and fails to guard his poetry against the attacks of time by casting his poems in perfect and imperishable forms. If there be much of the Greek philosopher in his composition, there is very little of the Greek artist. Many far inferior poets have a freer gift of melody and a keener sense of harmony, order, and proportion. The music of his verse is rarely long sustained, and he does injustice to his own culture by not infrequent neglect of rhythm and of rhyme. . . . . In the best sense Mr. Emerson is a moral poet; he writes, not to draw a moral, but because he is possessed with a moral sentiment which he can best express in poetry. He is the utterer of the moral ideas by which the hearts of his generation are moved."-The Nation, May 30, 1867.

"I can't imagine any better luck befalling these States for a poetical beginning and initiation than has come from Emerson, Longfellow, Bryant, and Whittier. Emerson, to me, stands unmistakably at the head, but for the others I am at a loss where to give any precedence. Each illustrious, each rounded, each distinctive. Emerson for his sweet, vital-tasting melody, rhym'd philosophy, and poems as amber-clear as the honey of the wild bee he loves to sing."-Walt Whitman, Specimen Days, April 16, 1881.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

The text, with the exceptions noted, is from the 1857 edition.

(328) MASSACHUSETTS TO VIRGINIA. First published in The Liberator, January 27, 1843. "Written on reading an account of the proceedings of the citizens of Norfolk, Va., in reference to George Latimer, the alleged fugitive slave.”—Whittier. On October 19, 1842, Latimer was imprisoned in Boston, on the request of James B. Gray of Norfolk, Va., his alleged owner, who accused him of being a runaway slave and of stealing. He lay in prison for nearly a month, in spite of the efforts of antislavery leaders to procure his release and of his owner to get possession of him.

The case aroused intense excitement, and public meetings were held in Boston and Norfolk to protest against what each side considered an infringement of rights. Finally, on November 17, the sheriff ordered the jailer to release Latimer the next day; but his friends, fearing he might be rearrested, compromised the matter that night by buying his freedom of Mr. Gray for $400. The Abolitionists were not content, however, to stop here. They called for signatures to a petition to the Massachusetts legislature, praying that it would forbid officers to assist in arresting fugitive slaves, deny the use of jails for the detention of slaves, and propose such amendments to the United States Constitution as should "forever separate the people of Massachusetts from all connection with slavery." Conventions in every county were called for January 2, to elect delegates to present this petition to the legislature; Whittier's poem was read at the Essex County convention, in Ipswich, and evoked tremendous enthusiasm. 13. St. George's bank: a shoal frequented by fishermen, about a hundred miles off Cape Cod. 26. Fanueil Hall: a hall in Boston, where public meetings were held. ¶ 27, 28. An allusion to Patrick Henry's famous speech, ending with "Give me liberty or give me death," which was delivered to the Virginia convention on March 28, 1775.

(329) 29. Old Dominion: an early name for Virginia as the oldest English colony in America. ¶ 57. Cf. Isaiah 6:6, 7: "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."

(330) 67. Essex: one of the most populous of the counties of Massachusetts, containing the manufacturing towns of Lawrence, Haverhill (Whittier's birthplace) Lynn, etc. ¶69, 70. Middlesex . . . . Lexington: Lexington is in Middlesex County. 71. Norfolk's ancient villages: Norfolk County, south of Boston, was settled early and contains many old towns. Plymouth's rocky bound: the reference is to Plymouth County. 172. Nantucket: the island of Nantucket is also the county of Nantucket. 173. rich and rural Worcester: Worcester County, in the fertile central part of the state. ¶75. Wachuset's: Mount Wachuset, some 2,000 feet high, in the northern part of the county. 177. sandy Barnstable: Barnstable County comprises Cape Cod. ¶ 78. Bristol: Bristol County borders for a short distance on Narragansett Bay. 179. Hampden: Hampden County lies on both sides of the Connecticut River. ¶ 80. Hampshire's: with this reference to Hampshire County the poet concludes a roll-call of all the counties in the state except Franklin and Dukes; Suffolk County, however, is represented only by a reference to its capital, Boston; and Berkshire County is mentioned in a different relation from the rest.

(331) PROEM. Prefixed to a volume of Whittier's poems in 1849.

(332) ICHABOD. First published in The National Era, May 2, 1850. "Ichabod," a Hebrew word, means "inglorious," or "reft of glory"; cf. I Sam. 4:21: "And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel." The poem refers to Daniel Webster, and was occasioned, Whittier said, by Webster's speech in the Senate, on March 7, 1850, in which he supported the Omnibus Bill or Compromise of 1850; the bill included a provision for a fugitive-slave law, requiring free states to return fugitive slaves to their owners, and Webster was accused of

"selling out to the South" in the hope of getting a nomination for the presidency. A milder and juster view of his motives now prevails; and Whittier himself, thirty years later, wrote of the dead statesman in kinder vein in "The Lost Occasion."

(333) 35, 36. Cf. Gen. 9:23: "And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father."

(333) WORDSWORTH. First published in The National Era, June, 1851. ¶ 15, 16. Cf. Wordsworth's "A Poet's Epitaph," ll. 39, 40:

He murmurs near the running brooks

A music sweeter than their own.

¶ 17. Cf. Wordsworth's "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways," ll. 5, 6:
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye.

¶ 18. Cf. Wordsworth's "Peter Bell," Part First, ll. 58-60:

A primrose by a river's brim

A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.

19. Cf. Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."

(334) SUMMER BY THE LAKESIDE. First published in The National Era, September, 1853. The lake is Lake Winnipesaukee, in New Hampshire.

(334) Noon.

(335) 29. nepenthe: "A drug used by the ancients to give relief from pain and sorrow; by some supposed to have been opium or hasheesh; hence, anything soothing and comforting."-Webster's International Dictionary. (From Greek vŋ, "not"; Tévos, "sorrow.") 30. lotus-flowers: "lotus" is a general name for several kinds of water-lilies, and the lilies floating on the lake may well have suggested to the poet the ancient lotus-flower, the eating of which brought forgetfulness of one's country and kin and induced a dreamy love of ease (see the Odyssey, ix, 83-97, and Tennyson's "Lotus-Eaters"); the fabulous lotus, however, was probably the blossom of a tree.

(337) MAUD MULLER. First published in The National Era, December, 1854. Whittier said that the poem was not founded on fact, but that a hint for it may have been given by his memory of a beautiful country girl whom he and his sister talked with under an apple-tree, in a hay-field, one summer, and who blushed and tried to hide her bare feet by covering them with hay.

(341) 94. an astral: a kind of lamp so constructed that it casts no shadow. ¶95. chimney lug: a pole on which a kettle is hung over the fire. ¶ 109, 110. Cf. Matt. 28:2; Mark 16:3.

(344) SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE. The text is from the 1860 edition. First published in The Atlantic Monthly December, 1857; the use of dialect in the refrain was suggested by Lowell, then editor of the magazine. Whittier said that the poem was based on a fragment of an old rhyme which was recited to him by a schoolmate from Marblehead, and that the details of the narrative were imaginary; in Roads's history of Marblehead it is affirmed that the crew, and not the skipper, were to blame for refusing to aid the sinking ship. 13. Apuleius's Golden Ass: