“Concord Hymn”
Written to commemorate the Minuteman statue in the title city, the poem is an hymn in the sense of praising those who fought and died at the battlefield on which the Revolutionary War commenced.
“The Snow-Storm”
This poem is not just an imagery-laden portrait of a harsh New England blizzard, but a celebration of it. The speaker extols the power, majesty and beauty of nature at what many would deem one its most negative phenomena.
“The Rhodora”
A celebration of a shrub commonly found in Emerson’s home region, the rhodora becomes a symbol of appreciating beauty for beauty’s sake as well as a recognition of nature’s creative forces.
“Fable”
This short delivers on its titular promise. It is a fable in verse featuring an Aesopian conflict between two entities: a mountain and squirrel. The tiny squirrel quarrels with the mountain of meaning in the world; it is a one-sided argument in which the squirrel makes the point that though he may be tinier than the mountain, his place and purpose is every bit as important in the larger scheme.
“Each and All”
The man in the field off in the distance influences not the person on a hill looking down. Cows don’t moo to entertain humans. A church bell tolling does not stop Napoleon atop his horse dead in its tracks. The poem is a consideration of how things on their own may not amount to much, but acorns and pine cones and birds and rivers all working together form “the perfect whole.”
“The Adirondacs”
Almost a travelogue in verse, the bulk of this poem is devoted to description of the titular mountain region in New York. The poem begins with a dedication to the poet’s “Fellow Travellers in August, 1858” and ultimately they are introduced as intrusive elements into the natural beauty of wilderness surrounding them.
“Bacchus”
Bacchus is the god of wine and revelry, but his mythic status is called upon here in a somewhat ironic way which is established in the opening line in which the speaker calls for wine, but “wine which never grew.” Ultimately, the poem belongs to that subgroup of Emersonian verse in which the artist scrutinizes his relationship to his work.
“Merlin I”
Emerson was no admirer of the poetry of Edgar Alan Poe. He once referred to the exquisite architect of extended rhyming verse as “the jingle man.” The opening sets the tone:
“Thy trivial harp will never please
Or fill my craving ear;”
From that point on through to the end, the speak is derisively critical of those poets who:
“seek to weave,
In weak, unhappy times,
Efficacious rhymes”
“Water”
Somewhat ironically, this next poem which personifies water as a force capable of both positive and negative consequences upon man engages what some might term efficacious rhymes. He rhymes prettily with wittily, disconcerted and broken-hearted and measure with pleasure. Even more distressing, perhaps, is the back-to-back use of “joy” to end a line and rhyme later with “destroy.”
“Days”
Days are personified as “Daughters of Time” who arrive mutely marching holding crowns and kindling as gifts. The speaker is transfixed by the pomp of the ceremonial offering of these gifts, so entranced that he forgets to carry out the tasks assigned for the day. The poem thus becomes a meditation upon contemplation versus action.
