Belknap Press Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Poems v. 9: A Variorum Edition: Volume IX

At his death in 1882, Ralph Waldo Emerson was counted among the greatest poets in nineteenth-century America. This variorum edition of all the poems Emerson chose for publication during his lifetime offers readers the opportunity to situate Emerson’s poetic achievement alongside his celebrated essays and to consider their interrelationship.Decades before Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson took their places in the firmament of American poets, Emerson was securely enthroned. Though his reputation as essayist now eclipses his reputation as poet, Emerson self-identified as a writer of verse and worked out his transcendental philosophy in this genre, establishing his belief in the authority of individual experience and in the essential metaphoric nature of language. Albert J. von Frank’s historical introduction traces the development of Emerson the poet, considering how life events, as well as his reading of German philosophy and Sufi poetry, influenced his thought and expression. Alongside accounts of the critical reception of his poems are public and private writings that reveal Emerson’s own estimation of his poetic project and achievement.The textual introduction and apparatus make transparent the theoretical and practical concerns that inform these critical texts. Also included are a chronological lists of variants and texts constituting the historical collation, notes clarifying obscure allusions, and headnotes identifying sources and context. Review This is the ninth volume of an intended ten of The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Like other titles in the sequence, this one is remarkable, and the editorial work by von Frank and Wortham establishes the volume as the chief source for a critical investigation into Emerson's poetry. The volume collects Emerson's poetry published in his lifetime, and the poems are arranged chronologically. Emerson's poems often appeared in different publications, and the poems were edited and often revised for each occasion. The notes list the variants and the sources, forming a historical collation of the poetry, often with references to the more obscure allusions. In addition, von Frank provides a "historical introduction," surveying the poems through Emerson's life and critical reception. By the end of his life, and throughout much of the 20th century, Emerson's significance as an American poet was secured. However, in recent decades, his poetry has become an afterthought to his essays. This volume invites a reconsideration of Emerson as a poet, one engaged in experimental prosody and one for whom the poetry becomes a map of the creative process and thought itself.-- (11/01/2011) The Emerson Revival, now entering its fourth decade of sustained analysis and exposition of Emerson's powerful essays, has largely bypassed his poems, works to which he devoted enormous labor and craft throughout his life. These are the writings that lay closest to Emerson's heart. Expertly edited, brilliantly introduced, and exhaustively annotated, this variorum edition will stimulate a reassessment of Emerson's considerable poetic achievement, and find new readers for him in our era. This volume offers authoritative texts of the poems, a detailed history of their context and construction, and richly informative annotations which will provide important dimensions of appreciation for the reader.--David M. Robinson, Oregon State University and author of Emerson and the Conduct of Life About the Author Albert J. von Frank is Emeritus Professor of English and American Studies at Washington State University. Thomas Wortham is Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.