Emerson and the Orphic Poet in America

In Emerson and the Orphic Poet in America, the author explores Ralph Waldo Emerson’s conception of poetry and the poet within the context of a larger Romantic tradition. Emerson’s work represents a critical shift in American thought, merging European Romantic ideals with an American voice. At the heart of his vision is the idea of the poet as both a visionary and a liberator of truth, a concept that Emerson inherited from a variety of traditions, including Blake’s notion of the “universal m...