Ralph Waldo Emerson

May-Day and Other Pieces Ralph Waldo Emerson

Collection of poems by the American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. He is often identified as the first writer to develop a uniquely American literary style and vision, rather than following in the footsteps of his contemporaries who were strongly influenced by their British cultural heritage."Emerson had always thought verse to be the most perfect mode of utterance, and he had always referred to himself as a poet. Now he offered evidence whereby he might be judged. The judgement has taken some time to become mature, but it is no longer to be doubted that in a few of his pieces he reached a mark which only Whitman, Poe, and Emily Dickinson reached in America during the 19th century... It is an intellectual poetry that he writes... It is the work of a passionate intellect saturated in Wordsworth, Shakespeare, and the lyric masters of the 17th century"