154 INDOOE STUDIES 



"Sea-Sliore," "The Snow-Storm," " The Problem, " 

 "The Titmouse," and like poems, and poorest in 

 "Woodnotes," "The Celestial Love," etc. "Un- 

 less the heart is shook," says Landor, "the gods 

 thunder and stride in vain ; " and the heart is sel- 

 dom shook by Emerson's poetry. It has heat, but 

 it is not that of English poetical literature, the heat 

 of the blood, of the affections, the emotions; but 

 arises from the ecstasy of contemplation of the uni- 

 versality of the moral law. 



It is hard trf reconcile Arnold's criticism of 

 Emerson's poetry with what many of us feel to be 

 its beauty and value. It is irritating to Emerso- 

 nians to be compelled to admit that his strain lacks 

 any essential quality. I confess that I would rather 

 have his poetry than all Milton, Cowper, Gray, 

 Byron, and many others ever wrote, but doubtless 

 in such a confession I am only pointing out my 

 own limitations as a reader of the poets. This is 

 the personal estimate which Arnold condemns. I 

 see the grounds upon which Milton's poetry is con- 

 sidered greater, but I do not care for it, all the 

 same. Emerson's poetry does not dilate me, as 

 Wordsworth's does, because the human emotional 

 element in it is weaker. It has not the same touch 

 of nature that makes the whole world kin, the touch 

 of commonalty heightened and vivified. 



Whether we know it or not, we doubtless love 

 Emerson all the more because he is not a legitimate 

 poet or the usual man of letters, but an exceptional 

 one. We do not love Shakespeare in the same 



