hamatreya poem essay

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint, Possessed the land which rendered to their toil Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood. Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm, Saying, ‘Tis mine, my children’s and my name’s. How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees ! How graceful climb those shadows on my hill! I fancy these pure waters and the flags Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize; And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.” Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave. They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, And sighed for all that bounded their domain; “This suits me for a pasture; that’s my park; We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge, And misty lowland, where to go for peat. The land is well,—lies fairly to the south. ‘Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back, To find the sitfast acres where you left them.” Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds Him to his land, a lump of mould the more. Hear what the Earth say:— EARTH-SONG “Mine and yours; Mine, not yours. Earth endures; Stars abide— Shine down in the old sea; Old are the shores; But where are old men? I who have seen much, Such have I never seen. “The lawyer’s deed Ran sure, In tail, To them and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore. “Here is the land, Shaggy with wood, With its old valley, Mound and flood. But the heritors?— Fled like the flood’s foam. The lawyer and the laws, And the kingdom, Clean swept herefrom. “They called me theirs, Who so controlled me; Yet every one Wished to stay, and is gone, How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, But I hold them?” When I heard the Earth-song I was no longer brave; My avarice cooled Like lust in the chill of the grave.

Summary of Hamatreya

• Popularity of “Hamatreya”: Ralph Waldo Emerson , a great American essayist, and poet, wrote ‘Hamatreya’. It is a superb poem about cycle life and death. It was first published in 1846. The poem reflects the greedy nature of mankind. It illustrates how he spends life working on things that do not belong to anyone.
• “Hamatreya” As a Representative of Life: The poem begins with a striking statement that man is a tiny part of the giant universe, yet he is drunk with the fallacy of having power over something that stands fundamental part of the vast earth. He describes how the landowners grow old working on their land to make it fruitful. The earth is also proud of its young energetic souls, but the earth, being immortal, stays at the same place; only the owners depart the world. He beautifully catalogs things people add to the earth to make it beautiful such as a ridge, clay, lime, and granite-ledge. Unfortunately, they forget that their life is transient, and one day they will silently move to another world, leaving their dear land behind. He adds they spend their lives working the farms but fail to decipher the song of the earth that it does not belong to anyone. But we do not understand it until death arrives and makes us realize the fragility of life. Also, it makes us understand the errors of our desires and greed. The poet conveys that we should not take pride in our exploits.
• Major Themes in “Hamatreya”: Pride, the transience of life, and decay are the major themes underlined in this poem. Throughout the poem, the speaker tries to reflect that we spend our lives running after the worldly things. We embrace them, decorate them, and keep them with great care, neglecting the fact that all worldly possessions lose their charm in the face of death. The land we proudly named after us easily becomes the property of someone else soon after our death. He says that death is an unavoidable phenomenon and every living creature has to taste it. By giving voice to the earth, the narrator expresses the fleeting pride of mankind when it comes to their relationship to the earth and worldly charm.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “Hamatreya”

literary devices are used to connect readers with the text. Their use brings richness to the text but also makes the readers understand the story . Ralph Waldo Emerson has also used figurative language to enhance the poem. Here is the analysis of some literary devices used in this poem.

• Assonance : Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /oo/ in “Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood” and the sound of /o/ in “the hot owner sees not Death, who adds.”
• Alliteration : Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession such as the sound of /th/ in “And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough” and the sound of /f/ in “Fled like the flood’s foam.”
• Enjambment : It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break ; instead, it continues to the next line. For example,

“Possessed the land which rendered to their toil Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood.”

• Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example,

“They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, And sighed for all that bounded their domain; “This suits me for a pasture; that’s my park; We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge.”

• Personification : Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects . The poet has personified earth in the second stanza of the poem such as; “Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys. “
• Symbolism : Symbolism is a use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal meanings. “Land” symbolizes goodness, happiness, and eternity.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “Hamatreya”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

• Free Verse : Free verse is a type of poetry that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter . This is a free-verse poem with no strict rhyme scheme or metrical pattern.
• Quatrain : A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here, only the last stanza is a quatrain.
• Stanza : A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are eight stanzas in this poem, each having a different number of verses.
• Tercet : A tercet is a three-lined stanza borrowed from Biblical Hebrew poetry. There is only one tercet in this poem.

 Quotes to be Used

The lines stated below are useful when talking about the visit to a beautiful farm and to make children understand about men who encroach the farm.

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Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint, Possessed the land which rendered to their toil Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool and wood. Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm, Saying, "'Tis mine, my children's and my name's. How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees! How graceful climb those shadows on my hill! I fancy these pure waters and the glags Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize; And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil." Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave. They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, And sighed for all that bounded their domain; "This suits me for a pasture; that's my park; We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge, And misty lowland, where to go for peat. The land is well—lies fairly to the south. 'Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back, To find the sitfast acres where you left them." Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds Him to his land, a lump of mold the more. Hear what the Earth says:

EARTH-SONG "Mine and yours; Mine, not yours. Earth endures; Stars abide— Shine down in the old sea; Old are the shores; But where are old men? I who have seen much, Such have I never seen. "The lawyer's deed Ran sure, In tail, To them, and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore. "Here is the land, Shaggy with wood, With its old valley, Mound and flood. But the heritors? Fled like the flood's foam. The lawyer, and the laws, And the kingdom, Clean swept herefrom. "They called me theirs, Who so controlled me; Yet every one Wished to stay, and is gone, How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, But I hold them?"

When I heard the Earth-song, I was no longer brave; My avarice cooled Like lust in the chill of the grave.

This poem is in the public domain.

More by this poet

Song of nature.

Mine are the night and morning, The pits of air, the gulf of space, The sportive sun, the gibbous moon, The innumerable days.

I hid in the solar glory, I am dumb in the pealing song, I rest on the pitch of the torrent, In slumber I am strong.

Daughter of Heaven and Earth, coy Spring, With sudden passion languishing, Teaching Barren moors to smile, Painting pictures mile on mile, Holds a cup with cowslip-wreaths, Whence a smokeless incense breathes. The air is full of whistlings bland; What was that I heard Out of the hazy land?

The Humble-Bee

Burly dozing humblebee! Where thou art is clime for me. Let them sail for Porto Rique, Far-off heats through seas to seek, I will follow thee alone, Thou animated torrid zone! Zig-zag steerer, desert-cheerer, Let me chase thy waving lines, Keep me nearer, me thy hearer,

Earth Took of Earth

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Hamatreya by Ralph Waldo Emerson: poem analysis

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This is an analysis of the poem Hamatreya that begins with:

Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint, Possessed the land which rendered to their toil ... full text

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• Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Emerson's "Hamatreya" Major Themes

"Hamatreya" presents a number of contrasts, each one of which highlights the central, paradoxical turning of the tables on the value traditionally placed by men upon land ownership. In the poem, Emerson opposes materialism and a more spiritual mysticism, reality and illusion, transience and permanence, separateness and unity, and human and universal concepts of history.

Material versus Spiritual

The settlers of Concord who form the subject of the first section of the poem are developed entirely as material men, defined (and defining themselves) solely in terms of their ownership, use, and alteration of the land. Emerson omits to tell the reader anything of them as emotional men, as religious men, or intellectual men, choosing instead to focus on their material orientation. (Significantly, in the 1876 revised version of the poem, in which Peter Bulkeley — Emerson's ancestor and the first minister and a founder of Concord — is placed at the beginning of the list of settlers, there is no hint of the fact that Bulkeley came from England for religious purposes.)

The purely physical nature of the founders' appreciation of their land is emphasized in the listings of their concrete and specific crops and commodities ("Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood") and of the resources they exploited ("We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge, / And misty lowland, where to go for peat"). Even their enjoyment of their land is expressed in terms of owning features of the landscape, through the use of the possessive "my": "How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees! / How graceful climb those shadows on my hill!" The Earth-Song, by contrast, conveys a more mystical, encompassing, spiritually suggestive vision of the permanence of nature as it exists independently of the claims and actions of these men

Reality versus Illusion

The founders of Concord imagine that their pride in property constitutes a special sympathy with the land: "I fancy these pure waters and the flags [wild irises] / Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize; / And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil." Ironically, there is more truth than they know in this connection of themselves with the physical world over which they believe they exert control. In the end, death negates the importance they ascribe to material ownership, and serves as a warning to the first-person speaker at the end of the poem. The settlers' misguided belief that they can live on by holding tight to concrete reality proves illusory. Their eventual loss of particulate self into the land is reality. Despite the fact that they think that they can achieve permanence through ownership, their existence and impact are transient. Those who espouse a material approach to the world face an unexpected finality

In "Hamatreya," Emerson overturns a basic assumption not only of the founders of Concord but of his own contemporaries and of the current time as well: the belief that property ownership is a positive goal and a lasting benefit. Emerson owned land in Concord and elsewhere, including the property at Walden Pond where Thoreau lived from 1845 to 1847. Despite his philosophical idealism, Emerson was subject to the same human values that affected the early landowners of Concord. His recognition of his own susceptibility to illusion is indicated in the four-line stanza at the end of the poem, in which the first-person speaker says, "My avarice cooled." The poem is effectively paradoxical, not because the founders of Concord were particularly deluded, but because their delusion is a common trait, promoted by our culture. The paradox results from the contrast between a prevalent value and the less recognized but, from Emerson's point of view, more valid philosophical approach to man's position in the world.

The wrong-headed materialism of Concord's founders is counteracted by the Earth-Song. The personified Earth points out that the men who thought they owned her are gone, whereas the stars, the sea, the shores, and the land, "Shaggy with wood," continue on. Earth responds to those who said of the land "'Tis mine, my children's, and my name's" by mocking their efforts to ensure the permanence of their ownership through lawyers and deeds:

The lawyer's deed Ran sure, In tail, To them, and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore.

In the end, the Earth emphasizes, the land owns men, not vice versa: "They called me theirs, / Who so controlled me; / Yet every one / Wished to stay, and is gone. / How am I theirs, / If they cannot hold me, / But I hold them?"

Transience versus Permanence

Human existence is unalterably finite. An attitude that encourages any one man or any one generation of men to believe that human influence can be extended over time through material means is egotistical as well as misguided. A true understanding of the universe and of what is permanent can only come about when egotism is subdued and subordination to a higher, more encompassing power accepted. The first-person speaker at the end of the poem arrives at an understanding of this through the Earth-Song

Separateness versus Unity

In the first section of "Hamatreya," Emerson suggests the tendency of Concord's first settlers to see things in their separateness rather than as part of a unified whole.

The lists of their names in the first line of the poem, of the products of their land in the third line, and of Concord's natural resources near the end of the first section all contribute to the impression that these men viewed the world in particulars rather than in totality. The Earth, on the other hand, sings a broader vision, one that transcends time and specificity of place. The egotism of the founders is connected to the importance they attach to their own particulate existence and their own particulate parcels of land. They are forced to arrive at oneness on the most basic level, the level of physical unity with the earth through death and decay. The speaker in the last stanza reaches the point at which he is ready to recognize a more elemental underlying unity

Human History versus Universal History

In "Hamatreya," Emerson affirms a broader, more spiritual outlook on history than that which emphasizes the individual achievements of particular men. He takes the long view, rather than the sequentially focused view. This outlook is consistent with that expressed in his essay "History" (published in his first series of Essays ), in which he writes of the universal mind behind all history in all ages as comprehensible only through history in its entirety, and of each event throughout time as the "application of [the first man's] manifold spirit to the manifold world."

However, in putting the founders of Concord in proper historical perspective in "Hamatreya," Emerson exposes but does not scorn the men of whose fallacy he writes in the first section of the poem. Their efforts, after all, resulted in the development of the town he deeply loved. Moreover, philosophically at odds with their materialism though he was, Emerson admired and respected their steadfastness. In his 1835 discourse at the bicentennial celebration of Concord's incorporation, Emerson had helped to celebrate the accomplishments of these same men. Their efforts formed his personal heritage. In the poem, he presents the speaker's arrival at a stance conducive to true philosophical insight, but, at the same time, he reveals some degree of identification with the founders, even while making their error known. Because Emerson felt a connection to these men, the poem tacitly conveys a sense of how difficult it is to reconcile human experience with the universal and the spiritual, a theme also developed in the essay "Experience" and elsewhere in Emerson's writings.

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The debt is paid, The verdict said, The Furies laid, The plague is stayed, All fortunes made;

Because I was content with these… Low open meads, slender and sluggi… And found a home in haunts which o… The partial wood—gods overpaid my… And granted me the freedom of thei…

If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. Far or forgot to me is near;

Knows he who tills this lonely fie… To reap its scanty corn, What mystic fruit his acres yield At midnight and at morn? In the long sunny afternoon,

The sun goes down, and with him ta… The coarseness of my por attire; The fair moon mounts, and aye the… Of Gypsy beauty blazes higher. Pale Northern girls! you scorn ou…

Little thinks, in the field, yon r… Of thee from the hill—top looking… The heifer that lows in the upland… Far—heard, lows not thine ear to c… The sexton, tolling his bell at no…

How much, preventing God! how muc… To the defenses thou hast round me… Example, custom, fear, occasional… These scorned bondmen were my para… I dare not peep over this parapet

Parks and ponds are good by day; I do not delight In black acres of the night, Nor my unseasoned step disturbs The sleeps of trees or dreams of h…

In May, when sea-winds pierced ou… I found the fresh Rhodora in the… Spreading its leafless blooms in a… To please the desert and the slugg… The purple petals, fallen in the p…

And I behold once more My old familiar haunts; here the b… The same blue wonder that my infan… Admired, sage doubting whence the… Whence brought his sunny bubbles e…

Daughters of Time, the hypocritic… Muffled and dumb like barefoot der… And marching single in an endless… Bring diadems and fagots in their… To each they offer gifts after his…

Trees in groves, Kine in droves, In ocean sport the scaly herds, Wedge—like cleave the air the bird… To northern lakes fly wind—borne d…

Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good—frame, Plans, credit and the Muse,—

Though loath to grieve The evil time’s sole patriot, I cannot leave My honeyed thought For the priest’s cant,

Of Paradise, O hermit wise, Let us renounce the thought. Of old therein our names of sin Allah recorded not. Who dear to God on earthly sod

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Hamatreya

Earth-Song 'Mine and yours; Mine, not yours. Earth endures; Stars abide— Shine down in the old sea; Old are the shores; But where are old men? I who have seen much, Such have I never seen. 'The lawyer's deed Ran sure, In tail, To them, and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore. 'Here is the land, Shaggy with wood, With its old valley, Mound and flood. But the heritors?— Fled like the flood's foam. The lawyer, and the laws, And the kingdom, Clean swept herefrom. 'They called me theirs, Who so controlled me; Yet every one Wished to stay, and is gone, How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, But I hold them?'

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Maitreya in Hamatreya: Religious Analysis on Emerson's Poem Hamatreya

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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a “champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society.” He was described as a poet among philosophers and a philosopher among poets. He was not only a transcendentalist but also the founding father of Transcendentalism. “The American Scholar” gives a concrete expression to Emerson’s philosophic system. As a theorist of aesthetic experience, he always emphasized the supremacy of poetic inspiration over mere technical skill. Emerson was a great essayist. His essays are the scriptures of thought. Emerson was the first great American who read the Hindu scriptures and was profoundly influenced by the Hindu philosophy. The lyric also brings out the Hindu influence on Emerson. The title of the poem as well as its theme is derived from the Vishnu purana. The song of Mother Earth, with which the lyric ends, has a mantric quality. The language used in this poem is very simple but dignified and musical as well.

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The present research work makes an attempt to understand, comprehend the essence of Transcendentalism with a graphic account of American literature. The object is to plan, select and co-ordinate the area of research in an intelligible and assimilable form.We can feel the divine presence within us with the help of our own intuition. Intuition is, for Emerson, like religion, matter of actual, present personal experience. Spiritualism to Emerson is the consciousness of God and not the concept given by religion. According to Emerson, the ‘intuitive’ power of man is the most important factor to feel the divine presence within us. Intuition enables the observer to see through the remoteness or ambiguity of words and things to the unifying source of all in the universe thought. So, through this intuition we can feel the ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ present within us. In all the various aspects of Emerson’s life and works and also his ideas have been discussed. This ideas and thoughts were regarded to his eleven essays have been discussed in detail. In the paper, the accounts of Emerson’s life and works have been discussed. The introduction brings out the relationship between his life and works. This paper discusses the emergence of Emerson as Transcendentalist writer and thinker. Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on 25th May, 1803 in Boston. His father was Reverend William Emerson and mother, Ruth Haskins Emerson. He was the second child of eight children. His father died when he was only eight years old and he was brought up by his mother and aunt, Mary Moody.

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• Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint, Possessed the land which rendered to their toil Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool and wood. Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm, Saying, “‘Tis mine, my children’s and my name’s. How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees! How graceful climb those shadows on my hill! I fancy these pure waters and the flags Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize; And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.’

Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave. They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, And sighed for all that bounded their domain; ‘This suits me for a pasture; that’s my park; We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge, And misty lowland, where to go for peat. The land is well,–lies fairly to the south. ‘Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back, To find the sitfast acres where you left them.’ Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds Him to his land, a lump of mould the more. Hear what the Earth says:–

‘Mine and yours; Mine, not yours, Earth endures; Stars abide– Shine down in the old sea; Old are the shores; But where are old men? I who have seen much, Such have I never seen.

‘The lawyer’s deed Ran sure, In tail, To them, and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore.

‘Here is the land, Shaggy with wood, With its old valley, Mound and flood. “But the heritors?– Fled like the flood’s foam. The lawyer, and the laws, And the kingdom, Clean swept herefrom.

‘They called me theirs, Who so controlled me; Yet every one Wished to stay, and is gone, How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, But I hold them?’

When I heard the Earth-song, I was no longer brave; My avarice cooled Like lust in the chill of the grave.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem Hamatreya

the people who came to america had different aims.they hide their essential goals.they show themselves as bringing good things.and the inhabitants could not see the realities.they suppose these new settlers as modern people.but emerson underlies that these people had crucial aims under the surface!!!!!eg:slavery

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List of Emerson Poems

Alphonso of Castile The Amulet The Apology Astræ

Bacchus The Bell Berrying Blight Boston Hymn Brahma

Celestial Love Compensation Concord Hymn

Dæmonic Love The Day's Ration Dirge

Each and All Eros Etienne de la Boéce

Fable Fate Forebearance The Forerunners From the Persian of Hafiz (1) From the Persian of Hafiz (2)

Give All To Love Good-by

Loss and Gain

Merlin I Merlin II Merops Mithridates Monadnoc The Mountain and the Squirrel Musketaquid

Ode I: Initial Love Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing Ode To Beauty

Painting and Sculpture The Park The Problem

• The Rhodora

Saadi The Snow-Storm "Sursum Corda" "Suum Cuique"

Tact Terminus Threnody To Ellen, At the South To Eva To J.W. To Rhea

Water Wood Notes I The World-Soul

His best-known addresses are The American Scholar (1837) and The Divinity School Address , which he delivered before the graduates of the Harvard Divinity School, shocking Boston's conservative clergymen with his descriptions of the divinity of man and the humanity of Jesus.

Emerson met William Wordsworth , Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle.

What is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s best poem?

• The Rhodora - This is my favorite poem of Emerson and is also one of his most beloved poems, according to experts. However, while weaving imagery of the connection between man and nature in the poem, there is an underlying message about his relationship with his wife. See if you can spot it.
• The Bell - The poem highlights the recurring patterns of human life, using the bell as a symbol to denote the various pivotal moments we experience, ranging from joyous to sorrowful occasions.
• The Snow Storm - is a celebration of nature's transformative power, particularly the beauty and artistry of a snowstorm. The poem portrays the storm as an artist that, in its fierce creativity, transforms the landscape into a winter wonderland. Emerson delves into the theme of nature's majesty, depicting how it crafts intricate, transient masterpieces, contrasting the environment's stillness with nature's active hand.

What poems did Ralph Waldo Emerson write?

• Concord Hymn
• Boston Hymn
• The Snow Storm
• The Mountain and the Squirrel
• Give all to Love

What is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s most famous writing?

Emerson's Self-Reliance is his most famous work, and it can change your outlook and your life for the better if you put into place his teachings.

What is Ralph Waldo Emerson most known for?

During his nearly 80 years of life on this earth, Emerson was most known as a writer as was called "the man of letters in America."

Emerson's Essays

Research the collective works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Read More Essay

Self-Reliance

Emerson's most famous work that can truly change your life. Check it out

America's best known and best-loved poems. More Poems

PILGRIMAGE BLOG

• Hamatreya Poem Meaning: Ruminations on a Ralph Waldo Emerson Poem

Hamatreya is a poem that Emerson wrote in the mid-1800’s.

Its message is well worth contemplation in our day and age as individuals and nations reckon with the forces of nature. Well beyond ideology or opinion, the poem expresses the reality of humankind’s relationship to nature. The core theme of the poem was taken from Emerson’s reading of ancient Hindu writings.

The poem in its entirety appears at the end of this essay.

Emerson guides us to see the futility in our boasting and pride and points towards an awareness of the cycle of life. Earth is given a voice in this poem. This awareness of earth’s living relationship to each of us is essential for any meaningful discussion of humankind’s relationship to nature.

The poem has three voices: the earth, the impartial narrator and a voice that reflects, in the last stanza, on the power of the earth’s song. The poem begins with the narrator speaking for various men of the time and their pride at possessing that which they own: their properties, orchards, dogs and families and their resounding belief in their ownership: “Tis mine, my children’s and my name’s…my trees…my hill…my dog.”

The narrator then ponders: “Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds.” The narrator drives home his point: “Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys/Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;/Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet/Clear of the grave.” Emerson’s wisdom exposes the vain and fleeting pride of human beings when it comes to their relationship to the earth.

Emerson then ratchets up the poem to another level of intensity with a sub-section that he titles Earth-Song . In it the narrator continues in the theme of exposing the futile vanity of possession and then gives voice to the earth: “They called me theirs,/Who so controlled me;/Yet every one/Wished to stay, and is gone,/How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, /But I hold them?”

The poem ends with the narrator reflecting on all he has heard and learnt upon hearing the earth speak:

When I heard the Earth-song,

I was no longer brave;

My avarice cooled

Like lust in the chill of the grave.

The entire poem:

Hamatreya by Ralph Waldo Emmerson

*Read our other articles on the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

• A Complete Poem Analysis of Emerson’s Brahma
• Why Is Time Management Important? Time Management Lessons from Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Guest Essay

How to Breathe With the Trees

By Margaret Renkl

Ms. Renkl is a contributing Opinion writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South.

Even on a computer screen, Ada Limón, who is serving her second term as poet laureate of the United States, projects such warmth and reassurance that you could almost swear she was sitting beside you, holding your hand. This kind of connection between strangers, human heart to human heart, is so rare as to be startling, especially these days.

April is National Poetry Month, and it strikes me that no one is better positioned than Ms. Limón to convince Americans to leave off their quarrels and worries, at least for a time, and surrender to the language of poetry. That’s as much because of her public presence as because of her public role as the country’s poet in chief. When Ada Limón tells you that poetry will make you feel better, you believe her.

In her nearly weekly travels as poet laureate, Ms. Limón has had a lot of practice delivering this message. “Every time I’m around a group of people, the word that keeps coming up is ‘overwhelmed,’” she said. “It’s so meaningful to lean on poetry right now because it does make you slow down. It does make you breathe.”

A poem is built of rests. Each line break, each stanza break and each caesura represents a pause, and in that pause there is room to take a breath. To ponder. To sit, for once in our lives, with mystery. If we can’t find a way to slow down on our own, to take a breath, poems can teach us how.

But Ms. Limón isn’t merely an ambassador for how poetry can heal us . She also makes a subtle but powerful case for how poetry can heal the earth itself. At this time of crisis, when worry governs our days, she wants us to look up from our screens and consider our own connection to the earth. To remember how to breathe by spending some time with the trees that breathe with us.

In the United States, about half of poets laureate spend their terms developing a signature project that fosters a greater appreciation of poetry. Ms. Limón has two: “ You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World ,” an anthology of nature poetry that will be released on Tuesday; and “ You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks ,” a series of poetry-centered picnic-table-style installations in seven national parks. Each will be inscribed with the words of a poet associated with that landscape and also with a writing prompt designed to nudge readers to try their own hands at making a poem. These initiatives will be formally introduced on Thursday at the Library of Congress in conjunction with the library’s inaugural Mary Oliver Memorial Event.

Whether sweeping and magnificent or nearly microscopic — a majestic national park vista, say, or an ant colony’s communal effort to save its own inadvertently uncovered eggs — the natural world has always been a catalyst for lyricism. “There’s a reason why people go to these incredible natural landscapes and think, ‘I have no words,’” Ms. Limón said. “And yet the poets, we love to see if we can figure out some words: ‘Let’s see if we can name that kind of wonder, that kind of awe.’”

The connection between the beauty of the world and the beauty of the language is more crucial now than it has ever been. In its intimacy, its revelation not just of nature but also of the perceiving self, nature poems offer one of the few paths we have to consider the risks to the natural world in a way that is free of partisan rancor.

Those risks are foremost in Ms. Limón’s mind. In considering what her signature project as poet laureate would be, the thought that came to her was both small and impossibly huge: “I just want us all to write poems and save the planet,” she writes in the introduction to “You Are Here.”

“We all have nature poems within us — every single one of us,” Ms. Limón said when I asked her about this statement. “I wanted to have a book that not only allowed us to think of many different ways that nature poems can exist and move in the world, but also give people permission to write their own nature poems and think about it in a different way.”

“You Are Here” is an anthology of nature poems by 50 of the most accomplished poets working today, including the PEN/Voelcker Award winner Rigoberto González, the former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo, the Pulitzer Prize winner Diane Seuss and the Kingsley Tufts Award winner Patricia Smith, among many others who have won national awards for their work. “I just asked for these original poems, like, ‘Will you make this poem that speaks back to the natural world, whatever that means to you?’” Ms. Limón said.

The poems she got in response represent a great diversity of poetic voices and forms, and also a diversity of natural landscapes. If your idea of nature poetry is, as Ms. Limón said only half-jokingly, “a young gentleman walking to a mountain and having an epiphany,” this anthology will put that notion to rest.

Whoever you are, you will find yourself and your own world in the expansiveness of this collection. Even in the specificity of each poet’s own inimitable experience, you will find your own voice and your own perceiving self, for the natural world includes us and enfolds us all. Nature can be found on a mountain, yes, but it can also be found on a city stoop. Or in a drainage ditch. Or in the sky above a prison yard. Wherever we are, that is where the natural world is, too. It is there. We just have to notice it.

Writing a poem might seem like the least practical way imaginable to address melting glaciers, bleaching coral, drought, pollution and the like, never mind the overarching catastrophes of climate change and mass extinction. What can language do to save us now? What can something so small as a poem possibly do to save us now?

The answer lies in poetry’s great intimacy, its invitation to breathe together. We read a poem, and we take a breath each time the poet takes a breath. We read a nature poem, and we take a breath with the trees. When the trees — and the birds and the clouds and the ants and even the bats and the rat snakes — become a part of us, too, maybe that’s when we will finally begin to care enough to save them.

Margaret Renkl , a contributing Opinion writer, is the author of the books “ The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, ” “ Graceland, at Last ” and “ Late Migrations .”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint, Possessed the land which rendered to their toil Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool and wood. Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm, Saying, "'Tis mine, my children's and my name's. How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees! How graceful climb those shadows on my hill! I fancy these pure waters and the flags Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize; And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.'

Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave. They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, And sighed for all that bounded their domain; 'This suits me for a pasture; that's my park; We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge, And misty lowland, where to go for peat. The land is well,--lies fairly to the south. 'Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back, To find the sitfast acres where you left them.' Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds Him to his land, a lump of mould the more. Hear what the Earth says:--

'Mine and yours; Mine, not yours, Earth endures; Stars abide-- Shine down in the old sea; Old are the shores; But where are old men? I who have seen much, Such have I never seen.

'The lawyer's deed Ran sure, In tail, To them, and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore.

'Here is the land, Shaggy with wood, With its old valley, Mound and flood. "But the heritors?-- Fled like the flood's foam. The lawyer, and the laws, And the kingdom, Clean swept herefrom.

'They called me theirs, Who so controlled me; Yet every one Wished to stay, and is gone, How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, But I hold them?'

When I heard the Earth-song, I was no longer brave; My avarice cooled Like lust in the chill of the grave.

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Poems (Emerson, Household Edition, 1904)/Hamatreya

Bulkeley , Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint, Possessed the land which rendered to their toil Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool and wood. Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm, Saying, ''T is mine, my children's and my name's. How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees! How graceful climb those shadows on my hill! I fancy these pure waters and the flags Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize; And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.'

Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave. They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, And sighed for all that bounded their domain; 'This suits me for a pasture; that 's my park; We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge, And misty lowland, where to go for peat. The land is well,—lies fairly to the south. 'T is good, when you have crossed the sea and back, ​ To find the sitfast acres where you left them.' Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds Him to his land, a lump of mould the more. Hear what the Earth says:—

' Mine and yours; Mine, not yours. Earth endures; Stars abide— Shine down in the old sea; Old are the shores; But where are old men? I who have seen much, Such have I never seen.

' The lawyer's deed Ran sure, In tail, To them, and to their heirs Who shall succeed, Without fail, Forevermore.

' Here is the land, Shaggy with wood, With its old valley, Mound and flood. But the heritors?— ​ Fled like the flood's foam. The lawyer, and the laws, And the kingdom, Clean swept herefrom.

' They called me theirs, Who so controlled me; Yet every one Wished to stay, and is gone, How am I theirs, If they cannot hold me, But I hold them?'

When I heard the Earth-song I was no longer brave; My avarice cooled Like lust in the chill of the grave.

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