Uriel (poem)
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Uriel, a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson describing the "lapse" of Uriel.
"Once, among the Pleiads walking, Sayd overheard the young gods talking; And the treason, too long pent, To his ears was evident. The young deities discussed Laws of form, and metre just, Orb, quintessence, and sunbeams."
The leader of the speculating young was Uriel, who with "low tones" and "piercing eye" preaches against the presence of lines in nature, thus introducing the idea of progress and the eternal return. A shudder runs through the sky at these words, and "all slid to confusion".
Some commentators (for example Whicher) have speculated that the poem is autobiographical, inspired by Emerson's shock at the unfavourable reception of the Divinity School Address.
F. O. Matthiessen focussed instead on the philosophical content of the poem, arguing that "the conflict between the angel-doctrine of 'line' and Uriel's doctrine of 'round' is identical to the antithesis of 'Understanding' and 'Reason' which, under different aspects, was the burden of most of Emerson's early essays" (74). Hugh Witemeyer calls "Uriel" a "poetic summary of many strains of thought in Emerson's early philosophy". The topic of lines and circles has also been discussed by Sherman Paul (18-23 for lines and 98-102 for circles).
Robert Frost called Uriel, "the greatest Western poem yet" (in "On Emerson"). He also alluded to it in "A Masque of Reason" and "Build Soil".
[edit] References
- F. O. Matthiessen: American Renaissance, 1941.
- Sherman Paul: Emerson's Angle of Vision, Harvard University Press, 1952.
- Stephen E. Whicher: Freedom and Fate. Philadelphia, 1953.
- Hugh H. Witemeyer: "'Line' and 'Round' in Emerson's 'Uriel'", PMLA, March 1967: 98-103.
