SOURCE: "Emerson and Poetry," in South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. LIV, No. 1, January, 1955, pp. 82-94.

Gross is an American-Literature scholar whose area of specialization is Nathaniel Hawthorne with an additional focus on African-American Literature and Emerson criticism. In the following excerpt, Gross examines contradictory aspects of Emerson's theories of poetry and rates Emerson's poetry unfavorably. The critic points out specific flaws in the poems "Each and All" and "The Rhodora" but presents "Days" as Emerson's finest poem.

In view of the multitude of learned articles and books on the subject of Emerson's theory and practice of poetry, there is perhaps some need of justifying another treatment of the subject. For the most part scholars and critics have been content to describe Emerson's theory by ample quotation from his writings and have then gone on to cite various poems by way of illustration. On the whole, far too little attention...