Emerson has the most exalted ideas of the true poetic function, as this passage from “Merlin” sufficiently shows:—­

  “Thy trivial harp will never please
  Or fill my craving ear;
  Its chords should ring as blows the breeze,
  Free, peremptory, clear. 
  No jingling serenader’s art
  Nor tinkling of piano-strings
  Can make the wild blood start
  In its mystic springs;
  The kingly bard
  Must smite the chords rudely and hard,
  As with hammer or with mace;
  That they may render back
  Artful thunder, which conveys
  Secrets of the solar track,
  Sparks of the supersolar blaze.

* * * * *

  Great is the art,
  Great be the manners of the bard. 
  He shall not his brain encumber
  With the coil of rhythm and number;
  But leaving rule and pale forethought
  He shall aye climb
  For his rhyme. 
  ‘Pass in, pass in,’ the angels say,
  ’In to the upper doors,
  Nor count compartments of the floors,
  But mount to paradise
  By the stairway of surprise.’”

And here is another passage from “The Poet,” mentioned in the quotation before the last, in which the bard is spoken of as performing greater miracles than those ascribed to Orpheus:—­

  “A Brother of the world, his song
  Sounded like a tempest strong
  Which tore from oaks their branches broad,
  And stars from the ecliptic road. 
  Time wore he as his clothing-weeds,
  He sowed the sun and moon for seeds. 
  As melts the iceberg in the seas,
  As clouds give rain to the eastern breeze,
  As snow-banks thaw in April’s beam,
  The solid kingdoms like a dream
  Resist in vain his motive strain,
  They totter now and float amain. 
  For the Muse gave special charge
  His learning should be deep and large,
  And his training should not scant
  The deepest lore of wealth or want: 
  His flesh should feel, his eyes should read
  Every maxim of dreadful Need;
  In its fulness he should taste
  Life’s honeycomb, but not too fast;
  Full fed, but not intoxicated;
  He should be loved; he should be hated;
  A blooming child to children dear,
  His heart should palpitate with fear.”

We look naturally to see what poets were Emerson’s chief favorites.  In his poems “The Test” and “The Solution,” we find that the five whom he recognizes as defying the powers of destruction are Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Swedenborg, Goethe.

Here are a few of his poetical characterizations from “The Harp:”—­

  “And this at least I dare affirm,
  Since genius too has bound and term,
  There is no bard in all the choir,
  Not Homer’s self, the poet-sire,
  Wise Milton’s odes of pensive pleasure,
  Or Shakespeare whom no mind can measure,
  Nor Collins’ verse of tender pain,
  Nor Byron’s clarion of disdain,
  Scott, the delight of generous boys,
  Or Wordsworth, Pan’s recording voice,—­
  Not one of all can put in verse,
  Or to this presence could rehearse
  The sights and voices ravishing
  The boy knew on the hills in spring.”—­