May-Day and Other Pieces
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spring arrives with a rush of words, and Ralph Waldo Emerson stands at the threshold, pen in hand. May-Day and Other Pieces is not just a collection of poems—it is an invitation to witness the shifting tides of nature, thought, and destiny through the eyes of one of America's sharpest philosophical minds.
From the awakening landscapes of May-Day to the untamed wilderness of The Adirondacs, Emerson moves effortlessly between the grandeur of the world and the depths of the soul. The mysticism of Brahma, the inevitability of Fate, the defiance of Freedom—each poem is a meditation, a spark meant to ignite the reader's own reflection. History echoes in the Boston Hymn, sung as the Civil War reshaped a nation, while the lyrical simplicity of My Garden and Seashore captures fleeting moments of peace amid the rush of existence.
Yet, Emerson never lingers too long in stillness. He follows the restless course of Two Rivers, listens to the quiet solitude of Waldeinsamkeit, and faces the finality of Terminus with unwavering clarity. This is poetry that questions, poetry that endures. It is a journey through seasons, through America, through the self—one that leaves the reader standing on the shore, looking out at the vastness, changed.
May-Day and Other Pieces is more than verse. It is a conversation with the universe, and Emerson, ever the sage, is still speaking.
Contents
• May-Day
• The Adirondacs
A Journal
Dedicated to my Fellow Travellers IN August, 1858
• Brahma
• Nemesis
• Fate
• Freedom
• Ode Sung in the Town Hall, Concord, July 4, 1857
• Boston Hymn, Read in Music Hall, January 1, 1863
• Voluntaries
• Love and Thought
• Una
• Boston
• Letters
• Rubies
• Merlin's Song
• The Test
• Solution
• Hymn Sung at the Second Church, at the Ordination of Rev. Chandler Robbins
• Nature I
• Nature II
• The Romany Girl
• Days
• My Garden
• The Chartist's Complaint
• The Titmouse
• The Harp
• Seashore
• Song of Nature
• Two Rivers
• Waldeinsamkeit
• Terminus
• The Nun's Aspiration
• April
• Maiden Speech of the Aeolian Harp
• Cupido
• The Past
• The Last Farewell
Lines written by the author's brother, Edward Bliss Emerson, whilst sailing out of Boston Harbor, bound for the island of Porto Rico, in 1832
• In Memoriam E. B. E.
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