The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poems, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Title: Poems
Household Edition

Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Release Date: July 7, 2004 [EBook #12843]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POEMS ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed Proofreaders

POEMS

BY

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

_HOUSEHOLD EDITION_

1867, 1876, 1883, 1895, 1904 AND 1911

* * * * *

PREFACE

In Mr. Cabot's prefatory note to the Riverside Edition of the Poems,
published the year after Mr. Emerson's death, he said:--

"This volume contains nearly all the pieces included in the POEMS and
MAY-DAY of former editions. In 1876, Mr. Emerson published a selection
from his Poems, adding six new ones and omitting many[1]. Of those
omitted, several are now restored, in accordance with the expressed
wishes of many readers and lovers of them. Also some pieces never
before published are here given in an Appendix; on various grounds.
Some of them appear to have had Mr. Emerson's approval, but to have
been withheld because they were unfinished. These it seemed best not to
suppress, now that they can never receive their completion. Others,
mostly of an early date, remained unpublished, doubtless because of
their personal and private nature. Some of these seem to have an
autobiographic interest sufficient to justify their publication. Others
again, often mere fragments, have been admitted as characteristic, or
as expressing in poetic form thoughts found in the Essays.

[1] _Selected Poems_: Little Classic Edition.

"In coming to a decision in these cases it seemed, on the whole,
preferable to take the risk of including too much rather than the
opposite, and to leave the task of further winnowing to the hands of
Time.

"As was stated in the preface to the first volume of this edition of
Mr. Emerson's writings, the readings adopted by him in the Selected
Poems have not always been followed here, but in some cases preference
has been given to corrections made by him when he was in fuller
strength than at the time of the last revision.

"A change