The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume IX: Poems: A Variorum Edition

Albert J. von Frank is Professor of English and American Studies at Washington State University. Thomas Wortham is Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.

This is the ninth volume of an intended ten of The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Like other titles in the sequence, this one is remarkable, and the editorial work by von Frank and Wortham establishes the volume as the chief source for a critical investigation into Emerson's poetry. The volume collects Emerson's poetry published in his lifetime, and the poems are arranged chronologically. Emerson's poems often appeared in different publications, and the poems were edited and often revised for each occasion. The notes list the variants and the sources, forming a historical collation of the poetry, often with references to the more obscure allusions. In addition, von Frank provides a "historical introduction," surveying the poems through Emerson's life and critical reception. By the end of his life, and throughout much of the 20th century, Emerson's significance as an American poet was secured. However, in recent decades, his poetry has become an afterthought to his essays. This volume invites a reconsideration of Emerson as a poet, one engaged in experimental prosody and one for whom the poetry becomes a map of the creative process and thought itself. -- R. T. Prus Choice 20111101