Ralph Walter Emerson
"Water"
"WATER"
The water understands
Civilization well;
It wets my foot, but prettily,
It chills my life, but wittily,
It is not disconcerted,
It is not broken-hearted:
Well used, it decketh joy,
Adorneth, doubleth joy:
Ill used, it will destroy,
In perfect time and measure
With a face of golden pleasure
Elegantly destroy.
POEM EXPLICATION
Emerson says, "It is not disconcerted," meaning that life has it's own path for you. Emerson says, "Well used, it decketh joy, Adorneth, doubleth joy, Ill used, it will destroy," this means that if you live your life not hating everything you will have a good life and if you love and adore it you will be really happy. But if you do live your life being a hater your life will be horrible.
Emerson says," In perfect time and measure With a face of golden pleasure Elegantly destroy." I think this means that if everything is perfect you can die peacefully.
In conclusion, the poem is saying that life gives and takes. It has beauty and darkness. But if you want to have a good life, you should adore it and live it to the fullest.
Poet Research
Ralph Waldo Emerson's father died of stomach cancer when he was 8, and this event shaped who he was. I think that this is referring to the line, "It chills my life, but wittily." In the poem it says, "Ill used, it will destroy," i believe this is when his first wife, Ellen Tucker died of tuberculosis. A third connection is where Emerson says, "Well used, it decketh joy,
Adorneth, doubleth joy." I think this is when he had four children with his second wife Lydia Jackson.
In conclusion, there are many connections between poems and their poet's life, as I have showed you in this one.
Water
Gold
Broken Heart
MY POEM
"Nature"
What humanity needs,
It kills the evil,
Yet it lets evil kill us,
It is not unmethodized,
It is fire that saves and destroys,
It commands itself
to do its own bidding,
And all itself
it is like the ocean
waiting to be explored.