Writing

Emerson and Huxley:

On the Poetics of Poetry

 

Abstract: For this essay I hope to use the two literary geniuses Ralph Waldo Emerson and Aldous Huxley as a way of exploring poetry. I know that both wrote poetry and had particular opinions and critiques of a the vast amounts which they had read. I am interested in what they considered to be excellent poetry and that which they saw as pretentious or shallow. In my essay I will analyze their thoughts on the contemporary poets of their time and hopefully be able to grasp what it means to be a true poet.

Thesis:         While poetry has been a literary facet throughout history, its poetics or the subject matter and style of expression, have gone through considerable shifts. These alterations in the poetics of poetry have been critiqued fairly extensively by two of the greatest philosophes of our time: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Aldous Huxley. Although these two had slightly different opinions, they both held contempt for the industrial ages in which they lived, citing the blandness and lack of range in its poetic works. Because of this, both Huxley and Emerson explain ways of diversifying topics and expanding poetry outside of its mechanical stalemate.