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X. Emerson on the Organic Principle in Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Norman Foerster
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Extract

One could not desire a better instance of the need of defining critical terms than is afforded by a comparison of Poe's and of Emerson's definition of art. Since Poe defined poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty,” he would necessarily have defined art in general as “the creation of beauty.” Now, although Emerson's view of art is in striking contrast with Poe's, he begins with these very words. In his first book, Nature, he says, “The creation of beauty is Art.” What does he mean?

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 41 , Issue 1: American Bibliography for 1925 , March 1926 , pp. 193 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1926

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References

1 The imagery is from the Neo-Platonist Proclus, “Beauty swims on the light of forms,” quoted in Journals, 1843, page 436.

2 This is corrected in another journal passage a quarter of a century later, Cf. Journals, 1834, 255, and 1861, 296.

3 The most explicit is in The Natural History of Intellect, pp. 36-37.