Hey everyone
I have a homework assignment and I need to figure out the meaning of the poem Each and All by Ralph Waldo Emerson. If anyone has any idea about the meaning please tell me. I'm very confused by the meaning because of the mixed messages that he is giving!
Jon

i think that the meaning of beauty is that each piece of beauty is best observed when it is in its natural place in the world. When something is taken away from where it is suppose to be, you get the object and the beauty is left behind.

Here's a link to the poem if anyone is interested: [rpo.library.utoronto.ca]

Les

>Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,
>of thee ...

>Notes

>1] red-cloaked clown: a minister, it seems.

I seldom disagree with the Toronto site interpretations, but I have to ask myself what their minister is doing out in a field.

Composed in 1834, one also thinks it might be a British soldier, but that is also unlikely. Some kind of bird, I would think - pheasant, mebbe? Doing a mating dance? Sure, why not.

I can't say the 'everything has its natural place' interpretation is incorrect, but to me the message is more of 'everything is tied together'. See, for example:

All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.

And, the finish of a poem often summarizes (is that spelled right? Looks weird) what has gone before:

Beauty through my senses stole;
I yielded myself to the perfect whole.