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PROPERTY OF A CALIFORNIA LADY
EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Autograph letter signed ("R. W. Emerson"), to Francis G. Shaw, Concord, 12 September 1863. 3 pages, 8vo, remnants of mounting. [Enclosed with:] EMERSON. Autograph manuscript, unsigned, n.d. [ca. September 1863]. A fair copy of his poem "The Voluntaries." 8 pages, 4to, puncture holes at top edge, remnants of mounting along edge.
Details
EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Autograph letter signed ("R. W. Emerson"), to Francis G. Shaw, Concord, 12 September 1863. 3 pages, 8vo, remnants of mounting. [Enclosed with:] EMERSON. Autograph manuscript, unsigned, n.d. [ca. September 1863]. A fair copy of his poem "The Voluntaries." 8 pages, 4to, puncture holes at top edge, remnants of mounting along edge.
A RARE EMERSON MANUSCRIPT POEM, OFFERED WITH CONDOLENCES TO THE FATHER OF COL. ROBERT GOULD SHAW
"On account of their scope and allusion, you will forgive me," Emerson writes, "for enclosing to you some unfinished verses of mine. I have sent them already to the 'Atlantic Monthly,' but my daughters have made it a point that I should copy them for you. I could heartily wish that it were in my power to find you any just expression of the feeling which all the members of my family share with the country, of the public debt to your house & its hero..." The enclosed poem appeared almost unchanged in the Atlantic Monthly of October 1863. While not mentioning Shaw by name, the young hero was clearly in Emerson's mind in this poem that moves from images of transported Africans to those in America willing to fight for emancipation. "...In an age of fops and toys Wanting wisdom, void of right Who shall nerve heroic boys To hazard all in Freedom's fight...So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can....Stainless Soldier on the walls, Knowing this, -- and knows no more -- Whoever fights, whoever falls Justice conquers evermore..."
Shaw died in battle in July 1863, leading the famous 54th Massachusetts regiment of black troops in a heroic but failed assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina. Emerson was friendly with the Shaw family, which was part of an extended circle of abolitionist families stretching from Boston to Staten island (where the Shaw's lived for a time). Emerson put himself at the forefront of every abolitionist-related controversy starting with the Fugitive Slave law, the beating of Sen. Charles Sumner, and John Brown's trial and hanging. (2)
A RARE EMERSON MANUSCRIPT POEM, OFFERED WITH CONDOLENCES TO THE FATHER OF COL. ROBERT GOULD SHAW
"On account of their scope and allusion, you will forgive me," Emerson writes, "for enclosing to you some unfinished verses of mine. I have sent them already to the 'Atlantic Monthly,' but my daughters have made it a point that I should copy them for you. I could heartily wish that it were in my power to find you any just expression of the feeling which all the members of my family share with the country, of the public debt to your house & its hero..." The enclosed poem appeared almost unchanged in the Atlantic Monthly of October 1863. While not mentioning Shaw by name, the young hero was clearly in Emerson's mind in this poem that moves from images of transported Africans to those in America willing to fight for emancipation. "...In an age of fops and toys Wanting wisdom, void of right Who shall nerve heroic boys To hazard all in Freedom's fight...So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can....Stainless Soldier on the walls, Knowing this, -- and knows no more -- Whoever fights, whoever falls Justice conquers evermore..."
Shaw died in battle in July 1863, leading the famous 54th Massachusetts regiment of black troops in a heroic but failed assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina. Emerson was friendly with the Shaw family, which was part of an extended circle of abolitionist families stretching from Boston to Staten island (where the Shaw's lived for a time). Emerson put himself at the forefront of every abolitionist-related controversy starting with the Fugitive Slave law, the beating of Sen. Charles Sumner, and John Brown's trial and hanging. (2)