The Poet

". . . for the poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the common-wealth."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet



The Poet, written by Ralph Waldon Emerson between 1841 and 1843, is an essay in which Emerson argues for the United States, when it was a relatively young nation, to establish a position of national poet to write about the country's virtues and vices. It reflects the way that Emerson, as a leader of the American Transcendentalist movement, championed individualism.