Criticism > Poetry > Thoreau, Henry David - Betsy Feagan Colquitt (essay date 1971)

Thoreau, Henry David - Betsy Feagan Colquitt (essay date 1971)

Betsy Feagan Colquitt (essay date 1971)

SOURCE: “Thoreau's Poetics,” in American Transcendental Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 1971, pp. 74-81.

[In the following essay, Colquitt suggests that Thoreau's judgments about the poet's experience hampered his success as a writer of verses.]

“Yes, I've seen her poetry
Interesting if one is interested in Celia,
Apart, of course, from its literary merit
Which I don't pretend to judge.”

—“The Cocktail Party”

Edward Chamberlayne's judgment on his mistress' poetry reflects with accuracy the critical verdict on the poetry of Thoreau: his poetry is interesting if one is interested in Thoreau as man and as writer of prose. Its literary merit, which a number of critics from Thoreau's time to our own have pretended to judge, has been found negligible.1 Though there are some exceptions, the critical attitudes may be represented by George Ripley's comment in his...

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