Criticism > Poetry > Thoreau, Henry David - H. Grant Sampson (essay date 1972)

Thoreau, Henry David - H. Grant Sampson (essay date 1972)

H. Grant Sampson (essay date 1972)

SOURCE: “Structure in the Poetry of Thoreau,” in Costerus, Vol. 6, 1972, pp. 137-54.

[In the following essay, Sampson argues that much of Thoreau's poetry has the structure reminiscent of the meditative tradition of seventeenth-century poetry.]

I

Thoreau's reputation as a major American writer has not depended upon his poetry. Although Emerson, in an article on “New Poetry” in The Dial for October 1840, recognized him as an important writer, he classified Thoreau as a “portfolio” poet whose greatness lay in the future; and later Emerson advised him to burn his poetry. Eighty-one years passed from the time of Thoreau's death until a collected edition of his poetry appeared. And in spite of the general availability of the poems in Carl Bode's 1943 edition and then in the 1964 enlarged edition, little serious attention has been given to these works.

Nor has critical...

[The entire page is 6302 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass