Analysis

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Emerson uses paradox to convey the ideas that the human soul is immortal and the physical world is illusory. How can "far or forgot" be "near" to the speaker? How can "Shadow and sunlight" be "the same"? How can gods who have "vanished" then "appear" to him? How can "shame and fame" be "one" to him? These statements, in lines 4-8, are paradoxical, meaning that they each seem to be contradictory, but they are somehow nevertheless true. All of these opposites can exist at once, for Brahma (the Hindu deity who narrates the poem), because he is immortal, as is the human soul. This is why the "red slayer" does not truly kill or the "slain" is not really killed. Terms like "slain" describe the physical body only, not the spiritual soul. Brahma also says that when we fly, he is "the wings"; he is somehow both "the doubter and the doubt." This statement presents yet another paradox, and it helps to convey the idea that language and concepts that humans have created to order and understand the physical world are not real; the immortal does not recognize divisions like near and far, light and dark, or doubter and doubt. We simply create this distinctions in order to better understand the physical world which will, unlike our souls, pass away.

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