174 206
THE “INIMITABLEVOICE OFTHE INDIVIDUAL . . .
POETRY OUGHT ALWAYSTO BE”
265
●
EMERSON, RALPH WALDO. Autograph Letter Signed, “R.W. Emerson,” to
Abby Dwight Woodbridge (“Miss A.D. Woodbridge”), explaining forthrightly but gently
why her verses could not be accepted for publication in the
Dial
. 3
1
/
4
pages, written on a
folded sheet with address panel on terminal page; small marginal seal hole in terminal leaf
with minor loss to text; suspended between sheets of glass and framed. (MRS)
Concord, 6 July 1841
[3,500/5,000]
“
. . . In reply to the inquiry respecting our little journal, the
Dial
, I have to say that all the
contributions . . . are gratuitous. It was set on foot by a party of friends, & is furnished with
matter by them.A very few persons, on whose pen a constant dependence is placed, receive each
a copy of the work & no other reward. . . . Miss Fuller, the editor, who is to have some contin-
gent allowance from the publishers, has thus far, I believe, received none.
“
. . . [A]llow me to tell . . . why I did not press my friend Miss Fuller to insert these harmo-
nious lines you have sent me in the
Dial
for this month? . . . [M]y quarrel with most of the
verses I read is . . . that it is conventional, that it is a certain manner of writing agreed on in
society . . . and caught by the ear; but is not that new, constitutional, unimitated & inimitable
voice of the individual, which poetry ought always to be. . . .The imagery ought to reveal to me
where & with whom he or she has spent the hours, & ought to show me what objects (never
before so distinguished) his constitution & temperament have made affecting to him. In short,
all poetry should be original & necessary. . . .
“
. . .You must not . . . judge me so ill as to think me quite contented with such verses as we
have published in our magazine.Yet I please myself much with the marked taste for poetry
which is showing itself everywhere in the country, & I congratulate you on the possession of an
ear & talent which promise so much.”
Published in
Letters of RalphWaldo Emerson
, ed. Rusk, vol.VII, 1939.
265