Transitions And Reality Of Love In Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Amulet'

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Recommended: The aesthetics of romantic poetry

Ralph Waldo Emerson has taken the place in history as one of the most influential writers in the 19th century because of his romantic style of writing. The poem Amulet continues Emerson’s trend of romantic poems. In the poem Amulet, Emerson takes the reader on a poetic journey that shows the transitions and reality of love. The first stanza illustrates love through visions of happiness and gifts but then shows how quickly the feelings of love can change. As the poem moves to the next stanza, Emerson asks for protection from this changing love. Highlighting feelings of being in love to being out of love, By the third stanza, Emerson shows that love is in fact transitional. In the end, the reader is left with an understanding the poem's meaning implies that nothing can really protect a person from love that is lost. Emerson uses literary devices such as personification, symbolism, and metonymy to illustrate his message. The form of the poem is a ballad, which he uses strategically because ballads are usually written about love.
Emerson begins his message, using the first stanza of The Amulet to provide a historical perspective for the reader. “Your picture smiles as first it smiled, The ring you gave is still the same,
” The concept of the picture implies that the speaker and another person are separated either mentally or physically, as the speaker is looking at a picture of her/him. The ring is a gift and thereby describes a relationship between the speaker and presumably the same person. The story changes course however, when the speaker receives news, which confuses him about his/her relationship status, “Your letter tells, O changing child.” The stanza finally ends with the speaker writing “No tidings since it came” which c...

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...orever, and that nothing can protect people from lost love. The poem was written in a calm manor, as the speaker had seemed to be humbled by his experiences with his loved one.
For the structure of The Amulet Emerson uses different instances of past and present tense, which allows the reader to understand the past, so they can understand the relevance of the present. “Your picture smiles as first it smiled,” and “The ring you gave is still the same,” by providing the reader this information, it illustrates that the poem has some historical perspective that is important to analyze. This helps to solidify that love was once present between the speaker and his lover. Emerson also uses the form of a free verse poem, which benefits The Amulet because it allows Emerson to use the words he wishes to display his message without having to follow a direct rhyme scheme.

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