Ralph Waldo Emerson, born in 19th century's America, is most famous for his transcendental ideas and writings. He was deeply influenced by European Romanticism in his thirties and formed an informal Transcendental Club with people of like minds. His thought is often considered the core of Transcendentalism. "Nature" is the fundamental document of his philosophy and an embodiment of his transcendental attitude towards the phenomenal world. He also wrote some other brilliant essays such as "The American Scholar", "Self-Reliance", "The Over-Soul" and "The Poet", etc, all of which established his indisputable position in the history of culture, especially in the American Culture where he is regarded as the one who, in literally terms at least, really put America on map. But considering Emerson's writings without significant emphasis on his verse would be a great loss. Emerson wrote poetry from the time he was a boy to nearly the end of his life. These poems are essential for understanding him and his transcendental theories and are receiving more extensive representation in anthologies while significant critical analyses are emerging though some modern readers and scholars tend to view his poetry as secondary to the "essential" Emerson. In view of the above, this paper supposes to introduce Emerson's views on poets and poems and then analyze some of his famous poems in the order of 'Emerson as a Poet', 'Emerson's Views on Poets and Poems' and 'Emerson's Poems' with the third one as the focus of this paper. The purpose of this paper is to try to make the comprehension on Emerson and his abstract transcendental theories more complete and thorough by emphasizing his contribution in the poetic field.
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