Volume 6: Poems and Songs, by Robert Burns

Volume 6 contains the complete Poems and Songs by Robert Burns.

All 557 of them.

Robert Burns was "the guy" who wrote that often sung song Auld Lang Syne, which I know of the first line and them mumble the rest, generally while drinking heavily (because it's New Year's Eve, obviously.) He was Scottish and their national poet. However, between my inability to read poetry and understand it and my inclination to pronounce everything with a bad Scottish accent as I mentally read it, I needed a mental break because there's no way I'm going to get through this without totally butchering the guy's works, memories and offend Scotland in the process. And if any book in the series was going to make me throw in the towel, this came close.

Since reading his poems didn't make sense to me, I looked on Youtube for videos of people reciting his poems. I figured that it's one thing to read his words, but another to actually understand them being said. Turns out the BBC had a done a series of videos of his works by famous Scottish actors (like David Tennant for one) so I got excited and figured yay, my next few hours! and clicked on the links. Turns out they were meant for UK audiences, and I was geographically restricted and unable to watch the videos. Damnit.

Robert Burns is the national poet of Scotland, and thus, his poetry reflects the hard nature of Scottish life. He took traditional folk songs and crafted them in his own unique way. For me, his poetry was pretty decent, but required a decent amount of re-reading to understand what it is I was reading. I liked it, but didn't see why adulation was warranted. And for the first time in this Harvard Classics, I looked at body of literature that's hundreds of years old and went, ok, I don't get why this is that awesome.

Perhaps it's the cultural influence. Even today, Burns Clubs still exist as a way of celebrating Burns and all things Scotland. Burns wrote a poem "Address to a Haggis" and they celebrate it by eating it and reciting the poem, which is a bit confusing to me because I think haggis is horrible. But then again, I drink Jeppson's Malort. We all need to hit rock bottom, as it were.

So even thought I liked but didn't love Burns, I can appreciate his cultural influence even if I don't get it.

 

Volume 5: Essays and English Traits, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don't think I knew much about Ralph Waldo Emerson. I certainly didn't read anything of his prior to Volume 5, and honestly - I got him confused with Walt Whitman a lot. I knew he was a poet and a philosopher but that was it.

The Volume itself is broken up into two parts: the first is his essays - 18 of them. The second is English Traits - a series of essays about a trip to England. It's not exactly a travelogue, but reflections.

What struck me about the essays is that Emerson conveyed a subdued intelligence with a lot of introspection. You can tell he was overly educated (went to Harvard, naturally) and yet not a fan of the rigid confines of intellectualism. Part of his infamous The American Scholar essay involved this "Man Thinking" concept whereby you quit parroting the thinking of others and think for yourself. And by thinking for yourself, you'd be able to broaden your mind and understanding of the world. In a way, we look at this and go "well, obviously..." but still repeat what we hear from other supposed intellectuals in an effort to sound intellectual.

Emerson was also part of the Transcendental Club, a group of young intellectuals who got together to discuss literary and philosophical topics. This was when people actually had things like debate societies and clubs where they'd get together and talk about ideas versus things like reality TV and popular culture. And it was also a middle finger to Harvard as well. Sure, they may have taught students facts but they didn't teach them how to think. And like any Club, they naturally had to publish their own short-lived literary journal. Nowadays they'd just start a blog, but in the late 1830s, they didn't have to contend with the idiocy of Facebook commenters mocking them.

During this time he was giving lectures, and gave a commencement address at Harvard's Divinity School (now called the Divinity School Address) and managed to piss off the school so much by proclaming that Jesus was awesome but he wasn't God that he wasn't invited back for 30 years. Granted, it's what I believe too but c'mon son - you went and gave a commencement speech at a freakin' Divinity School. What did you expect would happen?

Emerson's writings made him the great intellectual hero of the mid 1800s. What I liked was that a) I agreed with him and b) his writings were well-spoken and easily accessible. Most works by "public intellectuals" aren't because they try to convince you that they're an intellectual (it's like that Margaret Thatcher quote about "power is like being a lady - if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.") And in a way, Emerson being thought of as an intellectual idol means people who have studied him repeat his words and thus, becoming the thing he wrote against: intellectual parrots. DAMN YOU FULL CIRCLES!

Emerson wrote in his essay on Self-Reliance that "Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage." The takeaway is think for yourself, and perhaps that when I finish this set of books I'm able to do that, despite the weight of knowledge I've accumulated.

(oh and I know that by quoting a quote about quoting makes me look like a fool, but...)