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    The Amulet: Ralph Waldo Emerson

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    Anna J.
    The speaker is lamenting the loss of a loved one, as represented through various mementos - a smiling picture, a ring, and an old letter. He yearns to know how she is feeling now and whether she still loves him. In his despair, he admits his fear that their love has died since their last interaction. He requests an "amulet" that could show the state of her feelings by changing color, as a way to gain reassurance that their connection remains. However, he acknowledges that memories and gifts alone cannot guarantee that her feelings have been preserved.

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    The Amulet: Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Uploaded by

    Anna J.
    139 views10 pages
    The speaker is lamenting the loss of a loved one, as represented through various mementos - a smiling picture, a ring, and an old letter. He yearns to know how she is feeling now and whether she still loves him. In his despair, he admits his fear that their love has died since their last interaction. He requests an "amulet" that could show the state of her feelings by changing color, as a way to gain reassurance that their connection remains. However, he acknowledges that memories and gifts alone cannot guarantee that her feelings have been preserved.

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    The Amulet

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    The speaker is lamenting the loss of a loved one, as represented through various mementos - a smiling picture, a ring, and an old letter. He yearns to know how she is feeling now and whether she still loves him. In his despair, he admits his fear that their love has died since their last interaction. He requests an "amulet" that could show the state of her feelings by changing color, as a way to gain reassurance that their connection remains. However, he acknowledges that memories and gifts alone cannot guarantee that her feelings have been preserved.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    139 views10 pages

    The Amulet: Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Uploaded by

    Anna J.
    The speaker is lamenting the loss of a loved one, as represented through various mementos - a smiling picture, a ring, and an old letter. He yearns to know how she is feeling now and whether she still loves him. In his despair, he admits his fear that their love has died since their last interaction. He requests an "amulet" that could show the state of her feelings by changing color, as a way to gain reassurance that their connection remains. However, he acknowledges that memories and gifts alone cannot guarantee that her feelings have been preserved.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 10

    The Amulet

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Your picture smiles as first it smiled, The ring you gave is still the same, Your letter tells, O changing child, No tidings since it came. Give me an amulet That keeps intelligence with you, Red when you love, and rosier red, And when you love not, pale and blue. Alas, that neither bonds nor vows Can certify possession; Torments me still the fear that love Died in its last expression.

    Theme
    The theme for this poem is love, lost, cooping. The poem express the love that the man had for the girl was very strong.

    Point of view
    The speaker of the poem is a person who has just lost a loved one. He feels that she still remains with him through all the keepsakes he has of her, and that the mementos keep their love strong. He wants to know how she is feeling and if she still loves him. Hes trying to admit to himself that he lost her. The speakers attitude is typical for a person who has lost someone. Always thinking about that person, wanting to know if theyre watching over them.

    Figurative Language
    In paragraph one, the picture of the girl smiling is symbolism. The smile represents the only thing that he has left of her because there is no living smile that changes. In the second paragraph there is symbolism. The amulet symbolizes remembrance, spirituality or energy force of the girls existence. In paragraph three there is imagery. Torment symbolizes the love and lost in death and how a person deals with a great loses.

    Versification There are three stanzas in the poem. The rhythm pattern is 2-line last line rhyme. The general metrical scheme is 1-2, 1-2, 1-2. There are no breaks of rhythm in the poem. The word choices used in the poem are common words used to make rhyming pattern. The words chosen are common everyday ones and are not unusual; they are just used uniquely in sentences

    Analysis
    The first stanza examines how mementos like photos and rings may not change and even the old lines in a letter (or poem) you can almost trick yourself into believing they will preserve and protect your love for all time.
    *mementos: reminder of the past

    The second stanza fascinates me in its nontraditional approach - content wise, he's asking for something like a "mood ring" so he can tell how she is feeling now that she has dropped her correspondence. He is pining for news of the beloved.

    Finally, in the last stanza, he despairs, knowing that the "keepsakes" do not keep (guarantee) anything and admits he is afraid he has lost her, which no doubt it true, if that's what he feels.

    This is a moody love poem -- and a bit of a departure for Emerson. The context is open to interpretation. Is it a poem about a lost love, or just an insecure one? I don't think contact has necessarily broken off between the two people. The letter tells no tidings since it came, just as the picture and the ring remain ever the same (unable to deliver news). The poem's persona laments how none of these tokens can give him the minute-byminute assurance he seeks. At one point, he addresses his love as "Oh, changing child." Is she changing in a deep way, or is she mercurial (ever changing)?

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