Amanda's Poet vs. Bard

Emerson Poet vs. Watkins Bard

Similarities:

1. "The vocabulary of an omniscient man would embrace words and images excluded from polite conversation" (Emerson, 229); Watkins' "language of the gods"
   
• Emerson, like Watkins, believes that poets should embrace a higher language, or the language of gods, the tongue of angels. We learned that the language of the gods was the language that was without compliment, or in Emerson's words, "polite conversation." Both Watkins and Emerson talk about poets that use plain language rather than the more polite tongue. Both the bard and the poet use the language of the gods to glorify the gods and the things that the gods had created.
2. Both the poet and the bard use words that become immortal. Emerson says that "Every verse or sentence possessing this virtue [truth] will take care of its own immortality" (237). Every verse that contains truth, that is written by the poet, becomes immortal. Watkins is always discussing the reason for the bards to write about their patrons -- the bard's words will make the patron immortal, able to live on after he has died.
   

Differences:

1. "The poet is the person . . . who sees and handles that which others dream of" (Emerson, 224); "The function of the Indo-European poet was to be the custodian and the transmitter of this tradition" (Watkins, 68).
• Watkins' bard is one who helps people remember what has already happened -- the traditions of his country, or the actions of his patron. The bard's main job in the Indo-European culture is to help people remember. He puts events and people in words to enable them to last forever, helping the people remember their traditions and glorifying their patrons. Watkins also says that the bard is "the preserver and professional of the spoken word." He preserves that which has already been said or done. Emerson's poet, on the other hand, writes of the things that people only dream of; he "stands among partial men for the complete man." He does not write of events; rather, he writes of ideas and thoughts or dreams.
2. "He [the poet] is isolated among his contemporaries" (Emerson, 223); "The poet did not function in that society in isolation; he had a patron" (Watkins, 70).
• Emerson's poet is one who functions in isolation. The poet, according to Emerson, must write about the things of nature and lives in isolation, away from his other contemporaries. The bard, on the other hand, has a patron who pays him in a gifting circle. The bard will glorify the patron, and in return, the patron pays the bard. Without the patron, the bard would not be able to write. In class, we also talked about the bard's place in society -- the fact that he went to war with the warriors and wrote to inspire the soldiers. This does not place the bard in isolation, but puts him right in the middle of the Indo-European society.
  
3. "The poet does not wait for the hero or the sage, but, as they act and think primarily, so he writes primarily what will and must be spoken" (Emerson, 224); Watkins' discussion of the hero in the IE formula
• Emerson says that the poet does not wait for a hero to write, but writes what must be spoken. He doesn't wait for a hero to come along and create a story; rather, he creates a story on his own. The bard depends on the hero in his use of the IE formula, where the hero plays such an important role (whether he is the slayer or the one slain). One of the bard's purposes is to glorify the hero; therefore, he cannot simply write about the things that will be spoken, but he also writes about the things that happen.
4. "The poet resigns himself to his mood, and that thought which agitated him is expressed, but . . . in a manner totally new" (Emerson, 232); Watkins' discussions of the poetic formula and the expression of something old in a new way
• In this one, Emerson and Watkins have both similarities and differences. The differences is that the poet thinks of a mood to express, and then expresses that mood in a totally new way. According to Emerson, "the poet has a new thought" (225). It seems that Emerson's poet has a way of coming up with things that have never before been expressed or described. The poet is the namer, he names things. He also does not use forms, but expresses things to represent nature. This is different than Watkins because the bard takes things that have already been said and expresses them in a new way. He uses the poetic formulas, the themes, and the illusions to create his story, but he says it in a slightly different way. The similarity is that they both express truth in the things that they say; they both base their "new" ideas in truth. Like we said in class yesterday, truth is the center of the poem.