My view about poem- "Compensation"

   

Introduction

       Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer and poet.  The title is very apt to its meaning and context. The poem which it’s written by Emerson is full of philosophy and transcendentalism.

 Emerson

Main idea of the poem is

    "Balance in Inbalance"

The wings of Time are black and white,
Pied with morning and with night.
Mountain tall and ocean deep
Trembling balance duly keep.
In changing moon, in tidal wave,
Glows the feud of Want and Have.
Gauge of more and less through space
Electric star and pencil plays.
The lonely Earth amid the balls
That hurry through the eternal halls,
A makeweight flying to the void,
Supplemental asteroid,
Or compensatory spark,
Shoots across the neutral Dark.

Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine;
Stanch and strong the tendrils twine:
Though the frail ringlets thee deceive,
None from its stock that vine can reave.
Fear not, then, thou child infirm,
There's no god dare wrong a worm.
Laurel crowns cleave to deserts,
And power to him who power exerts;
Hast not thy share? On winged feet,
Lo! it rushes thee to meet;
And all that Nature made thy own,
Floating in air or pent in stone,
Will rive the hills and swim the sea,
And, like thy shadow, follow thee.

The speaker asks the question like-

Do I have a right to be happy when others are not?

It is also having the fact that everyone is not happy at the sometime.

       The readers have the question that is he (the speaker) talking to the readers or himself?

And he also presents the reality that inbalance cannot be removed. This poem is having a direct question and the speaker asks it to himself.

        This poem is in a mood of meditation in which the speaker tries to meditate himself in the sea of full of question regarding equality Emerson seems to be a preacher here who shares or preaches the

    "Buddhist philosophy"  

 that every human being is unique and no one is superior or inferior. This uniqueness makes all human beings equal otherwise there is no equality among people because everyone is different in their own field that is why they are unique. Through, all possess dissimilarities, their dissimilarities make them all different and this is their uniqueness.

                  The writer has used figurative language in this poem. In which he bifurcate two things on one side there is an individual and on another side the society itself. The very direct question makes the whole poem clear that is;

"What do you mean when you say you are not equal to somebody?"

He intentionally uses the word ALONE in the line;

     "I sit and mourn alone"

He does not use "lonely" but rather alone to spread his ideas but nobody will believe or accept this idea that is why he is all alone.

In second stanza he says;

"And why when mirth unseals all tongues"

           He is freely singing his ideas with regarded to uniqueness. He sings about the mirth or joy. Indirectly the speaker makes the reader aware of the fact that when you wish to be equal to someone means you are hating your own position or status and want to be equal to that person's position. Every person has his own talent which other do not have talent.

           What becomes more important here is satisfaction. What matters here is one's work and the way one worse. Those who are satisfied their need have been fulfilled. They are happy become the period of happiness short lived. Emerson's poem does not have poetic qualities but philosophical one this position does not give you equally or happiness but one's satisfaction gives that happiness.

"Be different; Be happy, No one can understand you fully except yourself, Trust in yourself"

        

               The Indian philosophy of ''KARMA'' is very applicable here In short, the speaker makes every one equal by saying that we are not equal and this is how it makes everyone equal. Thus all have this kind of uniqueness.

"You are different from others then you are alive otherwise you are a dead person in this world"