The Apology
The Apology - meaning Summary
Solitude as Creative Labor
Emerson defends wandering alone and apparent idleness as a valid, attentive way of working. He describes nature—clouds, flowers, birds—as sources of messages and lessons that he records and transforms. The poem contrasts physical labor with a quieter harvest of insight and song, arguing that solitary contemplation yields a second, equally valuable crop: poetic understanding drawn from the natural world.
Read Complete AnalysesThink me not unkind and rude That I walk alone in grove and glen; I go to the god of the wood To fetch his word to men. Tax not my sloth that I Fold my arms beside the brook; Each cloud that floated in the sky Writes a letter in my book. Chide me not, laborious band, For the idle flowers I brought; Every aster in my hand Goes home loaded with a thought. There was never mystery But 'tis figured in the flowers; Was never secret history But birds tell it in the bowers. One harvest from thy field Homeward brought the oxen strong; A second crop thine acres yield, Which I gather in a song.
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