DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Teach me I am forgotten by the dead" by Ralph Waldo Emerson Originally read: May 25, 2013 More information about the Poet: Ralph Waldo Emerson This poem is a set of rhetoric lines that interweave, counter, and support each other.  Now, why am I not reading an essay?  Well, this is sort of an essay in a way due to the overly rhetorical nature, but there's some play in here that kept me interested on the rhetorical strategies as though the speaker is logically trying to argue with a concept. The first two lines "Teach me I am forgotten by the dead, An that the dead is by herself forgotten" is a play on logic where both sides forget each other, but have the knowledge of forgetting each other. These lines are curious though -- the logic is referencing the dead or a conflict of the "soul" The speaker lays out his argument by casting away the big reasons, "murder, steal, or fornicate, / Nor with ambition break the p...