Question

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,

Of thee from the hill-top looking down;

The heifer that lows in the upland farm,

Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;

The sexton, tolling his bell at noon,

Deems not that great Napoleon

Stops his horse, and lists with delight,

Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height;



What is Emerson representing when he describes a field hand, a cow, a church official and a horse in the excerpt above?

Question 1 options:

A painting he once saw


A snapshot of different “characters” one may overlook when looking at nature scene


A perfect day in America


A farm that he once worked on as a younger man

Answer 1

A snapshot of different “characters” one may overlook when looking at nature scene. I got a 100% on the test.

Answer 2

Emerson represents a snapshot of different ‘characters’ one may overlook when looking at a nature scene.

Explanation:

In the poem ‘Each and All’ the famous American transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson discusses about organicism in our life. Organicism is a philosophical concept that deals with the organic wholeness of all objects or things in this Earth with respect to its surroundings.

Emerson emphasizes on the fact that everything on this earth fits into a complete wholeness with respect to its surroundings. In the process every individual, animal or things performs its routine duty without noticing its onlooker and also often itself stays unnoticed.

Through a first person narrator the poet relates all the unnoticed things like the hill-top, heifer, sexton, a field hand. He even alludes the French monarch Napolean who always stopped to listen to the sexton when he was riding but the sexton carried on with his work and never noticed him.

Emerson portrays a snap-shot of the different ordinary characters that one may overlook while passing by as they fit perfectly into the wholeness of the surroundings.