Bliss Carman (1861-1929) is a poet whose works are no longer widely known to Americans. Yet in his later life, his was an international reputation, when he was acclaimed as Canada's unofficial poet laureate and gave readings throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.
Today his works may seem overly-sentimental, overly-mystic, flowery, and waaaaay too idealistic. But it is his very deep love and observation of nature as well as that idealism that secures his position as a later poet in the Romantic tradition and which endears him to me, making me want to share this lovely, lovely poem of Thanksgiving with all of you on the very nearly four month anniversary of my membership on DKos. Let the floweriness, the sentiment, the idealism, stand as an antidote to all those stupid debates and the heartbreak and cynicism they elicit.
If you readily sense the influence of transcendentalism in his work, you're right. Carman studied at Harvard, where he was deeply influenced by George Santayana, Josiah Royce and William James and by the Transcendental Movement. It was at Harvard where he became good friends with the American poet Richard Hovey, a follower of Walt Whitman. Further, he shared, through his mother's line, a great-grandparent with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Let this small diary be dedicated to those of the Occupy Movement, who having heard 'the call to valor', 'strive for the greater freedom, and live for the greater good' and whose tents across this country, though pitched in the urban centers which Carman abjured, are the seeds of a mighty garden of renewal, cities 'built on the hills of our dreams'. It is to them, for the renewal of my spirit, that I have the greatest gratitude and feel the greatest thanksgiving today.
Enjoy your harvest celebration, the autumn colors and the poem.
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