Monday with Muir: Emerson and Spring

Spring Prayer

For flowers that bloom about our feet;

For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;

For song of bird, and hum of bee;

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee!

For blue of stream and blue of sky;

For pleasant shade of branches high;

For fragrant air and cooling breeze;

For beauty of the blooming trees,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

On this first day of spring, Ralph Waldo Emerson is visiting my Monday with Muir.

Emerson had a great influence on Muir's life, as Muir did on Emerson's. Muir would send Emerson cedar boughs with blossoms; Emerson would send Muir books, pen pals speaking in their own unique languages. "Late in life, Emerson added John Muir's name to his list of 'My Men', men who had had the greatest effect on him." (text taken from introduction to John Muir: Wilderness Essays)

As I have previously written about John Muir's correspondence with Jean Carr, she is the individual who introduced Muir and Emerson. The passage below is from Frank E Buske's introduction to John Muir Wilderness Essays:

At the university (University of Wisconsin), Muir signed up for courses with James Davie Butler, professor of classics, and Ezra Carr, professor of natural history, both of whom befriended Muir and were to influence him profoundly. In addition, he met Carr's wife, Jean, an intelligent and energetic woman with a strong interest in botany and plant collecting. During their years in Madison, the Carrs had met and become friends with America's most eminent transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, on one of his lecture trips to the city. Mrs. Carr read Muir Emerson's poem, "Woodnotes", and introduced him to other works of Emerson and to the writings of Henry David Thoreau. She also introduced him to those of her friends in Madison who shared her interests in nature and the relationship of God and man to it.