“This is the reason why bards love wine, mead, narcotics, coffee, tea, opinum, the fumes of sandalwood and tobacco, or whatever other procurers of animal exhilaration…the spirit of the world, the great calm presece fo the Creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine…so the poet’s habit of living should be set on a key so low that the ocmmon influences should delight in him” (733-744).
I’m wondering what everyone thinks about the topic of drug use to enhance creative ability. A friend and I had a recent conversation about how certain drugs cause parts of the brain to function that normally are never used. Then we discussed whether or not this temporary opening aids or harms the creative mind; whether or not the breif moments of “enlightenment” are worth the long-term, irreversible damage to the brain that these drugs cause. Emerson clearly thinks that these external additives are a false and cheating way to find creativity. The true poet operates with a clear and perfectly clean mind. I think that some people use drugs to find that clearness in a loud and busy world. What would Emerson think of Jimi Hendrix’ live performance at Monterey, where he is reputadley on acid? What do you think of it? See below, and enjoy.
One Comment
Very interesting question, Natalie. And I love the Jimi Hendrix video. Good instincts. The relationship between transcendentalism and the countercultural movement has been discussed a good deal, but you’re right to notice that Emerson, and indeed several of the Transcendentalists, were almost ascetics when it came to this kind of thing. A purity of soul led to a natural “high” so to speak. Of course, other romantics were more taken with drugs. Coleridge supposedly wrote Kubla Khan on an opium high. Does it make any difference to how we judge the poem as literature? That’s a very difficult and interesting question. How much do we think the poem is a record of the poet’s conscious creativity; and if a poem is not in the poet’s conscious control and manipulation of language, why do we give poet’s so much credit. A good thing to think about when you come to T.S. Eliot.