Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Mountain and the Squirrel

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Introduction

Ralph Waldo Emerson is a famous American poet.  He is known for writing poems that goes across the border of his nation and thoughts.  He is the pioneer of transcendentalism.  The mountain and the Squirrel is a poem in the form of dialogue between a mountain and squirrel.  Emerson imagines a quarrel between these two inanimate objects to convey a novel idea.

 

The Quarrel

            The poem starts with a quarrel between the mountain and the squirrel.  The mountain calls the squirrel as “little prig”.  It calls so because the squirrel is proud of itself.  The mountain considers itself to be bigger in size and there by much better than the squirrel.

 

The Squirrel’s Reply

            The squirrel replies to the mountain’s complaint.  The squirrel is named as bun.  The squirrel agrees that the mountain is very big.  To count a year we must take into consideration many things like weather and time.  Similarly to consider a mountain we need to have many things together.  Comparatively the squirrel does not bother about its small place in the world.

 

The Equality

            The squirrel continues to say that it is not as big as the mountain and the mountain is not as small as the squirrel.  It acknowledges the fact that the mountain lays a track for the squirrel to run through, but the squirrel is very active than the mountain.  The squirrel concludes saying that everyone has their own talents.  The mountain is talented in carrying a forest on its back and the squirrel is talented in cracking nuts. 

 

Conclusion

            Emerson, through this poem, proves the ways of God.  God blesses every life in this earth with a special talent, which makes us all equal to one another.