Uriel

“Do let a new generation speak the truth, & let our grandfathers die,” wrote a seemingly exhausted Ralph Waldo Emerson in his journal on July 1st, 1838.¹ At this point in his life, the 35-year-old Emerson had fairly recently walked away from a prestigious and comfortable position as a Unitarian preacher in Boston and ventured out as an independent writer and lecturer.

Fig. 1 - Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the pome "Uriel."

The reaction to his work was mixed. His Nature (1836) had attracted a small but intense group of followers who were even then forming the ideas that would coalesce into the intellectual movement known as Transcendentalism.

His 1837 Phi Beta Kappa address, “The American Scholar,” was warmly received despite its iconoclasm, championing experience and the study of nature as superior forms of education to traditional book learning. But his 1838 “Divinity School Address” caused an outright scandal, his criticism of “historical Christianity” being interpreted as a direct assault on the church that got him effectively banned from speaking at Harvard for some 30 years.

“Uriel,” though published over seven years after this event, is widely considered to be Emerson’s response to the controversy. The poem focuses on the angel Uriel, who is shunned in paradise after uttering a truth that no one is ready to hear. The result is one of Emerson’s most celebrated works, with one astute reader, Robert Frost (1874-1963), dubbing it “the greatest Western poem yet.”²

The Meaning of 'Uriel'

Uriel is the name of an archangel first mentioned in the Book of Ezra (also spelled Esdras) of the Hebrew Talmud. This means it was also a part of the Old Testament in some versions of the Christian Bible, as well. The meaning of Uriel’s name in Hebrew is “God’s fire.”³

Fig. 2 - A stained glass depiction of Uriel the Archangel.

The angel Uriel’s role in the Talmud is to transfer divine knowledge to the chosen people, the Israelites. The “fire” in the angel's name can also be translated as “light” and symbolizes knowledge and enlightenment. Uriel the angel came to be known as a prophet or a divine teacher.³

Uriel, the angel, plays a key role in John Milton’s (1608-1674) epic poem, Paradise Lost (1667), which narrates the events of Satan’s fall from heaven, the creation of hell, and the temptation of Adam and Eve. In Book III, as Satan (himself once an angel) is passing between the earth and the sun, he sees Uriel and disguises himself as a lesser angel before approaching him. Addressing Uriel as

After this flattering address, Satan inquires where he can find God’s new creation, man. Uriel, though an angel, is not omniscient and is fooled by the disguise and hypocrisy, directing Satan to the spot on Earth where God created Paradise. While Uriel was fooled by Satan, God (being omniscient) already knew that this would happen.

"Uriel" Summary

The poem opens by announcing that it takes place in “ancient periods” before time was organized into “calendar months and days” (lines 1-4). The subject is then announced as the “lapse of Uriel” in “Paradise” (lines 5-6). Paradise seems to be in space among the stars, as events occur “among the Pleiads,” a constellation of stars mythologically linked to Atlas’ daughters (line 7).

Inexplicably walking among the Pleiads is the 13th-century Sufi poet Saadi, whose name Emerson spells “Said” (line 8). While only mentioned once, the events of the poem are presumably related based on his report, and he is perhaps meant as a stand-in for Emerson himself.¹ He overhears the “young deities” discussing metaphysical and theological subjects, such as

Themes in "Uriel"

“Uriel” is a poem about an angel who loses favor with the older gods. Still, Emerson’s philosophical concerns, such as the ultimate nature of truth and reality and good and evil, have central roles in this development.

Truth and Reality

A prevailing concern of many of Emerson’s essays and poems is the nature of truth and reality, or as it's expressed in this poem, "of what subisteth and what seems" (line 14). In “Uriel,” Emerson uses the geometrical figure of the line to represent the rigid, tradition-bound, closed way of thinking that sees truth and reality as black and white, calculable, and absolute. It contrasts with roundness, or the circle, representing a way of seeing reality as interconnected, limitless, and singular. In denying the ultimate reality of lines, Uriel is endorsing the metaphysical unity that would be a hallmark of Emerson’s Transcendentalism.

Good and Evil

As with truth and reality, the non-existence of lines also implies that there are no moral absolutes. As Uriel himself memorably phrases it, “evil will bless, and ice will burn” (line 24). In other words, something that today seems evil may well turn out to be justified or even beneficial in the future. Just as there is nothing inherently cold in ice, which can produce a feeling similar to burning after prolonged contact with human skin, there is nothing inherently evil in the world. And as with ice, a prolonged exposure to evil may result in its becoming the opposite of what it initially seemed.

Genius and Hypocrisy

Uriel, the prophet and bearer of God’s light, is a genius who sees beyond the petty confines of the other gods. He is the first to realize that not only the world and the universe but things, in general, are round. The other gods, however, are not ready to accept this brilliant insight, which threatens their domains and way of doing things. They know deep down that Uriel is right, but would rather preserve the status quo (and their own revered place within it) than acknowledge this. Just as Satan's hypocrisy in Paradise Lost fooled Uriel, the self-serving hypocrisy of the older gods in Emerson's poem results in his downfall from among the most honored gods.

Uriel Analysis

“Uriel” is a poem rich in literary allusion, with references to the Talmud and the Bible, Paradise Lost, Sufi Islam, Greek mythology, and Emerson’s own body of work and thought. While drawing on key figures and ideas from these works, it presents them in a novel way that can be read as a drama of ideas and a reflection of events in Emerson’s life.

The poem is 56 lines of rhyming couplets with a meter and rhythm that varies from the iambic pentameter of classical English poetry to a chant or mantra-like rhythm that would be more at home in eastern religious traditions. “Uriel” demonstrates the potential power of Emerson’s claim that a good poem is led by a “meter-making argument” rather than being shaped by a pre-existing metrical form (e.g. a sonnet or villanelle). In this sense, “Uriel” prefigures the free-verse poetry that would become mainstream in the generation after Emerson.

In dramatizing the difficulty of introducing new ideas into a conservative society, “Uriel” is a philosophical allegory that parallels Emerson’s life and work.

“Uriel” is widely considered to have been written in the wake of the conservative backlash to Emerson’s “Divinity School Address” of 1838. In this allegorical reading, Uriel is Emerson himself. The utterances about the non-existence of lines correspond to Emerson’s criticism of “historical Christianity” as being unsuited to healthy and productive living, and the old gods who shun Uriel correspond to the Harvard Divinity School faculty who essentially banned Emerson from Harvard and attacked him as anti-Christian.

Fig. 4 - Harvard University, whose Divinity School faculty are often interpreted as corresponding to the old gods in "Uriel."

While this is a valid allegorical reading of the poem, it is perhaps too narrow in scope to do justice to the message in “Uriel.” Uriel’s pronouncement against lines has a strong affinity with Emerson’s thought in essays such as Nature and "Circles," among others. But it is, even more broadly, a poem about the difficulty of introducing new ideas, no matter how good or truthful they may be. Uriel’s experience suggests that truth and goodness will inevitably be resisted and suppressed since their expression will threaten an older, established order whose only concern is maintaining the status quo.