The Blind Men and the Elephant

“Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1888)

This iconic poem was also published during the Gilded Age in America, and it reflects that same perception of the public role of the Poet. The poem tells a story with characters and suspense. The rhythm and rhyme structures encourage recitation and make for easy memorization. Like Saxe’s poem, Thayer’s story is engaging but delivers a lesson about the dangers of pride.

“A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1838)

Longfellow served as a mentor for Saxe’s generation of earnest public poets who conceived of poetry as a public function. This poem is a meditation on the value and purpose of life with “God overhead.” Like Saxe’s poem that points to a clear line of objective and pragmatic action (to learn from other religions rather than dispute them), Longfellow closes the poem with a guidepost: Live with purpose; God provides meaning even if God is not entirely understandable.

“Poem 236” by Emily Dickinson (circa 1864)

Saxe’s poetry found a market: the poetic line is inviting, carefully sculpted and conventional, and it resolves in certainty, a clear lesson for the reader to learn. Dickinson’s poem, by contrast, with its unconventional prosody, is thematically fraught with uncertainty and does not privilege a reassuring lesson.