On Emerson’s Dream of Eating the World

Ralph Waldo Emerson recorded in his journal a dream that he “floated at will in the great Ether,” and “saw this world floating also not far off, but diminished to the size of an apple.” Urged by an angel who took it in his hand and brought it to him to eat, Emerson “ate the world.” More than a century and a half later, Edward Hirsch chose the metaphor of Emerson’s dream as a motto for his book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, in which poetry is seen as a life-changing and world-embracing experience. Starting from the metaphor in Emerson’s dream, I argue that literature not just embraces the world but also transcends, and ultimately transforms it. Taking my examples from writers of diverse languages and cultures whose works embrace the languages and cultures that shaped them, I contend that literature, which is a matter of language in its most essentialised form, is not merely a whim of the intellect but also a need to free ourselves from stifling contingency and find an escape and a solace in the alternative worlds we create.