Talk:Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson is LGBT
He openly expressed his attraction to Martin Gay, that's enough to tag him as such. He's likely bisexual, but it's irrelevant to need to know the specifics as long as he's attracted to men, he qualifies. The sources support this. Mrmoustache14 (talk) 21:54, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Regarding my subsequent edit diffusing him from into, and then your revert of him back into : that is not how the tree works. An LGBT writer goes into "LGBT writers from Specific Country", and "LGBT writers of specific type of literature" (e.g. "LGBT poets", "LGBT novelists", etc.) if an appropriate category for that exists — but a person does not go directly into the plain, undiffused "LGBT writers". That category is meant to contain only subcategories, not individual articles — and especially not individual articles which are already in one or more of the subcategories anyway. The only legitimate grounds for reverting my edit would have been if you were disputing that he was from the United States, which you're clearly not — apart from the subcategories for specific countries and specific types of literature, the only page that should ever be sitting directly in  itself, rather than the appropriate subcategories of it, is List of LGBT writers. Bearcat (talk) 22:09, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Sorry, must have made a mistake. Thanks. Mrmoustache14 (talk) 09:04, 1 May 2016 (UTC)
 * —since you added the LGBT categories to this article, and are familiar with the sources, I thought you might like to look into the multiple deletions and restorations of the two categories over the past weeks by u|2.26.236.213. — Neonorange (talk) 12:07, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

Just because he had a crush on a guy when he was in school, that doesn't make him gay. There is nothing else in Emerson's life that suggests he wasn't heterosexual.

The category is defined as follows:


 * This category groups articles on people, who have come out to the general public as homosexual, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, Queer, pansexual or Radical Faerie, or, for historical figures, who are recognised thus by consensus of scholars in reliable sources, and for whom, apart from the previous, LGBT is or was a significant part of their public life or notability.

Emerson did not "come out" as homosexual, and there's nothing to suggest that his sexuality - of any type - was a significant part of his public life. And there's nothing to suggest that he acted on these feelings in any way, other than by writing some poems. In the same way, you can't paint someone as an adulterer if they merely had thoughts about someone else's wife.

Kirkmc (talk) 10:09, 3 August 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes I agree with Kirkmc. I can't find the policy he is quoting, but I did find something fairly unequivoval: in  this article:

For a dead person, there must be a verified consensus of reliable published sources that the description is appropriate.... For a dead person, a broad consensus of academic and/or biographical scholarship about the topic is sufficient to describe a person as LGBT. For example, while some sources have claimed that William Shakespeare was gay or bisexual, there is not a sufficient consensus among scholars to support categorizing him as such — but no such doubt exists about the sexuality of Oscar Wilde or Radclyffe Hall. (emphasis added)


 * LaurentianShield (talk) 19:15, 3 August 2016 (UTC)


 * I also agree he does not fit our LGBT categories, if the most we can say about the matter is "Emerson may have had erotic thoughts about at least one man. During his early years at Harvard, he found himself attracted to a young freshman named Martin Gay about whom he wrote sexually charged poetry." --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:42, 8 September 2016 (UTC)

I just wanted to add that this is under the header “lifestyle and beliefs” as of now, but writing erotic poetry is hardly a lifestyle or belief, and even if we could label him bisexual, which as previously stated we shouldn’t, being LGBT isn’t a “lifestyle.” HenryMerrilees (talk) 03:50, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Emerson and Hinduism
I think it would be good to include this because there is a lot of scholarly work that shows how he and his works were influenced by Hinduism. Can I add the following to the lead section as its own paragraph:

"He was influenced by his study of Hinduism, in which he reviewed Hindu scriptures including the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, and the Upanishads. Many of his ideas are similar to those in Hinduism, including the idea of man's relationship that is similar to the Hindu concept of Soul Congenial. His poetry is similar in form and content to Hinduism, and most of the titles of his poems come from Hindu concepts. He spent most of his time studying the Hindu law of karma. His asceticism was motivated by his interactions with the Hindu concept of yoga. " — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shakespeare143 (talk • contribs) 06:07, 8 April 2021 (UTC)

His famous poem include 'Concord Hymn'
Ralph Waldo Emerson 2409:4060:410:B292:506A:CDEF:9DAE:28 (talk) 03:28, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Co-founding the Atlantic
Ralph Waldo Emerson was among the co-founders of The Atlantic, together with Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Greenleaf Whittier, etc. Probably this fact could be added to this article, e.g. at the bottom of the Literary career and transcendentalism section or at the beginning of the next one? Pelajanela (talk) 08:16, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Musical settings
My proposal of a list of Musical settings has been considerably shortened in the light of limited notability of some of the composers or of their settings. I have restored some of the musical settings I originally listed, that are notable in relation to Emerson's life or to the works produced, and corroborated with more sources, while leaving out others. I would think that given the tradition of setting poems such as "Music" it is noteworthy to mention them here, but maybe we need to find a consensus on this topic; so feel free to express an opinion, and to add relevant/notable musical settings of Emerson's texts. Musiktheaterpedia (talk) 15:21, 18 December 2023 (UTC)