April 27, 1882

The life of Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 is April 27, 1882) marks the real independence of the United States. So thought Oliver Wendell Holmes, senior, about Emerson, in 1837. Emerson encountered eastern philosophy and the ancient Hindu texts thus entered American culture in an especially pure form, conveyed as they were, by Emerson's towering intellect.

"Brahma" titled after a deity, was a poem Emerson wrote in 1856. These are the first stanzas:

If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Far or forgot to me is near,
Shadow and sunlight are the same,
The vanished gods to me appear,
And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
....

When the above was published, according to his biographer, Robert  Richardson, there were 26 parodies. One of them reads:

If the gray tom-cat thinks he sings
Or if the song think it be sung
He little knows who boot-jacks flings
How many bricks at him I've flung

Emerson's son Edward, said that whenever his father heard this particular text, he never failed to break up with laughter.

We found the text of this spoof, in Emerson: The Mind on Fire : a Biography (1995) by Robert Dale Richardson.