Concord Hymn

“The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1854)

Written on the occasion of a crushing defeat of a British platoon at the 1854 Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War, the poem examines honestly the role the incompetent British military played in the defeat. As Poet Laureate at the time, Tennyson was criticized for using occasional poetry to criticize the British government. The form, however, echoes Emerson’s in its use of tight rhythms and clean rhymes that suggest its value as a performed piece.

“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” by Walt Whitman (1865)

A lengthy elegy written in response to the national trauma of Lincoln’s assassination, this occasional poem works through Whitman’s own experience of hearing the news and then struggling to handle the implications of the senseless murder of a man he deeply admired. As an occasional poem, this can be compared to Emerson’s more impersonal tone and voice. Whitman was an advocate for Emerson’s Transcendentalism and here uses imagery of falling stars and mournful birds to suggest how nature itself is grieving.

“Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander (2009)

Written and performed by the poet on the occasion of the first inauguration of Barack Obama, the poem reflects many of Emerson’s techniques: The lines are reader-friendly and direct, and the tone is aspirational.