Question

what is the relationship between paragraphs 18 and 19? what is the effect of the paradox that concludes paragraph 19 in Emersons book Nature

Answer 1

Through a highly elaborate comparison, Emerson reflects on the relationship between the poet and the poet's work. The poet is under the care of nature, just as a mushroom is. A mushroom grows wild, with no one to ensure that it propagates and survives; nature, however, sees to it that the fungus drops spores, which become new mushrooms. These spores are comparable to poems leaving the poet's control and going out into the world like immortal descendants, a process much like the Olympian bards' eternally young songs from the epigraph.