Guest Author - Linda Sue Grimes

Days by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days,
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes,
And marching single in an endless file,
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands.
To each they offer gifts after his will,
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all.
I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp,
Forgot my morning wishes, hastily
Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day
Turned and departed silent. I, too late,
Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn."

This tiny Emerson poem continues to attract attention, because of the ambiguity of the word “hypocritic.” Readers choose sides in the debate according to the meaning of “hypocritic days.” One side claims that the days are “actors”; while the other argues that they are “deceivers.” Edward G. Fletcher (The Explicator, April 1947) argued “deceivers,” and Joseph Jones The Explicator, April 1946) argued “actors.” The editors of The Explicator in November, 1945, had taken the side of “deceivers” while James E. White, writing in ESQ in 1963, formulated his thesis around “actors.”

Because poetic language resonates, often relying on ambiguity or many layered meanings, I suggest we may understand the term “hypocritic” in Emerson’s poem as resonating both meanings, “actors” and deceivers.”

Actually, the two terms are not mutually exclusive. In a sense actors are deceiving, because they are pretending to be other than they are, but I suggest the real significance of the term, as well as the total meaning of the poem, depends upon the human perception of things in the poem. It is the human mind that conceives the notion of days as “daughters of time.” The speaker has learned something by the end of the poem—something that perhaps has taken him a lifetime. He has learned that he has taken from life according to his own will—“To each they offer gifts after his own will.”

After this realization, the speaker looks back, and in order to give others a clear image of what he has learned, he personifies the passage of time as “daughters of time.” In qualifying the definition of days, the speaker calls them “hypocritic.” The “days” are surely actors since the speaker has personified them and portrayed them in a specific role: they act like “barefoot dervishes”; they march “in an endless file”; they “bring diadems and fagots in their hands”; and by the end of the poem, the speaker has even attributed to one of the daughters an attitude, because he sees scorn on her brow—“I, too late, / Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn.”

As actors, the days are merely playing a role. They apparently are neutral and thus play no part in hypocrisy, but to the human mind that wants and expects some nudge in the right direction, such a neutral actor might be considered hypocritical; one might reason: “if I could have the ‘diadems’ as easily as the ‘fagots’ and all I had to do was will it—then why didn’t someone tell me?” And this attitude, I suggest is the heart of the poem. Learning to use our will is not so easy, and that is why we settle for lesser “gifts.”

But when we learn the truth that the speaker learns, we indeed feel tricked. We feel that these acting “daughters of time” have been hypocritical in not urging us to demand more than a “few herbs and apples.”

I suggest that the synthesis of the two meanings places primary emphasis on the human being, not on the days. After all, it is the human mind that creates the concept of a day. The human mind conceives the ideas of acting and deceiving; the days, as daughters of time, take on the human projections of action and deception, but the speaker in the poem is the one who determines their identity, and the speaker is the one who changes. The days cannot be any more than “muffled and dumb,” but the speaker who is human contains both concepts of action and deception, as well as the ability to talk about his experience in human terms.

*A slightly different version of this essay appeared in the Fall 1986 issue of The Explicator.

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Books by Linda Sue Grimes:

Singing in the Silence: Poems of Faith
In 1978, I began studying the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. I still study those teachings and strive to practice what I learn. I think of my writing as an extension and reinforcement of my spiritual studies. I am especially happy when the poems focus on my spiritual journey, as those in this volume do. I want to take sadness and turn it into joy, and I want to take anger and turn it into acceptance. But mostly, I want to acknowledge the beauty and mystery of God's presence in creation.


Jiggery Jee's Eden Valley Stories
Hello, my name is Jiggery-Jee. I live in Eden Valley. Eden Valley is located in the very center of the Land of the Imagination. Surrounding Eden Valley are such places as Tulip Grove, Carrot Valley, Bunnyville, Faultner Grove, and Flower Town. We have many residents in Eden Valley who came to the Valley from the surrounding places. They come here because Eden Valley is peaceful. All of the residents of Eden Valley work and play and live in an atmosphere of harmony. The weather is always perfect; the sun shines when we need sun, and the rain rains when we need rain. However, I must warn you that although things really are peaceful and harmonious in Eden Valley, sometimes they do not start out that way; we often have to work to make life peaceful and harmonious.
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