Teach me your mood, O patient stars!

Throughout this poem, readers can find wonderful examples of imagery, personification, and more. Although it’s only four lines long, Emerson accomplishes a great deal within those lines. He sets out his speaker’s understanding of a star’s life and attitude while also discussing how human beings contend with mortality in ‘Teach me your mood, O patient stars!’

Teach me your mood, O patient stars! 
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Teach me your mood, O patient stars!Who climb each night the ancient sky,Leaving on space no shade, no scars,No trace of age, no fear to die.

Summary

‘Teach me your mood, O patient stars!’ by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a thoughtful poem that connects a speaker’s interest in living a good life to his study of the stars.

In the first lines of the poem, the speaker addresses the stars, asking that they share their “mood” with him. He’d like to live as they do. They track through the night sky patiently and without making a fuss about life and death. They’re fearless and strong, unconcerned about when their lives are going to end. This is something the speaker envies. He, too, would like to live this kind of life.

Themes

Throughout ‘Teach me your mood, O patient stars!’ the poet engages with themes of life/death and nature. He looks to nature for the wisdom he doesn’t have. The stars provide him, through his personification of them, with an idealized way to live. He’s concerned, as all human beings are, with when his life is going to end and what the best way to live it is. Nature, in this case, the stars, shows him that his life doesn’t have to be filled with this kind of worry. He asks to learn from them and take on their mood at the beginning of the poem.

Structure and Form

‘Teach me your mood, O patient stars!’ by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a four-line poem that is contained within a single stanza of text. The lines follow a simple rhyme scheme of ABAB and contain eight syllables per line, something known as tetrameter. The arrangement of stressed in these lines vary, but they are mostly written in iambic tetrameter. This means that the eight syllables are divided into groups of two, the first beat of which is unstressed and the second of which is stressed. The first line is a good exception to the rule.

Literary Devices

Throughout ‘Teach me your mood, O patient stars!’ the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include, but are not limited to:

• Caesura: can be seen when the poet inserts a pause in the middle of a line. This can be done through meter or through the use of punctuation. For example, “No trace of age, no fear to die.”
• Apostrophe: occurs when the speaker addresses someone or something that cannot hear or respond to their words. In this case, the speaker is talking to the “patient stars,” requesting advice.
• Alliteration: occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of words. For example, “me” and “mood” in line one and “stars” and “sky” in lines one and two.

Detailed Analysis

Lines 1-2

Teach me your mood, O patient stars!

Who climb each night the ancient sky,

In the first lines of ‘Teach me your mood, O patient stars!’ the speaker begins with the line that was later used as the title of the poem. He’s addressing his words to the “patient stars.” This is at once an example of personification and an apostrophe. The latter refers to an address made to something that cannot hear or respond. In this case, the speaker is talking to the stars, asking them for advice. By imbuing them with human qualities, like a “mood” or patience, the speaker is using personification.

This is furthered in the second line when he uses the word “climb” to describe their progress through the night sky. Other words, like ancient, suggest a specific atmosphere for this work. The speaker is in awe of the stars and the millennia they’ve held their position in the sky. They’re patient and understand the world in a way that the speaker is envious of. He knows he could learn a great deal from them. The final two lines reveal what it is the speaker is curious about.

Lines 3-4

Leaving on space no shade, no scars,

No trace of age, no fear to die.

As the stars move through space, they don’t leave a mark. They don’t leave scars or any remnants of their existence. This proves that they, unlike human beings, have “no fear to die.” They don’t need to make a mark on the world. They’re content to live as they live and die when it’s their time. It’s this “mood” or attitude that the speaker is interested in learning. He’d like to live his life the same way. It’s clear from this request that he thinks, in one way or another, that this would make him happier.

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Similar Poetry

Readers who enjoyed ‘Teach me your mood, O patient stars!’ should also consider reading other Ralph Waldo Emerson poems. For example:

• ‘The River’ – explores the poet’s childhood and youth. It is a meditation upon nature and mortality.
• ‘Fate’ – talks about the nature of fate and how it should be treated in one’s life.
• ‘Brahma’ – details the powers of the Hindu god to move effortlessly through the world, in his own words.