| Humorous |
| What boots it, thy virtue, What profit thy parts, While one thing thou lackest, The art of all arts! The only credentials, Passport to success, Opens castle and parlor,� Address, man, Address. The maiden in danger Was saved by the swain, His stout arm restored her To Broadway again: The maid would reward him,� Gay company come,� They laugh, she laughs with them, He is moonstruck and dumb. This clenches the bargain, Sails out of the bay, Gets the vote in the Senate, Spite of Webster and Clay; Has for genius no mercy, For speeches no heed,� It lurks in the eyebeam, It leaps to its deed. Church, tavern, and market, Bed and board it will sway; It has no to-morrow, It ends with to-day. |
| Throughout his poem �Tact,� Ralph Waldo Emerson manifests a humorous tone through his jocular diction and his humorous witticisms. Through various jokes, including his allusion to Daniel Webster and Henry Clay and to their lack of tact, Emerson establishes this humorous tone. His choice of words to describe a man without tact, including �moonstruck� and �dumb� similarly provides a humorous element in this piece, establishing a light-hearted tone. |
| Analysis |
| �Tact� Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Emerson, Ralph Waldo. �Tact.� The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 2001. 15 Nov. 2003. <http://www.rwe.org/poems_of_RWE/tact.htm>. |
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