(comparisons between a modern poem/lyrics to a poem written before 1950)

I Was Brought To My Senses 
by Sting

Alone with my thoughts this evening
I walked on the banks of Tyne
I wondered how I could win you
Or if I could make you mine
Or if I could make you mine

The wind it was so insistent
With tales of a stormy south
But when I spied two birds in a sycamore tree
There came a dryness in my mouth
Came a dryness in my mouth

For then without rhyme or reason
The two birds did rise up to fly
And where the two birds were flying
I swear I saw you and I
I swear I saw you and I

I walked out this morning
It was like a veil had been removed from before my eyes
For the first time I saw the work of heaven
In the line where the hills had been married to the sky
And all around me every blade of singing grass
Was calling out your name and that our love would always last
And inside every turning leaf
Is the pattern of an older tree
The shape of our future
The shape of all our history
And out of the confusion
Where the river meets the sea
Came things I'd never seen
Things I'd never seen

I was brought to my senses
I was blind but now that I can see
Every signpost in nature
Said you belong to me

I know it's true
It's written in a sky as blue
As blue as your eyes, as blue as your eyes
If nature's red in tooth and claw
Like winter's freeze and summer's thaw
The wounds she gave me
Were the wounds that would heal me

And we'd be like the moon and sun
And when our courtly dance had run
Its course across the sky
Then together we would lie
And out of the confusion
Where the river meets the sea
Something new would arrive
Something better would arrive

I was brought to my senses
I was blind but now that I can see
Every signpost in nature
Said you belong to me


Thine Eyes Still Shined 
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thine eyes still shined for me, though far
I lonely roved the land or sea:
As I behold yon evening star,
Which yet beholds not me. 

This morn I climbed the misty hill
And roamed the pastures through;
How danced thy form before my path
Amidst the deep-eyed dew!

When the redbird spread his sable wing,
And showed his side of flame;
When the rosebud ripened to the rose,
In both I read thy name.

In the song "I Was Brought to My Senses" and the poem "Thine Eyes Still Shined," Sting and Ralph Waldo Emerson have created small masterpieces, similar in theme, point of view, and imagery. While Sting’s song was released relatively recently in 1996 and Emerson’s poem was written in the mid-19th century, both converge upon and celebrate the concept of unity in love and natural beauty and differ mainly in the depth and methods in which this theme is developed.

Since Sting, who is an avid supporter of a charity to preserve Walden Woods, considers himself a student of the Transcendental movement that originated from the philosophical ideas of such thinkers as Emerson, "I Was Brought to My Senses" fittingly follows in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. A core characteristic of 19th century transcendentalism involves the assimilation of one’s personality and essence with the objects of Creation. In commenting about his song, Sting has said that he has "come to the realization through experiences that not only is nature an amazing metaphor for human relationships and patterns of behavior - it’s a miracle in its own right." Just as the speaker in Sting’s song sees that "every signpost in nature said you belong to me," Emerson’s speaker "read thy [beloved’s] name" when "the redbird spread his sable wing" and when "the rosebud ripened to the rose." Both verse compositions even begin with the same idea of finding spiritual awakening of the loving spirit in the middle of solitude. "Alone with my thoughts this evening, I walked on the banks of Tyne," the musician writes, while the speaker in the poem "roved the land or sea" and "roamed the pastures through." Also, both poems contain the personification of natural elements that signal the speaker’s destiny to be with the lover. For example, in "I Was Brought to My Senses," the speaker notes that "all around me every blade of singing grass was calling out your name and that our love would always last;" similarly, in "Thine Eyes Still Shined," Emerson writes alliteratively about the speaker seeing "how danced thy form before my path amidst the deep-eyed dew."

Both the poem and the song also compare in that they were written in the first person point of view, each speaker addressing his/her lover. Both speakers convey their revelations from seeing the "work of heaven" that they are fitted and fated to be with each other. Since "I Was Brought to My Senses" and "Thine Eyes Still Shined" are most probably meant to be love poems, revealing the depth of emotions they have for their beloveds, it is appropriate that both speakers tell of a time when they themselves are so entirely consumed and occupied with the thoughts of love that they seem to have a conversation with the natural world convincing them how perfect they are for each other.

The two poems also have in common that they are rich with visual imagery. Sting writes about "the line where the hills had been married to the sky" and "two birds in a sycamore tree," while Emerson writes about "the misty hill" and the redbird’s "sable wing." However, because "I Was Brought to My Senses" is much longer, Sting contains much more delineation of nature and its wonderful qualities as he sings about the "pattern of an older tree," "a sky as blue, as blue as your eyes," and a nature "red in tooth and claw."

The main difference between the two verses, besides the length, concern their rhyme schemes. As Sting’s song begins like a folk ballad, the first three stanzas have regular rhyme in the second and fourth lines with the fourth line repeated to reiterate the idea that the lovers belong together. However, after this point, he changes back and forth and there is no other pattern to the rhyme in the rest of the song. On the other hand "Thine Eyes Still Shined" contains rhyme every other line beginning with the second.

Altogether, the song and the poem are noticeably similar in the theme, point of view, and imagery. In the same commentary mentioned before about his song, Sting asserts that "you can’t separate us from the trees…; if you see nature as something apart from you, you have no respect for it," an idea most likely derived from Transcendentalists. Actually, "I Was Brought to My Senses" and "Thine Eyes Still Shined" are so alike, especially in the choices of the images, that one could conclude that Sting in writing his song was directly influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and that specific poem itself.