Transience versus Permanence
Human existence is unalterably finite. An attitude that encourages any one man or any one generation of men to believe that human influence can be extended over time through material means is egotistical as well as misguided. A true understanding of the universe and of what is permanent can only come about when egotism is subdued and subordination to a higher, more encompassing power accepted. The first-person speaker at the end of the poem arrives at an understanding of this through the Earth-Song
Separateness versus Unity
In the first section of "Hamatreya," Emerson suggests the tendency of Concord's first settlers to see things in their separateness rather than as part of a unified whole.
The lists of their names in the first line of the poem, of the products of their land in the third line, and of Concord's natural resources near the end of the first section all contribute to the impression that these men viewed the world in particulars rather than in totality. The Earth, on the other hand, sings a broader vision, one that transcends time and specificity of place. The egotism of the founders is connected to the importance they attach to their own particulate existence and their own particulate parcels of land. They are forced to arrive at oneness on the most basic level, the level of physical unity with the earth through death and decay. The speaker in the last stanza reaches the point at which he is ready to recognize a more elemental underlying unity
