The Heart That Vibrated to That Iron String .
Ralph Waldo Emerson, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1803, was extremely intelligent for his age. Seven of Emerson's predecessors were ministers and preachers including his father William Emerson who was minister of the First Church of Boston. Ralph Waldo Emerson was almost forced into being a minister. He entered Harvard University at the young age of fourteen and graduated at eighteen. He then later completed his schooling and went to Harvard Divinity School. Soon after graduating he delivered few sermons and married Ellen Tucker who sadly died a year and a half later. In 1832, however, he resigned as a preacher due to personal doubts of religion. From thereafter the son of a preacher began to doubt religion and began to write some of his, now, most famous poems and essays such as Nature, Essays (both first and second), and Poems (Woodlief 1).
Emerson's Nature was extremely controversial, receiving "extremes of praise and blame" (Myerson 5). In Nature he reminds the reader of the limitless power that the individual possesses. Nature emphasizes three of Emerson's main ideas: the limitless power of the individual, the importance of nature to the world, and that nature is the image of God, and the idea that God is amongst us all and describes people as a particle of God. His Transcendental beliefs were rejected by many who viewed Emerson's work as sacrilege and disrespectful to the Christian faith but his views also stimulated many "disciples" to follow Emerson and join the Transcendental club (Leary 1). His Nature essay was only the beginning of his many more famous works. .
In Emerson's books entitled Essays and Essays Second Series. In his collection, Emerson continues to stress the ideas he presented in Nature. The more famous of his essays were "Self Reliance," "The American Scholar," and "The Divinity School Address." "Self Reliance" was said to be one of Emerson's greatest statements.
British Criticism on Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most influential literary figures in history. ... Emerson's British critics shared mixed views on his works. ... In Nature, Emerson makes reference to a "transparent eyeball" (Emerson, PG?) ... Lawrence commented, "I like Emerson's real courage. ... Emerson simply didn't want to be limited to a religion. ...
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau had a conflicting view on the idea of American colleges. ... Emerson continues on in his criticism. ... Emerson starts off by bashing the idea of man learning from a book. ... Thoreau has a similar view of institutionalized education to that of Emerson's. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau had a unique perspective on not only learning, but on life. ...
The two preeminent American authors of the 19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frederick Douglass, each criticized Christianity as it was practiced in the United States. ... Just under a decade later Frederick Douglass, a former slave, published his criticism in Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass. These writers, in spite of their criticism, were strong believers in faith, and both included positive spiritual alternatives in their literature. ... Emerson's address may have been interpreted as a direct threat to organized religion. ... Emerson's address, though, did not...
This book goes thought the live of six Americans: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Sojourner Truth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson ranks as a leading figure in the thought and literature of American civilization. ... Emerson's essays are a series of loosely related impressions, maxims, proverbs, and parables. ... Despite personal hardships, Emerson developed a moral philosophy based on optimism and individualism. ... Emerson was born in Boston. ...
." - Ralph Waldo Emerson A Condensation of Its Context Toward the end of his notebook, "Naturalist," Ralph Waldo Emerson entered sentence (dated 1853) that marks a symbolic vision of nature familiar to his readers and, in more recent years, of concern to his ecologically minded critics: "He is the richest who has most use for nature as raw material of tropes and symbols with which to describe his life." (2) One can see why the tradition of reading Emerson's nature writing and environmental aesthetics in sharp contrast with Henry David Thoreau's--Thoreau viewed as "Emerson's ea...
Definitions Transcendentalism- a system of philosophy, especially that associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and other New England writers, that emphasizes intuition or the divine Romanticism- in the arts, the style and theories of the romantic movement, or the movement itself Aphorism- a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century 11. ... Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) - American essayist and poet, a leader of the philosophical movement of transcendentalism. ... Emerson is noted for his skill in presenting his ideas eloquently and in poetic langua...
The two writers succeeded in representing America as it really was thru their criticism (Carter,119). ... His biography for Abraham Lincoln earned him enough money to travel to New England and meet the great writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, James Russell Lowell, and Walt Whitman (Edwin H., 288). ...
Thoreau lived under the roof of the leader of Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, as a handyman, although their relationship was also one of master and disciple. ... Many of Henry David Thoreau's colleagues and critics felt that his writings were not original and were too similar to Emerson's ideas of Transcendentalism. ... (Walden) I can neither agree nor disagree with all of the criticism that Thoreau received, but through past experiences in the military I know first-hand that individuality in a structured community does not bode well. ... (Emerson and Thoreau)...