Ralph Waldo Emerson1803-1882

Essential Question: What are the characteristics of a Lover of Nature?

Emerson was part of the Romantic Movement in America• Attended Harvard &

became a minister –8 generations

• Met English Romantic poets Wordsworth & Coleridge on a trip to Europe

• Found that he no longer believed some of the central doctrines of his faith

• Became a successful public lecturer and one of America’s most respected writers

His American Perspective Denied the Importance of the

Past

• Emerson believed that the Focus should be on:–Humanity–Inspiration in Nature

“To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature”

Essential Question: What are the characteristics of a Lover of Nature?

A Lover of Nature:

• . . . Is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other

• . . . Who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood

• In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows

• Experiences exhilaration in nature

“In the Woods is Eternal Youth”

When all egotism vanishes . . . “I become a transparent eyeball. I

am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being run through me; I am part or particle of God.”

It sees without Interpreting . . .

Personification

“. . .it is the suggestion of the occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.”

Self-Reliance1841

Essential Question: What factors define a GREAT

PERSON?

Emerson urged people to place their TRUST in THEMSELVES and

their Intuition rather than in society and tradition

Individualism and the Spirit of Optimism are traits of the Romantic

Movement

Some Others

What about Emerson’s definition of Great People?

1.Great people are misunderstood.2.They accept their circumstances and

know their own power.3.They express their divine natures

completely.4.They contradict themselves.5.They refuse to conform to society.

What “Divine Idea” What “Divine Idea” do

each of us represent?do each of us

represent?