Ralph Waldo Ralph Waldo EmersonEmerson(1803-1882)(1803-1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Sage of Concord Preacher, philosopher, and poet A thinker of bold originality Essays and lectures offer models of

clarity, style, and radical thought Possibly the single most influential

person in American literature

Born on May 3, 1803, in Boston

Educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard College

Taught school until 1825, when he entered Harvard Divinity School

1829: became minister of Second Church in Boston, following 9 generations of his family into the ministry

Early Life

Early Adulthood 1829: married Ellen Tucker, who died 18

months later of tuberculosis Pain of her death may have hastened his

decision to leave the ministry Resigned, concerned that “dogmatic theology” of

“formal Christianity” looked only to past traditions and the words of the dead

Threatened with tuberculosis himself Wife left him with substantial inheritance

Means to travel, read, write Financially secure

Second Marriage 1835: married Lydia Jackson

and moved to Concord, Mass. Called her “Lidian”

Son Waldo 1844: died at age 5 of scarlet fever

Blow to faith

Wrote “Experience” “Life is not intellectual or critical, but

sturdy.” “I am defeated all the time, yet to

victory I am born.”

Move fulfilled great desire for the solitude and peace that he found in nature

In nature, found a refuge from the ills of society

In the woods, meditated on the “web of nature,” through which God and eternity could be seen

From Boston to Concord

Emerson’s Ideas Learned the principles of

transcendentalism from Carlyle, Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Widely read Plato Montaigne Berkeley, Hume, and Locke Swedenborg

Activism His long career and financial security

allowed him to play a major role in the formation of American culture and letters.

He supported several social causes Supported Abolitionist movement Lobbied for women’s rights Spoke in defense for John Brown Opposed Fugitive Slave Act

Terrible conditions in Northern factories

Slave labor in the South Unequal distribution of

wealth Discrimination against

women Resentment of

immigrants Relocation of Native

Americans

Some Social Ills

Writers’ Struggles Was active in contemporary

struggles of writers: Attaining international copyright, Better publishing contracts and

royalties, Curtailing unsupervised reprints and

piracies of books

“A question which well deserves examination now is the question of commerce. This invasion of nature by trade with its money, its credits, its steam, its railroads, threatens to upset the balance of man”

Emerson saw misery and unfairness in society and government. The rich had too much and the poor not even enough. The government, in Emerson’s view, did little to help people’s lives.

Emerson’s Mission “To be a good minister, it was necessary to

leave the church." “The Divinity School Address,” delivered in

1838, made him unwelcome at Harvard for 30 years. Emerson accused the church of acting "as if God

were dead" and of emphasizing dogma while stifling the spirit.

Always took with deep seriousness the Biblical teaching that man is made in the image of God What he wanted to teach and preach Felt church rites obscured the “way of truth.”

Question Inescapable central question was always:

“What is man?” Always gave the Biblical (Psalm 8) and

classical answer: “Thou has made him a little less than God and

dost crown him with glory and honor.” Emerson celebrated the renewing powers of

nature. It beauty, its calm, its strength he named as a source of peace and rebirth to all beings.

The Universe is composed of:

OVER-SOUL (God)

NATURE(not me)

SOUL(me)

Emerson’s Cosmology

Overview Spiritual vision and practical, aphoristic expression make Emerson exhilarating.

Much of his spiritual insight comes from his readings in Eastern religion, especially Hinduism, Confucianism, and Islamic Sufism.

Important Works Nature (1836) expresses Emerson’s

philosophy and love of nature. “The American Scholar” (1837)

applies Transcendentalism to American culture and politics.

“Self-Reliance” and “The Over-Soul” "The Poet" best and most influential

piece of literary criticism.

“The Poet” “Poetry is our commonwealth,” enriching all.

America great new poetic subject. Call for the poet of the future Outlined the poets’ duties Predefined events of 1855 and Whitman’s

Leaves of Grass “I look in vain for the poet whom I describe.” “We have yet had no genius in America who knew the

materials.” Our [American] log rolling, our politics… our fisheries, our

Northern trade, our Southern planting, the Western clearing … are yet unsung…America is a poem in our eyes… its ample geography dazzles the imagination and it will not wait long for meters.”

Emerson’s Nature Suggests that the writer must search for

“original language,” for the word that most clearly describes the thing.

Nature itself is seen in semiotic terms, all things are understood as signs for other things. “Words are signs of natural facts” “Nature is the symbol of spirit”

Message of Nature Devalues the past and tradition Duty and right of each man to trust himself Select only those events of past that carry

significance and infuse them with living breath to come to life Any other past is “dead weight”

Importance of Nature Most of his major ideas

the need for a new national vision,

the use of personal experience, the notion of the cosmic Over-

Soul, and the doctrine of compensation

suggested in his first publication, Nature (1836).

Reading Nature Easier to see Emerson

clearly from a distance, but everything gets foggy if you get too close Emerson: “Do not give me

facts in the order of cause and effect, but drop one or two links in the chain, and give me with a cause, an effect two or three times removed.”

Message of Nature Goal: Reclaim/redefine “culture”—bring it back

to life Prose poem—read both for what it says

literally and what it suggests about what cannot be said clearly

Three underlying assumptions: Primacy of the soul Sufficiency of nature Immediacy of God

“Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchers of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relationship to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?…The sun shines today also….There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.”

From Nature

“In the woods is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guests sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life – no disgrace, no calamity,…which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground – my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space – all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.”

From Nature

The Transparent Eyeball

Image: Christopher Pearse Cranch, parody of lines from Nature, 1838

What does Emerson really mean by this phrase?

“Self-Reliance” A person—not society, the

church, or government—is own best authority.

“Self-Reliance” expresses RWE’s ideas about

the unique character and destiny of each individual

the importance of following one’s inner voice

Emerson often uses poetic figures of speech to drive home his philosophical points.

Figures of Speech in “Self-Reliance”

Trust thyself: Every heart vibrates to that iron string.from “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

idea of self-trust

vibration from an iron string, such as a string on a musical instrument that has been plucked

compared to

“Man is timid and apologetic, he is no longer upright; he dares not say ‘I think’ or ‘I am’ but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence…But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present.”

From “Self-Reliance”

“Self-Reliance” All Greatness is in self-reliance. Genius, is always the story of self-reliance, of

people who religiously followed their own bent. Listened to their own voice.

“Never imitate.” “Imitation is suicide.” The greatest enemy of self-reliance is our

own “fixed” identity. Breaking the prison of fixed identity is the

arduous challenge. Learn to live in the present, to be faithful to

instinct and inner voice at every moment

From “Self-Reliance” How we look at the world is who we are. Reject instruction; don’t imitate the books you

read Where is the master who could have instructed

Shakespeare; or Franklin; or Newton; Every great man is unique. “Shakespeare will never be made by the study of

Shakespeare.” Reject society; modern frills, ”the civilized man

has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet; he is supported on crutches but lacks so much support of muscle; he has a fine Geneva watch but he fails at the skill to be able to tell time by the sun.”

Emerson’s Writing Emphasized

Individualism and a rejection of traditional authority.

A simple life of harmony with nature.

The problems associated with a “lifeless” Christian tradition.

Breaking free from European culture to establish an American culture.

Contradictory? Emerson's philosophy called

contradictory consciously avoided building a logical

intellectual system such a rational system would have negated his

Romantic belief in intuition and flexibility. "Self-Reliance": "A foolish consistency is the

hobgoblin of little minds." Emerson remarkably consistent in his call for

the birth of American individualism inspired by nature.

Sources Outline of American Literature;

http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/lit3.htm Concord: A Nation’s Conscience. Guidance Associates of

Pleasantville, N.Y. 1971. Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection, NDIRS-NDSU, Fargo;

and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collection, NDIRS-NDSU, Fargo. Images courtesy of

the Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library. Concord Free Public Library, Esther Howe Wheeler Anderson Slide Collection (purchased from William Wheeler Anderson, Jr., 2006).