LITR 4232: American Renaissance
Sample Answers from Student Midterms, Spring 2001
Identify & Signify

Passage #2.

               To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. . . . The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are truly adjusted; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. . . . Not the sun of summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. . . . Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear.

Sample student responses to passage #2.

[complete answer from email exam]

This passage is from Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson describes nature as being a pure, childlike state that is not corrupted by adulthood. He uses romanticism and romantic descriptions of nature to offer insight into what it takes to see the world in this innocent, pure way. This is also a transcendent theme when he says "for every hour and change corresponds to . . . . a different state of mind." He is describing the way that the mind and its perceptions can be altered to correspond with pure thoughts. It also conveys the sublime when he states that "I am glad to the brink of fear" he is describing a range of feelings from great to terrifying. This is true classical literature in that Emerson stretches our minds to think in a radically different way – to explore the world and nature as an individual experience – an opening of the mind must take place. This is an example of civil disobedience in that it requires a shift to a higher law – the law of nature – instead of living by the laws of man. The idea of voluntary simplicity is behind Emerson’s reasoning that nature supplies all that is needed for happiness if only man will look within and see nature through pure, innocent eyes.

               This can be compared to Thoreau’s Resistance to Civil Government. He too emphasizes the individual and simplicity. He emphasizes the need for less government. He promotes the idea of the individual in the same romantic way that Emerson does by seeing the soul as pure and society confining. Thoreau’s jail cannot hold him because his mind cannot be jailed just as Emerson’s nature offers him freedom within that cannot be taken away by outside forces. This is a romantic image as well as an example of civil disobedience. [JoH 2001]

[nearly complete excerpt from email exam]

This quote could be nothing but Emerson. It is from his work Nature. This quote exemplifies the romantic idea of divinity in nature. Emerson argues that there is much more to nature than man takes time to see; that he fails to recognize the wonder and the sublime of the even the sun. Emerson maintains that is through this reverence that one might experience the divine. . . . Some similar ideas are seen in Last of the Mohicans. Hawkeye, Chingachook and Uncus are seen as closer to nature. Cooper refers to "paths only Indian eyes can see" suggesting that the white man is blind to such nature. [JeH 2001]

[excerpt from email exam]

This piece is very romantic. He speaks of the closeness children have with nature and how each person should strive to see what a child sees in nature. He talks about how when things in nature change so does the moods of man and child. (dark/stormy, nature is dark/ soul is stormy). [CJ 2001]

[excerpt from email exam]

This passage, from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature, discusses the romantic notion that children are closer to and in touch with nature. The context of the passage is his idea that the individual in nature is in "the perpetual presence of the sublime." Besides stating this explicitly, he describes his experience of the sublime when he says, "I am glad to the brink of fear." [JT 2001]

[excerpt from in-class exam]

Emerson uses a romantic style to portray his ideas that man should go back and find spirituality in nature. He uses nature to symbolize the correspondence that as seasons change, so does the human mind. He also uses the child reference to symbolize what is pure and good. Emerson uses a sublime style when he is glad to the brink of fear. This is similar to the spirituality that Sojourner Truth uses to describe when she finds God. She says she could feel it burning all around her. [AA 2001]

[excerpt from in-class exam]

In other words, how one looks at nature and evaluates it, determines their state of mind or state of their soul. When he discusses the part about the "snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky," these conditions are considered unsatisfactory to the common man. However, because of his look on nature, he has a peaceful soul and states that he feels joyful even in bad conditions. Emerson is trying to say that a person can control whether he is happy or sad by his state of mind, no matter what the conditions. In the final line he uses the technique of the sublime, in that he experiences pleasure and pain almost simultaneously. [LG 2001]