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LITR 4232 American
Renaissance 2010 Student Midterm Samples 2. Short essay (4-6 paragraphs) on 1 of 2 options (or combinations as inspired) :
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2. Short Essay: “Mother Nature through the Eyes of Emerson”
The transcendentalist nature of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s, Nature would
probably have to be one of my favorite pieces so far in American Literature.
Not only is it beautifully written but it represents Romanticism and the
transcendentalist movement at its best. The passage that sticks out the most to
me is:
“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of
real sorrows. Nature says, ---he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent
griefs, he shall be glad with me. No the sun or the 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. Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a
mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue.”
One of the reasons why this passage stuck out the most is because it possesses a
certain degree of brightness and the Romantic/transcendentalist idea of having a
sentimental love of nature. Emerson harped on the beauty of the world and its
mother like characteristics to protect over its “children”. Nature makes us
joyful and puts a smile on our face no matter what difficulties we may be going
through. Nature serves to protect and through this we find our inner happiness.
The world works for us and was made for us. By using phrases like “wild
delight”, “be glad with me”, and “tribute of delight”, Emerson gives nature a
feeling of happiness and a mother like characteristic. Nature is a place where
we can dwell in it and be happy no matter the sorrows that surround us.
This passage also represents other terms/themes. For one, we see correspondence
through the lines “…for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a
different state of mind…” It’s the relation between the soul and nature and how
the changing of seasons is directly representative of our inner self. This is
what in return makes us one/correspond with nature. We also get a dose of the
sublime through the lines, “In the presence of nature a wild delight runs
through the man, in spite of real sorrows…” It represents sublime because we
have two contrasting emotions represented in one line, delight and sorrow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson is a great representative of the transcendentalist movement.
I have become quite fond of the transcendentalist movement. Emerson’s work,
Nature, was known as the predecessor to the movement and speaks great
volumes even today. Transcendentalism is labeled by their urge for society to
find their individual self in relation to the world around us. Of course, this
solitude can be found according to Emerson amongst the beauty of nature. It is
works like “Nature” and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” where we see that
the connection between the sentimental love of nature and literature was of real
importance in the American Renaissance. Many of the texts we’ve read thus far,
from Dickinson to Emerson, dealt with this topic.
To connect it to today’s world one would be “lost in translation”. We have done
exactly what transcendentalists/romantics harped not to do, replaced nature with
technology. The love for nature seen throughout many Romantic literatures is
non-existent today. Our readings of Emerson and Whitman’s love of nature has
become something that we do not share a common ground with which is why I
believe that we, well I, see the beauty in it. There is something profound about
reading something that I can only hope connects with the world in which I live.
Our world today can learn from a little dose of Emerson and his love of the
world that surrounds us.
