LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections 2006

Monday 30 October: Ralph Waldo Emerson, N 482-497, 514-519, 527-533, 539-544 (introduction & opening sections of Nature, The American Scholar, Divinity School Address, & Self-Reliance). (Each student should try to finish at least one of these essays.) Margaret Fuller, N 760-771.

selection reader / discussion leader: Bill Wolfe

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Early Biographical Information:

-          Born May 25, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts

-          Father – William Emerson was a Unitarian minister

-          1817-1821 – Attended Harvard University. 1825- Emerson returned to study at the Harvard Divinity School.

-          In 1829, Emerson was ordained as a Unitarian pastor at the Second Unitarian Church of Boston. That same year he married Ellen Louisa Tucker (d. 1831)

-          Emerson’s evolving religious beliefs eventually brought him into conflict with the dogmatic teachings of the Unitarian church. He resigned his pastorate on Dec. 22, 1832 and embarked on an extended European tour.

Concord:

-     In 1835, Emerson married Lydia Jackson and settled in Concord, Massachusetts.

-          Published his first collection of essays, “Nature,” in 1836.

-          In 1836, Emerson, along with such notables as Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, and Frederic Henry Hedge, formed the Transcendental Club. This entity helped to distinguish the American Transcendentalist movement and to solidify the movement’s main principle that God was immanent in all aspects of the creation.

-          In 1837/1838, Emerson gave two very influential addresses at Harvard University.

-          In 1840, Emerson helped found the transcendentalist journal, The Dial. The journal was edited first by Margaret Fuller and, from 1842-1844, by Emerson himself.

Publication History:

-          1836 – Nature

-          1841 – Essays

-          1844 – Essays: Second Series

-          1850 – Representative Men

-          1856 – English Traits

-          1860 – Conduct of Life

-          1870 – Society and Solitude

-          1874 – Parnasus (Poetry)

-          1876 – Letters and Social Aims

-          1884 – Miscelanies*

-          1884 – Lectures and Biographical Sketches*

Emerson published on and off for more than forty years. In addition to his writing, he also traveled and lectured extensively. Emerson made his final journey to England in 1872-1873 at the age of 70. Emerson died, at his home in Concord, on the evening of April27, 1882.

OBJECTIVE: 1c – Romantic Genres – To describe and evaluate leading genres of Romanticism.

- The essay (esp. for Transcendentalists – descended from the Puritan sermon?)

OBJECTIVE: 2: Cultural Issues: America as Romanticism, and vice versa

- To acknowledge the co-emergence and convergence of “America” and “Romanticism.” European Romanticism begins near the time of the American Revolution, and Romanticism and the American nation develop ideas of individualism, sentimental nature, rebellion and equality in parallel.

- American Romanticism exposes competing or complimentary dimensions of the American identity: Is America a culture of sensory and material gratification or moral, spiritual, idealistic mission. 

Nature

(Norton, 487)

To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. 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 still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth becomes part of his daily food. 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. Not 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. 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. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest 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, (leaving me my eyes,) 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 eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.

Self Reliance

(Norton, 540)

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.

Questions:

1.)    What is Transcendental about the above passages?

2.)    Are there gothic or sublime elements in the above passages? How do they coordinate with the Transcendentalist aspects?

3.)   Emerson is often referred to as the founder of American classical literature. What aspects of the above passages lend weight to such a claim?

4.)      Emerson, in his writings, stresses the importance of the individual and supports an individual relationship with God. How are these ideas reflected in the above passages?