ipl-logo

Emerson And Longfellow Analysis

729 Words3 Pages

Romanticism in the early years of America explored contrasting interpretations such as insight and feeling over rationalist views consisting of science and civilization. American Romantic writers reject rationalism due to the fact that they believe that intuition and imagination yield greater truths. Specifically, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson, being two of the many writers that demonstrate romantic ideas, incorporate the fundamentals of nature into their works to display themes about life that they suppose the rational mind fails to detect. Longfellow as well as Emerson utilize the power of nature in order to illustrate distinct truths regarding life. For instance, Longfellow reveals his ideas concerning nature in …show more content…

Through this comparison, it is illustrated that children value nature and the truths that arise from it more so than an adult. This image displays the insight that in order to view the beauty of life in its entirety is to gain an optimistic perspective, much like an imaginative child would possess. Moreover, Emerson executes personification in order to convey his insight regarding nature. In the piece, Emerson grants the human-like quality of smiling to stars when he states, “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.” By displaying the stars as possessing an “admonishing smile,” it reveals the stars as denouncing yet remaining forgiving and good-natured. Humans foolishly take the presence of a star-lit sky for granted, and they may “admonish” mankind for this action; however, the stars never actually take

Show More
Related

  • The Calypso Borealis 'And' I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

    689 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Muir’s essay, The Calypso Borealis, and William Wordsworth’s poem, I wandered Lonely as a Cloud, are two wonderfully written works centered towards their love for nature. They were able to create vivd images in the reader’s head through their writing as well as emotional transitions. Both works, inspired by events in the 19th century, have their differences, however, their emotion and love for nature is the same and creates the same impact with the

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Let There Be Light By Paul Bogard

    164 Words  | 1 Pages

    He follows it by comparing the night sky in his youth to the night sky of today’s youth. This helps emphasize the extent at which the night sky has become less dark in only a few years and displays his deep concern

    Read More

  • Henry David Thoreau Research Paper

    265 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the romantic period, writers wrote on nature, human nature, and the past. Towards the end on the Romantic period writers turned to transcendentalism. Writers during this time showed individualism in their own way. Henry David Thoreau was a harvard graduate that was inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's “Nature”. After this inspiration Thoreau went against all the paths people believed he would go and spent two years at Walden pond.

    Read More

  • The Humanism Of E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops

    981 Words  | 4 Pages

    Here, Kuno explains to his mother his desire to see the world from a more primitive state: he doesn’t want to see it “from the air-ship”—which makes travel across the earth feasible—but to see it as “[his] ancestors did”, reflecting a view of nature and society mirroring Romanticism, or Transcendentalism. The son’s desire to find inspiration through nature, in attaching himself with the idea of an “ancestor” almost recall passages from Thoreau’s Walden: “[e]very morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself” (64). The desire of Kuno’s to see the stars as his ancestors saw them reflects a desire to attain that same “innocence” and cohesion “with Nature

    Read More

  • Examples Of Romanticism In The Minister's Black Veil

    1024 Words  | 5 Pages

    American Romanticism were mostly written during the 1800’s. The use of American Romanticism was to get readers to read. The authors would exaggerate stories to get them attached and start reading them. American Romanticism were stories that were mostly gothic or dark stories. The death of a protagonist is usually over exaggerated.

    Read More

  • John Muir's Fascination With Nature

    529 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wordsworth and Muir express their fascination with nature using imagery and mood. In “Calypso Borealis”, John Muir states that he finds himself “glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog and meadow heathworts, grasses, carices, ferns, mosses, liverworts displayed in boundless profusion” (Muir). The words “boundless profusion” appeals to the sense of sight and helps us imagine the scene and all the bountiful natural beauty of the place. The image shows Muir’s relationship with nature because it demonstrates his overwhelming, nearly spiritual, experience with nature. In the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”,

    Read More

  • American Romanticism: Emily Dickinson And Walt Whitman

    1214 Words  | 5 Pages

    American Romanticism American Romanticism is a concept that developed in the 17th century. Romanticism is all about emotions, the meaning of life, religion, society, the human form, death, and nature. Romanticism is very diverse and complex because each writer interprets the themes differently and each person who reads the poem can see something different and unique. Two famous and influential romantic poets were Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Although Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were both romantic poets they interpreted society and death in two completely different ways.

    Read More

  • Compare The World Is Too Much With Us And I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

    1044 Words  | 5 Pages

    He believes that because humanity has absorbed so many materialistic ideals that the connection between nature and oneself feels absent. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” instead begins with the discovery of a field of golden daffodils, “fluttering

    Read More

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson Use Of Metaphors

    278 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nature is a beautiful component of planet earth which most of us are fortunate to experience; Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about his passion towards the great outdoors in a passage called Nature. Emerson employs metaphors and analogies to portray his emotions towards nature. Emerson begins by writing, “Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers.” , this is a metaphor for how we think; all our knowledge is based on what is recorded in the olden days and a majority of our experiences are vicarious instead of firsthand encounters.

    Read More

  • Romanticism In The Industrial Revolution

    949 Words  | 4 Pages

    Moreover, by the virtue of the French Revolution, a morality remanding of the peaceful nature of man emerged and it prompted to Romanticists to use emotion over reason. Romantics hold the belief that not everything can be explained by reason and relying on science can not answer the questions of life. The essence of Romanticism basically has the spirit of the individualism and nature. It turns thumbs up on the idea that natural world is the origin of positive and good emotions. It is important to note that for nature symbolizes a reflection of their own soul and the ideal life that based on the meaning of their dreams for Romantics.

    Read More

  • American Literature: Literature Changed Over Time

    1749 Words  | 7 Pages

    Payton Lehnerz English B CP Final Essay American Literature: How it Changed Over Time Literature has been a constant expression of artistic emotion throughout history. Over the course of the years, Literature has developed and changed due to America’s evolution. These changing time periods can be classified into 9 eras: Colonial, Revolutionary, Romantic, Transcendental, Realism, Modern, Harlem Renaissance, Beat Generation, and Postmodern. Throughout the changing history, new literary eras have begun in response to previous eras and events. American Literature has changed over time by adapting previous values, beliefs, and literary characteristics when a new era presents itself; this progression is due to changing societal views in

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Romanticism And Nature

    986 Words  | 4 Pages

    Some scholars of romanticism such as William Wordsworth believe that the romanticists treated nature in an almost religious way. “Reasons for the development of this strong connection between nature and romanticism include the Industrial Revolution, which led many people to leave rural areas and live in cities, separated from the natural world”. The best way to reflect this topic is by knowing

    Read More

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Poet

    1010 Words  | 5 Pages

    And nature to the poet is not just merely trees, grass, and leaves, as Emerson explains, it is also the railroad laid on the tracks of mother earth. Nature will adapt to such structures just as the “children” will adapt to nature and nature to humankind and human’s ideas and creations such as the railroad, and later the

    Read More

  • Individualism In Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey

    779 Words  | 4 Pages

    (Wordsworth) These lines from ‘Tintern Abbey’, according me, summarize the very spirit of Romanticism in a nutshell. Sages who excel in theoretical knowledge are seen to be incompetent with respect to what the Nature has in offering. The latter was the only and true source of inspiration, and the poet figure who was also the “the unauthorized legislature of the world”, was considered to be divinely gifted due to his acute understanding of the natural world, much in contrast to the figure of the Enlightenment scholar, who exceled in the knowledge of books. Fortunately or unfortunately, life doesn’t work in polar extremes. Philosopher and critic Jacques Barzun argues that Romanticism basically had its roots in the Enlightenment.

    Read More

  • Role Of Imagination In Romantic Poetry

    1932 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Romantic period believed that emotion was a form of intelligence, and art was a path to transcendence. As a result of the change in beliefs, Romantic poetry is often characterized by nature, imagination, memory, and wisdom. Imagination acts as a source of creativity, and allows us to see what is not immediately apparent. The Romantics believed that we could discover the imagination in nature, which often resulted in a harmony of the two. However, there are times when nature and imagination are in conflict with each other; for example, when imagination acts as an illusion, and distracts us from confronting the issue.

    Read More

More about Emerson And Longfellow Analysis

Open Document