Ralph Waldo Emerson

Discussion on Emerson's Creations

Thomas Carlyle

February 29, 2024
Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian, and teacher during the Victorian era. Known for his sharp critique of democracy, industrialization, and the spiritual malaise of his time, Carlyle became one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century. His work is characterized by a profound, often pessimistic, reflection on society and a strong advocacy for heroic leadership and individual moral integrity. Carlyle’s significant contributions include his essay “Sartor Resartus” (1833-1834), a satirical work that presents a philosophy of clothes as a metaphor for the human condition and societal values. His magnum opus, “The French Revolution: A History” (1837), is a dramatic and detailed account…

Friedrich Nietzsche

February 28, 2024
Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, philologist, and a profound influencer of modern intellectual thought. His work is known for its radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth, its critique of religion and morality as understood in the traditional sense, and its exploration of the concept of the “will to power.” Nietzsche’s philosophy delves into the complexities of existence, the nature of power, and the potential for individual transcendence by creating one’s own values instead of relying on the values of others. Key works of Nietzsche include “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” (1883-1885), a philosophical novel that introduces the idea of the Übermensch, or “Overman,” as…

How Ralph Waldo Emerson Changed American Poetry

February 21, 2024
How Ralph Waldo Emerson Changed American Poetry

The listlessness of Emerson’s poetry is surprising, given the veneration he expressed for the art. Some of his best prose is devoted to lobbying for the special advantages of poetry. These works are thrilling because they are written in thrilling sentences.

Success

February 19, 2024

OUR American people cannot be taxed with slowness in performance or in praising their performance. The earth is shaken by our engineries. We are feeling our youth and nerve and bone. We have the power of territory and of seacoast, and know the use of these. We count our census, we read our growing valuations, we survey our map, which becomes old in a year or two. Our eyes run approvingly along the lengthened lines of railroad and telegraph. We have gone nearest to the Pole. We have discovered the Antarctic continent. We interfere in Central and South America, at Canton and in Japan; we are adding to an already…

Old Age

June 18, 2023

ONCE more,’ the old man cried, ye clouds,Airy turrets purple-piled,Which once my infancy beguiled,Beguile me with the wonted spell.I know ye skilful to convoyThe total freight of hope and joyInto rude and homely nooks,Shed mocking lustres on shelf of books,On farmer’s byre, on pasture rude,And stony pathway to the wood.I care not if the pomps you showBe what they soothfast appear,Or if von realms in sunset glowBe bubbles of the atmosphere.And if it be to you allowedTo fool me with a shining cloud,So only new griefs are consoledBy new delights, as old by old,Frankly I will be your guest,Count your change and cheer the best.The world bath overmuch of pain,…

Domestic Life

April 29, 2023

I REACHED the middle of the mountUp which the incarnate soul must climb,And paused for them, and looked around,With me who walked through space and time.Five rosy boys with morning lightHad leaped from one fair mother’s arms,Fronted the sun with hope as bright,And greeted God with childhood’s psalms. Thou shalt make thy houseThe temple of a nation’s vows.Spirits of a higher strainWho sought thee once shall seek again.I detected many a godForth already on the road,Ancestors of beauty comeIn thy breast to make a home. DOMESTIC LIFE THE perfection of the providence for child-hood is easily acknowledged. The care which covers the seed of the tree under tough husks and…

Eloquence

April 19, 2023

For whom the Muses smile upon,And touch with soft persuasion,His words, like a storm-wind, can bringTerror and beauty on their wing;In his every syllableLurketh nature veritable;And though he speak in midnight dark, –In heaven no star, on earth no spark, –Yet before the listener’s eyeSwims the world in ecstasy,The forest waves, the morning breaks,The pastures sleep, ripple the lakes,Leaves twinkle, flowers like persons beAnd life pulsates in rock or tree. ELOQUENCE IT is the doctrine of the popular music-masters that whoever can speak can sing. So probably every man is eloquent once in his life. Our temperaments differ in capacity of heat, or, we boil at different degrees. One man…

Dive into Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”: Insights, Analysis, and Discussion

February 9, 2023
Emerson‘s “Self-Reliance”

“Self-Reliance” was published five years after Nature; do you see any development in Emerson’s thought during that period, or does “Self-Reliance” just recapitulate the ideas of Nature? You might look for passages in “Self-Reliance” that seem to echo Nature, and think about whether they offer “new ideas” compared to the earlier formulation.

Clubs

July 24, 2022

YET Saadi loved the race of men, –No churl, immured in cave or den;In bower and hallHe wants them all; But he has no companion;Come ten, or come a million, Good Saadi dwells alone . Too long shut in strait and few,Thinly dieted on dew,I will use the world, and sift it,To a thousand humors shift it. CLUBS WE are delicate machines, and require nice treatment to get from us the maximum of power and pleasure. We need tonics, but must have those that cost little or no reaction. The flame of life burns too fast in pure oxygen, and Nature has tempered the air with nitrogen. So thought is the native air of…

Courage

July 23, 2022

So nigh is grandeur to our dust,So near is God to man,When Duty whispers low, Thou must,The youth replies, I can. PERIL around, all else appalling,Cannon in front and leaden rain,Him duty, through the clarion callingTo the van, called not in vain. COURAGE I OBSERVE that there are three qualities which conspicuously attract the wonder and reverence of mankind : – 1. Disinterestedness, as shown in indifference to the ordinary bribes and influences of conduct, – a purpose so sincere and generous that it cannot be tempted aside by any prospects of wealth or other private advantage. Self-love is, in almost all men, such an over-weight, that they are incredulous…