Biography Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Essay, Research Paper
Ralph Waldo Emerson certainly took his place in the history of
American Literature . He lived in a time when romanticism was
becoming a way of thinking and beginning to bloom in America, the
time period known as The Romantic Age. Romantic thinking stressed on
human imagination and emotion rather than on basic facts and reason.
Ralph Waldo Emerson not only provided plenty of that, but he also
nourished it and inspired many other writers of that time. “His
influence can be found in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Herman
Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and Robert
Frost.”. No doubt, Ralph Waldo Emerson was an astute and intellectual
man who influenced American Literature and has rightly received the
credit that he deserves from historians. He has been depicted as a
leading figure in American thought and literature, or at least ranks
up there with the very best. But there is so much more to Ralph Waldo
Emerson when we consider the personal hardships that he had to endure
during the course of his life and when we see the type of man that he
becomes. He certainly was a man of inspiration who knew how to
express himself by writing the best of poems and philosophical ideas
with inspiration.
To get an idea of how Ralph Waldo Emerson might have become such
an inspiration to the people, some background on his life is
essential. Can you imagine living a life with all your loved ones
passing away one by one? A persons life could collapse into severe
depression, lose hope, and lose meaning. He can build a morbid
outlook on life. Ralph Waldo Emerson suffered these things. He was
born on May 25, 1803 and entered into a new world, a new nation just
beginning. Just about eight years later, his father would no longer
be with him, as William Emerson died in 1811. The Emerson family was
left to a life marked by poverty. Ralph’s mother, Ruth, was left as a
widow having to take care of five sons. However, Ralph’s life seemed
to carry on smoothly. He would end up attending Harvard College and
persue a job of teaching full time. While teaching as a junior pastor
of Boston’s Second Church, his life gained more meaning when he
married Ellen Louisa Tucker. Journal entries and love letters he
wrote at that time expressed lots of feelings and emotions that he
had. But after two short years of marriage, Ellen died of
tuberculosis. Suddenly, the one true person he had in his life was
gone. Life was losing it’s meaning, and Ralph Waldo Emerson was in
need of some answers. This dark period drove him to question his
beliefs. Emerson resigned from the Second Church and his profession
as a pastor in search for vital truth and hope. But his father and
wife were not the only deaths that he had to deal with. His strength
and endurance would be put to the test much further with a perennial
line of loved ones dying. His brother Edward, died in 1834, Charles
in 1836, and his son Waldo (from his second wife Lydia Jackson) in
1842. After such a traumatic life, you might expect that Emerson,
like any other person,would collapse into severe depression, lose
hope, and lose meaning to his life. But Emerson was different. He
found t
After surviving a mentally hard life, Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed
to gain more discernment toward life. Wisdom is gained through
experience. By 1835, Emerson’s rare and extravagant spirit was ready
to be unleashed. All his deep feelings, emotions, and thoughts
fabricated truth the way he arrived at truth, within himself. “To
believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in
your private heart is true for all men- that is genius. Speak your
latent conviction and it shall be the universal sense; for always the
inmost becomes the outmost-and our first thought is rendered back to
us by the trumpets of the last judgment.” Emerson fully believed this
and supported it by taking part in a new philosophical movement
called Transcendentalism. In 1836, his first boot, Nature, was
published. Nature expressed the main points of Transcendentalism.
With this, Ralph Waldo Emerson started the Transcendental Club the
same year. This club published a magazine called The Dial, fully
promulgating philosophy, literature, and Emerson’s truth fearlessly.
He was starting to gain recognition. The young were opening their
minds, and the old were impressed. Harvard was so impressed of him
that ther asked him to give several addresses. In 1837, he gave a
well-known address called “The American Scholar” in which he outlined
his philosophy of humanism. A year later, he gave another address,
called “The Divinity School Address.” This argued about Christianity
at that time for being too traditional and ritualistic in its ways.
These methods didn’t fill the people’s spiritual need. Emerson showed
his liking under a new religion founded by nature. Truly, by the
crowds that he drew, Emerson refreshed the minds, of people who were
thirsting for some truth. And who better to provide this than Emerson
himself, who, through many distresses, searched within himself and
became a man with life again.
This man, of inspiration, full of truth, goodness, and beauty
became a part of classic American literature. His expressions were
absorbed into some of the most exceptional essays, poems, and
philosophical ideas ever created. His famous essays
are “History,” “Art,” “The Poet,” and the famous “Self-Reliance.” He
gathered his essays into two volumes. The first was released in 1841,
and the second was released in 1844. Poems however, also made
Emerson’s reputation as a erudite man. His poems were enjoyable as
well as thought provoking to many. “Each and All,” was a poem that
supported his beliefs. “The Rhodora,” as well as “The Humble Bee,”
and “The Snow Storm,” touched on the greatness of nature. Emerson
also expressed himself through poems such as “Uriel,” “The
Problem,” “The Sphinx,” and the well-known “Days.” Many of these
works of Emerson have taken there place in the history of American
literature.
Thus, we now see what truly a great man Emerson was. We gain a
deep respect for him when we consider the hardships that he had to
face, how he endured those problems, and the minds that he opened and
touched by his wonderful works. In conclusion, we can truly say that
Emerson is well deserving of the credit he received from historians.