R.W. Emerson

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Ralph Waldo Emerson 
(1803 - 1882) 

 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer and poet who led the Transcendentalism 
Movement of Mid-19 century. 
  •  He expressed the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay 'Nature'. Following this ground breaking work he gave a speech entitled “The American Scholar” in 1837, which Oliver Holmes Sr. considered to America’s “Intellectual Declaration of Independence”.
  •  His well-known essays are :
  1.  Self-Reliance
  2. The Over Soul
  3.  Circles 
  4.  The Poet and
  5.  Experience
  •  Emerson is one of the several figures who took a more pantheist or Pandeist approach by rejecting views of god as separate from World. When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was “ Infinitude of the Private Man ”
  • He is also known as a mentor and friend of fellow transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau.
  •  Emerson anonymously published his first essay Nature on 9 Sep 1838. 
  •  The transcendental group began to publish its flagship journal “The Dial” in 1840. 
  •  Emerson was introduced to Indian philosophy when reading the works of French Philosopher Victor Cousin.
  •  In 1845, Emerson’s journal shows, he was reading the Bhagvad Gita and Henry Thomas Colebrook’s Essay on Vedas.
  • He was strongly influenced by ‘Vedanta’.
  •  Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’ is a copy sent to Emerson for his opinion.
  •  In 1874, Emerson published an anthology of poetry called Parnassus.
  •  He is often known as one of the most liberal Democratic thinker of his time.
  •  Harold Bloom’s The American Religion repeatedly refers to Emerson as “The Prophet of American Religion”.

Important Works of Emerson

1. Essay: First Series(1841)

a. Self-Reliance
b. Compensation
c. Circles
d. The Over Soul.

2. Essay : Second Series (1844)

a. The Poet
b. Experience
c. Politics
d. Gifts
e. Manners
f. Characters
g. Nature

3. Nature, Addresses and lectures (1849)
4. Representative Men (1850): Collection of 7 lectures
5. The Conduct of Life
6. Nature (1836)
7. The American Scholar
8. New England Reformers

 Poetry

  • Conlord Hymn (Hymn : Sung at the completion of the concord Monument, Apr 19, 1836) 
  • The Rhodora
  •  Brahma
  •  Uriel
  •  The Snow-Storm
  •  A Nation’s Strength                                               Download Pdf

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