The Best Example, Later Romantics (1840-1865) - Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Name: --------------------

Instructor Name: ----------------------

Subject: ----------------------

Date: ----/----/-----

 Introduction of the American Romantic Movement

It is a fact that American Romantic Movement was one of the major artistic and literary movements in American history, which made its mark on the American literature in so many ways. The earlier movements and revolutions had their own viewpoint and they made their own impact on the society. But Romantics movement was bit different from any other movements in American history. The beauty of this movement was that it turned its focus to individualism, where emotions were given more importance as compared to intellect. The movement also had the element of nature and emphasized in it through poetry as well as literature (Spiller). It has been observed that various poets and authors were involved in this movement, who made a great impact on literature with their writing and poetry. These people were most influential for the romantic period as well as later period of romantics also showed their effect, which they made through their efforts. One of such influential persons was Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was one of the leading people in this movement as he was one of the major authors, who worked for the Transcendental Movement ( Carbone II)

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of those authors, who had views different from many authors of the previous era, where literature was dominated by various other factors. He came with themes in literature, which supported the element of romanticism, individualism as well as emotional side of things, rather looking at any rational beliefs. He came with so many famous writing, which have been pivotal to the American literature in so many ways. One of his writings was named as “Self Reliance”. The idea behind this writing was to focus on individualism of a person. The major theme for the readers was to look for their inner will and desire for anything, rather adjusting their personality to the expectations laid by society. He believed that a person cannot grow sufficiently, if he is being affected by the adverse effects of his/her society. Emerson strongly believed that a person should emphasize on his/her own personality in every aspect of life

Every person do listen to the choice, which comes from his/her own though processes, rather looking for any intermediaries to dominate his/her thoughts. The inner voice should be listened carefully and it should not be ignored at all so that a person can be more independent and also can explore his/her personal value. This idea of individualism and self-reliance has stressed its focus on the fact that one’s own thinking should be based on his/her own will, and society should not impact his/her though process in any manner. It was very interesting to see this theme in Emerson’s literature because such idea asserts that a person should look for personal growth and societal growth should not be his/her priority. It means that people should not follow others blindly; rather they should use their intellect and trust in their own blaze & instincts to move forward in life. That’s why he supported the idea of Transcendentalism during that period ( Carbone II)

One more important piece of literature from the past is speech delivered by Emerson which is named as “The American Scholar” This speech comes with different themes for American scholars to follow so that they can become scholars, who believe in ideas, which are different from the past ideas given in the era of industrial revolution. There were three primary themes touched in this speech by Emerson, action, nature and the past. He strongly believed that a person should not separate himself from the nature; rather he should focus to develop a better relationship with the nature. Emerson also came with a view in this speech that a scholar must have a broad vision, which does not only look for the future, but it does make a connection with the past as well. A scholar must analyze past literature to come up with his/her own literature. Emerson talked about the idea of action, which meant that scholars should take benefit from the past experiences of the literature so that they can come up with a new view to take action and make viable decisions. The themes of this speech delivered by Emerson have an important place in the literature and it has provided scholars to work on their literature by keeping a good relationship with the nature. The Romantics’ period literature was very much influenced by these themes provided by Emerson (Goodman)

The earlier two pieces of literature from Emerson has been instrumental to American Romantic Movement and its literature. One more literature piece form the history of Emerson literature is his speech delivered to the Harvard Divinity School’s graduating class. His speech was influential for the students in so many ways as it talked about few themes, which have been vital to the literary efforts of Romantics period. The most important theme in this speech was the intimate relationship between God and the man. He talked about the man, nature as well as how God is making an impact on life. The unity of God was major focus in early part of his speech. It means that like many previous literature pieces, Emerson again stressed upon the importance of nature and God for the people. Emerson further added that inherited religion is meaningless for man; rather man should work on his own to develop his personal religion by making a persona relationship with God. This idea was one of the most influential ones in that period ( Gohdes)

References of Works Cited

Carbone II, Steven A. "American Transcendentalism and Analysis of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance"." INQUIRIES JOURNAL 2.11 (2010).

Gohdes, Clarence. "Some Remarks on Emerson's Divinity School Address." American Literature 1.1 (1929): 27-31.

Goodman, Russell B. . "Understanding Emerson: “The American Scholar” and His Struggle for Self-Reliance. By Kenneth S. Sacks and Emerson's Life in Science: The Culture of Truth. By Laura Dassow Walls." Journal of American History 91.1 (2004): 240–241.

Spiller, Robert E. . "Critical Standards in the American Romantic Movement." National Council of Teachers of English 8.7 (1947): 344-352.