Emerson was part of the Romantic Movement in America• Attended Harvard &
became a minister –8 generations
• Met English Romantic poets Wordsworth & Coleridge on a trip to Europe
• Found that he no longer believed some of the central doctrines of his faith
• Became a successful public lecturer and one of America’s most respected writers
His American Perspective Denied the Importance of the
Past
• Emerson believed that the Focus should be on:–Humanity–Inspiration in Nature
A Lover of Nature:
• . . . Is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other
• . . . Who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood
• In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows
• Experiences exhilaration in nature
When all egotism vanishes . . . “I become a transparent eyeball. I
am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being run through me; I am part or particle of God.”
Personification
“. . .it is the suggestion of the occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.”
Emerson urged people to place their TRUST in THEMSELVES and
their Intuition rather than in society and tradition
What about Emerson’s definition of Great People?
1.Great people are misunderstood.2.They accept their circumstances and
know their own power.3.They express their divine natures
completely.4.They contradict themselves.5.They refuse to conform to society.