The 19th century was a time of vast change for the entire world, from the birth of electronics to the publishing of On the Origin of Species to the rapid expansion of the world powers. It is, perhaps, no wonder that it is also at this time of great, and sometimes terrible, human feats that a movement began that defied human imperialism over other humans and over nature itself, thus was the birth of Transcendentalism. This was a movement started in on the east coast of the United States, primarily in Massachusetts, that sought to uplift the individual and nature above the artificial institutions that corrupt the purity of humanity and, by extension, nature itself. Though not opposed to community, Transcendentalists promoted independence of self and solitude in nature as a way to return to human’s purest form. Transcendentalists also rejected old world intellectual elitism, instead believing that wisdom and knowledge was a more democratic in nature. Although not opposed to new scientific research being presented, Transcendentalists opposed objective empiricism as it puts limits on nature, instead relying on science tempered by intuition. All of these traits are clearly seen in the form of Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the leaders of this movement (Ahlstrom, 29-68).
Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1803 into a family of Unitarian clergymen. He followed in the footsteps of his father and eventually went to Harvard Divinity School where he received his college education. Emerson then became a pastor and it is at this point in his life that he began to shift in his conservative beliefs and begins to doubt his once unshaken faith, particularly after the death of his wife. He resigned due to these events and toured Europe for a time before returning to Massachusetts and starting the Transcendental Club in the early 1830’s. Emerson truly began to blossom as an intellectual after anonymously publishing his first essay, Nature, and later giving his first lecture. It is in the spoken and written word that Emerson came into his own and started to experience life outside of the social bubble of Bostonian academic elite. Later, he started on a lecture circuit where he would develop as a speaker, writer, and scholar. It is through his time in this circuit that Emerson embraces the diversity of people that make up America and thus, arguably, become the exemplar of American literature and scholasticism. In his sixth essay titled, just as his first, Nature, that all of Emerson’s experiences and development into a Transcendental scholar and poet comes into fruition (Holmes, “Introduction”).
Nature is an amalgamation of Emerson’s past experience, particularly his tenure as a writer and pastor. Though not a poem, Nature is wrought with poetic language. The most notable poetic style seen in this work is alliteration and assonance. In the second paragraph of this essay we see these used countless times including, though not limited to, “preserving to each crystal its perfect form”, “make friends with matter, which the ambitious chatter of the schools”, and “nestle in nature” (Emerson, 1-2). This use of poetic language has a twofold purpose, one more philosophical and another more analytical. Philosophically, Emerson saw nature as sublime, beautiful yet powerful, and as such, he believed that too often it was simplified or contained by humans. As Emerson put it, “This is the meaning of their hanging-gardens, villas, garden-houses, islands, parks, and preserves, to back their faulty personality with these strong accessories” (Emerson, 2). People, in particular the rich and powerful, put nature in chains and cages to use as accessories to show off their supposed power over nature; however, ultimately this is faulty and nature is still all-powerful. The alliteration and assonance are used to show Emerson is a poet, someone who tries to embrace nature in an authentic fashion, as the poet’s, “hunting of the picturesque is inseparable from our protest against false society” (Emerson, 3). Analytically, the use of alliteration and assonance embodies the consistency and cyclical nature of nature. As Eduardo Cadava puts it in his book Emerson and the Climates of History, “Like the weather, whose cyclical and repetitive character is joined always to its unpredictability and constant alteration, his [Emerson’s] language works to trace the permanency of the infinite variability that makes nature nature” (Cadava, 2). Just as his poetic and writing experiences went into the creation of Nature, so to did his experiences as a pastor.
The fifth paragraph of Nature perfectly illustrates Emerson as a pastor as it says, “Efficient Nature, natura naturans, the quick cause, before which all forms flee as the driven snows, itself secret, its works driven before it in flocks and multitudes, (as the ancient represented nature by Proteus, a shepherd,)” (Emerson, 3). This clearly describes natura naturans as a God-like entity by saying, “before which all forms flee”, just as Adam and Eve had to flee from God in their shame. Furthermore, the terms “flocks” and “multitudes” are both common phrases in the Bible when referring to the works of God and his Son, additionally supported by the mentioning of the shepherd, though it is also an allusion to Proteus. Emerson also uses two declarative statements, one after the other, in the fifth paragraph, “Man is fallen; Nature is erect”, which also is Biblical in nature (Emerson, 3). This use of simplistic declarative statements is most notably used in Revelations, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (King Lames Bible, Rev. 22:13). Furthermore, the idea of Man as fallen is at the core of Biblical teachings, the original sin, thus further proving the Biblical nature of this quote.
Emerson is the exemplar of Transcendentalism, in that he is a true individual who takes the lessons of his past to fuel his development as a scholar of democratic inclusion and respect for nature, rather than the elitist intellectuals of the 19th century who used exclusionary tactics to control scholasticism and restrain nature for their own frivolity. Through use of his writing talents, in particular poetry, and pastoral knowledge, Emerson’s Nature is a work that can be read and understood by all, but breeds an academic need to delve deeper through poetic language and allusion, thus satisfying the common man and the academically driven. This “democratic learning”, as Peter S. Field puts it in his article “The Transformation of Genius into Practical Power”, further confirms that Emerson is not only an exemplar of the Transcendental movement, but of American literature and scholasticism.
Works Cited
Ahlstrom, Sydney E. "Ralph Waldo Emerson And The American Transcendentalists." Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West (n.d.): 29-68. Web.
Cadava, Eduardo. Emerson and the Climates of History. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1997. Print.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Essay VI Nature." The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. N.p., 19 Dec. 2004. Web. 01 July 2016.
Field, Peter S. ""The Transformation of Genius into Practical Power": Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Public Lecture." Journal of the Early Republic 21.3 (2001): 467. Web.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston, NY: Houghton, Mifflin, 1885. Print.
King James Bible. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Porte, Joel, and Saundra Morris. The Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.
Scheese, Don. Nature Writing: The Pastoral Impulse in America. New York: Twayne, 1996. Print.
