Ralph Waldo Emerson Properly Acknowledged 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 the answers within himself and rebounded into a mature man.

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.