Transcendentalism By: Amaya Santamaria

-The “over soul” -In order to be in

harmony with nature, we must connect with nature on a spiritual level, with our deepest levels of intuition.

-Nature is a source of inspiration and goodness.

-The human mind can find the meaning and truths of nature.

Characteristics of Transcendental Literature

-If you are true to who you are, you do not have the potential to be less than good.-Individualism-The power of the mind and soul are equally available to all.-Society, because of its focus on material success, is often a source of corruption.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner,

Waldenfrom

and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to ‘glorify God and enjoy him forever.’”

from Walden- “I wished to live

deliberately”

- “front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach”

- to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it

< Thoreau wants to live life in truth.

<He wants to realize the fundamental truths of life, so he withdrew from society to live in the wilderness.

< This reflects the transcendental belief that the fundamental truths of life can only be realized by living true to oneself.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away…however mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is.”

from Walden

- “Perhaps it is because

he hears a different

drummer.”

- “However mean your life

is, meet it and live it.”

- “Love your life, poor as

it is.”

< Individualism and not mindlessly following the crowd. Nonconformity.

<No matter what, live life to the fullest.

<Even if you think you have a terrible life, you still have a life, and that itself is worth celebrating and loving.

from Walde

n

The Fireside Poets

-images and

appreciation of

nature

Transcendentalist

characteristic.

-easy to read and

understand: could be

read around the

fireplace and

understood by

everyone listening

THE SNOW had begun in the gloaming,  

 And busily all the night Had been heaping field and highway   With a silence deep and white.    Every pine and fir and hemlock           Wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm-tree   Was ridged inch deep with pearl.    From sheds new-roofed with Carrara  Came Chanticleer’s muffled crow,        The stiff rails softened to swan’s-down,

  And still fluttered down the snow.    I stood and watched by the window  The noiseless work of the sky,And the sudden flurries of snow-

birds,      Like brown leaves whirling by.   I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn

 Where a little headstone stood; How the flakes were folding it gently,   As did robins the babes in the

wood.       

Up spoke our own little Mabel,   Saying, “Father, who makes it snow?” And I told of the good All-father   Who cares for us here below.    Again I looked at the snow-fall,       And thought of the leaden sky That arched o’er our first great

sorrow,   When that mound was heaped so

high.    I remembered the gradual patience   That fell from that cloud like

snow,      Flake by flake, healing and hiding The scar that renewed our woe.  And again to the child I whispered,  “The snow that husheth all, Darling, the merciful Father        Alone can make it fall!”    Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed

her;  And she, kissing back, could not know That my kiss was given to her sister,  Folded close under deepening snow.

The First Snowfall

by James Russell Lowell

• image of the snow and other details

• appreciation shown in wording of the poem

• portrays nature as beautiful

• uses nature to apply to his own life

by James Russell Lowell

The First Snowfall

o “The virtue in most request is conformity”

o “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”

o “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your

own mind.”

o “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little

minds, adorned by little statesmen and

philosophers and divines.”

o “To be great is to be misunderstood.”

FromSelf-RelianceBy: Ralph Waldo Emerson

The quotes from “Self-Reliance” on the previous page

all demonstrate the individualistic aspect of

Transcendentalism.

The Transcendentalists held an appreciation for nature

primarily, but they also said that humans must be true

to themselves. Emerson is stating that conforming

and not being true to oneself makes it much more

difficult for one to be completely at harmony and

peace.

FromSelf-RelianceBy: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalism was a literary movement and set of

beliefs that held that the fundamental truths of life lie

outside of the sense of human experience and intuition.

Transcendentalist authors are clearly defined as such by

their focus on the purity and sublimity of nature and

stress on the importance of individualism.

Transcendentalists hold that all of these philosophies

can be discovered through nature.

In Conclusion…

“The First Snowfall”, James Russell Lowellhttp://www.bartleby.com/248/351.html

Resources

The Annotated Walden, Henry D. Thoreau.Edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, 1970. Marboro Books Corp.

Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes; The American Experience. Pearson Education, Inc. 2005.