TRANCENDENTALISM

“To Be Great is to Be Misunderstood”

“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 he hears.” -Henry David Thoreau

Religion Sparks Reform

• During the 1820s and 1830s Americans attended revivals and joined churches in record numbers.

• This religious movement was called the Second Great Awakening.

• Many preachers preached that through dedication and hard work people could create a kind of heaven on earth.

• Across the country, tens of thousands of Americans became determined to reform, or reshape, American life. Charles Grandison Finney

(1792–1875), 1834

At huge, daylong encampments, repentant sinners dedicated themselves to lives of personal rectitude and social reform. Fire-and-brimstone preachers like the one depicted here inspired convulsions, speaking in tongues, and ecstatic singing and dancing among the converted. Out of this religious upheaval grew many of the movements for social improvement in the pre– Civil War decades, including the abolitionist crusade.

Religious Camp Meeting, by J. Maze Burbank, 1839

Reform Era

The Second Great Awakening helped launch the Reform Era.

From 1830 until 1860, many Americans attempted to reshape American society.

They were called reformers.

The Second Great AwakeningThe Second Great Awakening

“Spiritual Reform From Within”

[Religious Revivalism]

Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality

Temperance

Asylum &Penal

Reform

Education

Women’s Rights

Abolitionism

Temperance Movement

• One of the main goals of the temperance movement reformers was to reduce the use of alcoholic beverages.

• Reformers wrote books, plays, and songs about the

evils of alcohol, which they linked to sickness, poverty, and the breakup of families.

• In 1851 reformers persuaded legislators in the state of Maine to outlaw alcohol.

• Over the next several years, some 12 states followed suit.

Education Reform• Education reformers organized themselves and began

the common-school movement to extend and improve public schools.

• The greatest school reformer of the Reform Era was Horace Mann, who advocated a new, highly organized approach to education.

• Education reform did nothing to help Native American children or African American children.

• Mann’s school-reform efforts laid the groundwork for education in the United States to the present day.

The Country School, by Winslow Homer, 1871

Stark and simple by latter-day standards, the one-room schoolhouse nevertheless contributed richly to the development of the young Republic.

The Women Graduates of the Oberlin College Class of 1855

Oberlin was the first coeducational institution of higher education in the United States, accepting women in 1837, two years after it had welcomed African Americans. By 1872 ninety-seven American universities accepted women. At some of these institutions, however, women were educated in associated schools, not alongside male students.

Women Planting Corn, by Olof Krans, 1894–1896

The Shakers’ emphasis on simplicity and ingenuity, and their segregation of the sexes, were captured in this painting of the Bishop Hill community in Illinois. The prongs on the poles measured the distance between rows, and the knots on the rope showed the women how far apart to plant the corn.

Reforming Prisons• Dorothea Dix was a reformer who campaigned for humane

treatment of prisoners and the mentally ill.

• Moved by Dix’s plea, the Massachusetts legislature created state-supported institutions to house and treat mentally ill people separate from criminals.

• Dix and her supporters convinced other state governments to create similar institutions.

• Before Dix began her work, there were no professional treatment centers in the United States for the mentally ill.

• By the time of her death, more than 100 such institutions were built across the country.

The Stepping Mill, Auburn Prison, New York, 1823

Reformers like Dorothea Dix believed that idleness was a scourge and prescribed rigorous exercise regimens for prisoners. At the experimental prison in Auburn, chained prisoners were obliged to turn this wheel for long periods of time.

Transcendentalism and Utopianism• Thoreau held that people should act according to their

own beliefs, even if they had to break the law.

• Another reform movement of this era was the utopian movement.

• Some reformers believed in creating new communities that would be free of social ills.

• These communities became known as utopian communities, after the word utopia, which means “a perfect society.”

What is Transcendentalism? A loose collection of

eclectic (various sources) ideas about literature, philosophy, religion, social reform, and the general state of American culture that flourished during the middle 19th Century (1836 – 1860).

Transcendentalism had different meanings for each person involved in the movement.

The OversoulThe Oversoul

NatureGod

Individual

““In the faces of men and women I see God” In the faces of men and women I see God” – Walt Whitman– Walt Whitman

““The groves were God’s first temples” The groves were God’s first temples” – – William Cullen BryantWilliam Cullen Bryant

Not a Religion

Nineteenth Century American Transcendentalism is not a religion (in the traditional sense of the word); it is a pragmatic philosophy, a state of mind, and a form of spirituality.

It is not a religion because it does not adhere to the three concepts common in major religions: a. a belief in a God; b. a belief in an afterlife (dualism); and c. a belief that this life has consequences on the next

(if you're good in this life, you go to heaven in the next, etc.).

Transcendentalism does not reject an afterlife, but its emphasis is on this life.

Developed in New England 1830s

Most of the inspiration for this movement came from Unitarian ministers, who believed that the spirit had gone out of the churches and that religion needed a new vision.

The proponents claimed that the invisible spirit is the true reality, and held that each person is an extension of a universal spirit, or “over-soul,” that speaks through them in a unique and creative way.

They defended the right of each individual to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience instead of established religious authority.

Core Beliefs of Transcendentalism Finding its root in the word

“transcend,” Transcendentalists believed individuals could transcend to a higher being of existence in nature.

God is located in the soul of each individual.

Humanity’s potential is limitless.

Experience is valued over scholarship.

Where did it come from? Ralph Waldo Emerson gave

German philosopher Immanuel Kant credit for popularizing the term “transcendentalism.”

It is not a religion—more accurately, it is a philosophy or form of spirituality.

It centered around Boston and Concord, MA. in the mid-1800’s.

Emerson first expressed his philosophy of transcendentalism in his essay Nature.

The Big Three: Ralph Waldo

Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller.

TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS

INDIVIDUALISM: be true to one’s own inner

perception or intuition

If I know it is truth, then it is truth.

Self-realization through Self-reliance

The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization

Emerson and the Transcendentalists led the search for truth

- in nature

- through self-reliance

TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS

OPTIMISTIC: all is good

evil is an illusion

TRANSCENDENTAL BELIEFS UNLIMITED POTENTIAL OF EACH

INDIVIDUAL set high goals to improve

NATURE IS TRUTH it can be a guide to higher understanding

Nature symbolizes God or the inner life of human beings

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803-1882 Unitarian minister Poet and essayist Founded the

Transcendental Club Popular lecturer Banned from Harvard for

40 years following his Divinity School address

Supporter of abolitionism

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Public lecturing provided a way for Emerson to put his ideas before a larger audience than his readers and to support his family. His philosophical observations included such statements as “The less government we have, the better—the fewer laws, and the less confided power”; “To be great is to be misunderstood”; “Every hero becomes a bore at last”; “Shallow men believe in luck”; and “When you strike a king, you must kill him.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;…The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance,"Essays, First Series, 1841.

Ralph Waldo Emerson “Man the Reformer” (January

25, 1841)

In September 1835, Emerson founded the Transcendental Club with notables like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Hoar and Margaret Fuller

In 1840, Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and George Ripley founded the magazine, The Dial, with Margaret Fuller editing

The Dial became the leading mouthpiece for the transcendental movement

Emerson, its editor for two years, began publishing his poems and essays in the magazine

By the 1840s, Emerson became recognized as the leader of the Transcendental movement

In addition to his writings, Emerson made a living as a popular lecturer in New England

Emphasized self-reliance and nonconformity, he championed authentic American literature, and insisted that each individual find their own relation to GodEmerson LecturingEmerson Lecturing

Emerson’s Transparent Eyeball

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befal me in life-–no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, —all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am particle of God.

—Emerson, Nature (p. 884)

Man as a Reformer

“. . . man as a reformer. . . our life . . . is common and mean . . . yet . . . each person . . . has felt his own call to cast aside all evil customs . . . and to be in his place a free and helpful man, a reformer, a benefactor, not content to slip along through the world like a footman or a spy . . . but a brave and upright man, who must find or cut a straight road to everything excellent in the earth, and not only go honorably himself, but make it easier for all who follow him, to go in honor and with benefit”

Concord Hymn Sung at the Completion of the Battle

MonumentApril 19, 1836 

BY the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set to-day a votive stone; That memory may their deed redeem,   When, like our sires, our sons are gone. 

Spirit, that made those heroes dare   To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare   The shaft we raise to them and thee.

  

Ralph Waldo Emerson “The Transcendentalist” (January 1842)

Emerson developed a distinctly American strand of philosophy that emphasized optimism, individuality, and mysticism

In religious matters, Emerson rejected the belief in a personal God and developed non-traditional ideas of soul and God

He asserted in the essential unity of all thoughts, persons, and things in the divine whole

He asserted that, in the individual, all truth can be discovered

He emphasized individualism and each person's quest to break free from the trappings of the world of the senses in order to discover the godliness of the inner Self

He also stressed self-reliance and independence and his emphasis on non-conformity profoundly effected Henry David Thoreau

Nature was also essential to Transcendentalism According to Emerson, what is beyond nature is revealed

through nature; nature is itself a symbol, or an indication of a deeper reality

“The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy . . . the spiritual measure of inspiration is the depth of the thought . . . so he resists all attempts to palm other rules and measures on the spirit than its own”

Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The Tragic” (1844)

In this essay Emerson outlines the tragic elements of human life

According to Emerson, people should accept the fact that life contains pain, disappointment and frustration

Yet it is possible to obtain happiness despite life’s tragic moments

For Emerson, the development of personal conscience yields perspective and ultimately personal contentment

“He has seen but half the universe who never has been shown the House of Pain. As the salt sea covers more than two thirds of the surface of the globe, so sorrow encroaches in man on felicity . . . the prevalent hue of things to the eye of leisure is melancholy. . . Melancholy cleaves to the English mind in both hemispheres . . . no theory of life can have any right, which leaves out of account the values of vice, pain, disease, poverty, insecurity, disunion, fear, and death.”

Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau

1817-1862 - Schoolteacher, essayist, poet Most famous for Walden and Civil Disobedience Influenced environmental movement Supporter of abolitionism I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow

of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, 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… Henry David Thoreau,"Where I Lived, and What I Lived for,“ from Walden; or, Life in the Woods

Meet it and Live it!! 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 faultfinder will find fault even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.” Henry David Thoreau.

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 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, to 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 Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, 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 to be able to give a true account of it. ” Henry David Thoreau.

Walden, Journal Entry

April 24. Nothing must be postponed. Take time by the forelock. Now or never! You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. Thee is no other land; there is not other life but this, or the like of this. Where the good husbandman is, there is the good soil. Take any other course, and life will be a succession of regrets. Let us see vessels sailing prosperously before the wind, and not simply stranded barks. There is no world for the penitent and regretful.

Henry David Thoreau “Civil Disobedience” (1849) Although he could never make a living from his writings,

Thoreau’s work now comprises over 20 volumes His writing is rich and complex and intended to nudge

readers to reconsider the beliefs that make up their lives Politically, Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist

He opposed the U.S government’s war against Mexico, which he believed was merely a ruse to extend slavery

In 1846, Thoreau was imprisoned after he refused to pay taxes in protest against the Mexican War

Consequently, he wrote “Civil Disobedience” where he justified nonviolent resistance to the government out of moral principles

For him, morality was more important than society’s laws at any given time and political institutions should be considered with skepticism

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

Henry David Thoreau: Walden (1854) From 1845-1847, Thoreau embarked on a two-

year experiment in simple living by living in an isolated log cabin on land owned by Emerson

His intent was to isolate himself from society in order to reexamine its values and practices and his role within it

In 1854, Thoreau published an account of this period entitled “Walden,” which became one of the great classics of American literature; indeed of world literature

It offers a social critique of the West with its emphasis on consumerism and its widespread destruction of the natural environment

The book invites one to the examine one’s life and to the realization of one's potential

Walden PondWalden PondA Modern Replica of Thoreau’s Walden A Modern Replica of Thoreau’s Walden

CabinCabin

Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau

WaldenWalden“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. “

““It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’” – Ralph Waldo Emerson‘Always do what you are afraid to do.’” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

““Speak what you think now in Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said contradict every thing you said today. – ‘Ah, so you shall be today. – ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.” – sure to be misunderstood.” – Is it so bad then to be Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. ever took flesh. To be great is To be great is to be misunderstoodto be misunderstood.”.”

The Oxbow – Thomaas Cole This rendering of the oxbow of the Connecticut

River near Northampton, Massachusetts, after a thunderstorm is considered one of Cole’s (1801–1848) masterpieces. A leader of the so-called Hudson River school, Cole wandered on foot over the mountains and rivers of New York State and New Eng land, making pencil studies from which he painted in his studio during the winter. He and other members of this group transformed their realistic sketches into lyrical, romantic celebrations of the beauty of the American wilderness.

“ “It is true, I fear that others may have fallen It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The into it, and so helped to keep it open. The

surface of the earth is soft and impressible by surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep must be the highways of the world, how deep

the ruts of tradition and conformity.” the ruts of tradition and conformity.”

““Civil Civil

DisobedienceDisobedience”” Thoreau’s essay Thoreau’s essay

urging passive, urging passive, nonviolent nonviolent resistance to resistance to governmental governmental policies to policies to which an which an individual is individual is morally morally opposed opposed

Influenced Influenced individuals such individuals such as Gandhi, Dr. as Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther Martin Luther King Jr. & Cesar King Jr. & Cesar ChavezChavez

Tiananmen Square, China June 7th, 1989

““That government is best which That government is best which governs least…That government is governs least…That government is best which governs not at all.” best which governs not at all.”

““I ask for, not at once no government, I ask for, not at once no government, but but at onceat once a better government.” a better government.”

““I cannot for an instant recognize that I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as political organization as mymy government which is the government which is the slave’sslave’s government also.”government also.”

““Civil Disobedience”Civil Disobedience”

““Under a government Under a government which imprisons any which imprisons any

unjustly, the true place unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a for a just man is also a prison…It is there that prison…It is there that the fugitive slave, and the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner the Mexican prisoner

on parole, and the on parole, and the Indian come to plead Indian come to plead

the wrongs of the race the wrongs of the race should find them..”should find them..”

““If a thousand men If a thousand men were not to pay were not to pay

their tax-bills this their tax-bills this year, that would year, that would

not be a violent and not be a violent and bloody measure, as bloody measure, as it would be to pay it would be to pay them, and enable them, and enable

the State to commit the State to commit violence and shed violence and shed innocent blood. innocent blood.

This is, in fact, the This is, in fact, the definition of a definition of a

peaceable peaceable revolution…”revolution…”

Amos Bronson Alcott

1799-1888 Teacher and writer Introduced art, music, P.E., nature

study, and field trips; banished corporal punishment

Father of novelist Louisa May Alcott

One of Alcott’s most well known works is his “General Maxims” for teachers.

Alcott was among the first to assign a great measure of respect and dignity to this profession, and he attempted many practices which today would be considered quite commonplace, but in his time were deemed deranged and dangerous.

Bronson Alcott's Maxims on Education (1826-1827) Amos Bronson Alcott: teacher and writer

Attempted to embody his ideals In his schools he introduced art, music, nature study,

field trips, and physical education into the curriculum, while banishing corporal punishment

He encouraged children to ask questions and taught through dialogue and example

Founded a Utopian community, Fruitlands, in Harvard, Massachusetts, which only lasted a short time

In 1826-1827, Alcott wrote General Maxims for teachers

His maxims represent cautions and advice to teachers as to their role in and influence upon young minds in the classroom

They display Alcott's love for and devotion to children, and his belief in the ability of children to think for themselves

“21. To teach, gradually and understandingly, by the shortest steps, from the more easy and known, to the more difficult and unknown”

“26. To teach, by simple and plain unambiguous language”

“37. To teach, endeavoring to make pupils feel their importance by the hope which mankind placed in their conduct”

“52. To teach, pupils to teach themselves” Attempted many practices which today would be

considered commonplace, but in his time were seen as dangerous

Amos Bronson AlcottAmos Bronson Alcott

The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence.

The fifty-eight maxims are gentle cautions and words of counsel to teachers as to their influence upon the young minds under their care and affirm his strong belief in their ability to think for themselves.

12. To teach, awed by the clamors of ignorance, yet governed by the dictates of wisdom

21. To teach, gradually and understandingly, by the shortest steps, from the more easy and known, to the more difficult and unknown

43. To teach, with animation and interest

Orchard House

45. To teach, treating pupils with uniform familiarity, and patience, and with the greatest kindness, tenderness and respect

53. To teach, by intermingling Questions with instruction

Margaret Fuller

1810-1850 Journalist, critic, women’s

rights activist First editor of The Dial, a

transcendental journal First female journalist to

work on a major newspaper—The New York Tribune

Taught at Alcott’s Temple School

Margaret Fuller “The Great Lawsuit: Man vs. Men. Woman vs.

Women” (July 1843) A compelling case for women's

equality “. . . If the negro be a soul, if the woman

be a soul, appareled in flesh, to one master only are they accountable. There is but one law for all souls, and, if there is to be an interpreter of it, he comes not as man, or son of man, but as Son of God”

In 1846, Fuller became a foreign correspondent for the Tribune and traveled to Europe

In Italy, she became involved with revolutionaries and decided not to return to America for a while

She fell in love with Marchese Giovanni Angelo d'Ossoli, a much younger man of the petty nobility and a fellow revolutionary

She participated in the Revolution of 1848 After the revolt was suppressed by

conservative forces, she, Ossoli and their son decided to return to America in May of 1850

Tragically, the ship they were traveling on struck a sandbar and slowly sank just off Fire Island New York

Fuller, Ossoli, and their son drowned

Margaret FullerMargaret Fuller

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), 1856In search of independence

for herself and financial security for her family, Alcott worked as a seamstress, governess, teacher, and housemaid until her writing finally brought her success. Her much-loved, largely autobiographical novel Little Women has remained in print continuously from 1868 until our own day.

Under the Chestnut Tree

Under a spreading chestnut tree,The village smithy stands;The smith, a mighty man is he,With large and sinewy hands;And the muscles of his brawny armsAre strong as iron bands.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Village Blacksmith," published 1841 in Ballads and Other Poems.

Midnight Ride of Paul Revere Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry archOf the North Church tower as a signal light,--One if by land, and two if by sea;And I on the opposite shore will be,Ready to ride and spread the alarmThrough every Middlesex village and farm,For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oarSilently rowed to the Charlestown shore,Just as the moon rose over the bay,Where swinging wide at her moorings layThe Somerset, British man-of-war;A phantom ship, with each mast and sparAcross the moon like a prison bar,And a huge black hulk, that was magnifiedBy its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and streetWanders and watches, with eager ears,Till in the silence around him he hearsThe muster of men at the barrack door,The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,And the measured tread of the grenadiers,Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,To the belfry chamber overhead,And startled the pigeons from their perchOn the sombre rafters, that round him madeMasses and moving shapes of shade,--By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,To the highest window in the wall,Where he paused to listen and look downA moment on the roofs of the townAnd the moonlight flowing over all.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,It was two by the village clock,When he came to the bridge in Concord town.He heard the bleating of the flock,And the twitter of birds among the trees,And felt the breath of the morning breezeBlowing over the meadow brown.And one was safe and asleep in his bedWho at the bridge would be first to fall,Who that day would be lying dead,Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have readHow the British Regulars fired and fled,---How the farmers gave them ball for ball,From behind each fence and farmyard wall,Chasing the redcoats down the lane,Then crossing the fields to emerge againUnder the trees at the turn of the road,And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;And so through the night went his cry of alarmTo every Middlesex village and farm,---A cry of defiance, and not of fear,A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,And a word that shall echo for evermore!For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,Through all our history, to the last,In the hour of darkness and peril and need,The people will waken and listen to hearThe hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Walt Whitman (1819–1892), ca. 1860

Whitman’s love affair with America and the American people inspired later poets such as Allen Ginsberg, and “Whitmanesque” came to describe any poetry that celebrates the possibilities of American life and unbridled personal freedom.

WHITMAN 1840

I Hear America Singing

I HEAR America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;         5The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day—At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.

A Quiet Recluse

    HEART, we will forget him! You and I, to-night! You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.   When you have done, pray tell me, That I my thoughts may dim; Haste! lest while you're lagging, I may remember him!

Because I could not stop for Death

Because I could not stop for Death,He kindly stopped for me;The carriage held but just ourselvesAnd Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put awayMy labor, and my leisure too,For his civility.

We passed the school, where children stroveAt recess, in the ring;We passed the fields of gazing grain,We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;The dews grew quivering and chill,For only gossamer my gown,My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemedA swelling of the ground;The roof was scarcely visible,The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet eachFeels shorter than the dayI first surmised the horses' headsWere toward eternity.

Dwell in Possibility

I dwell in Possibility-- A fairer House than Prose-- More numerous of Windows-- Superior--for Doors--

Of Chambers as the Cedars-- Impregnable of Eye-- And for an Everlasting Roof The Gambrels of the Sky--

Of Visitors--the fairest-- For Occupation--This-- The spreading wide my narrow Hands To gather Paradise--

I’m Nobody!

I'm nobody! Who are you?Are you nobody, too?Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!They'd banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody!How public, like a frogTo tell your name the livelong dayTo an admiring bog!

Herman Melville

American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet who is often classified as part of dark romanticism. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and novella Billy Budd, the latter which was published posthumously.

Capturing a Sperm Whale, painted by William Page from a sketch by C. B. Hulsart, 1835

This painting and Melville’s Moby Dick vividly portray the hazards of whaling. Despite the dangers, it proved to be an important industry from colonial times to the end of the nineteenth century

Call me Ishmael Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind

how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Song of Hiawatha XXII. Hiawatha's Departure By the shore of Gitche Gumee,

By the shining Big-Sea-Water,At the doorway of his wigwam,In the pleasant Summer morning,Hiawatha stood and waited.All the air was full of freshness,All the earth was bright and joyous,And before him, through the sunshine,Westward toward the neighboring forestPassed in golden swarms the Ahmo,Passed the bees, the honey-makers,Burning, singing In the sunshine.        Bright above him shone the heavens,Level spread the lake before him;From its bosom leaped the sturgeon,Sparkling, flashing in the sunshine;On its margin the great forestStood reflected in the water,Every tree-top had its shadow,Motionless beneath the water.    

    From the brow of HiawathaGone was every trace of sorrow,As the fog from off the water,As the mist from off the meadow.With a smile of joy and triumph,With a look of exultation,As of one who in a visionSees what is to be, but is not,Stood and waited Hiawatha.        Toward the sun his hands were lifted,Both the palms spread out against it,And between the parted fingersFell the sunshine on his features,Flecked with light his naked shoulders,As it falls and flecks an oak-treeThrough the rifted leaves and branches

John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) An influential American Quaker poet and ardent

advocate of the abolition of slavery Telling the Bees THERE is the place; right over the hill Runs the path I took; You can see the gap in the old wall still, And the stepping-stones in the shallow brook. There is the house, with the gate red-barred, And the poplars tall; And the barn's brown length, and the cattle-yard, And the white horns tossing above the wall. There are the beehives ranged in the sun; And down by the brink Of the brook are her poor flowers, weed-o'errun, Pansy and daffodil, rose and pink.

Edgar Allen Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber doorOnly this, and nothing more."

Deep into that darkness peering

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream beforeBut the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Their pursuit of the ideal led to a distorted view of humannature and possibilities: * The Blithedale Romance

A Transcendentalist Critic:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-

1864)

A Transcendentalist Critic:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-

1864)

One should accept the world as an imperfect place: * Scarlet Letter * House of the Seven Gables

Separate Spheres Concept

Separate Spheres Concept“Cult of

Domesticity” A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (it was arefuge from the cruel world outside).

Her role was to “civilize” her husband andfamily.

An 1830s MA minister:The power of woman is her dependence. A woman who gives up that dependence on man to become a reformer yields the power God has given her for her protection, and her character becomes unnatural!

What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own

Way!

What It Would Be Like If Ladies Had Their Own

Way!

R2-8