In the last stanza of part 1, the speaker refers to schools of thought that he has considered in the past and has now left behind. What does the last line suggest about his poetic creed, or system of belief?

Expert Answers

An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

The last line of this section refers to "nature without check with original energy." If you are familiar with other American poets of the nineteenth century, you may recognize this trend toward a belief in nature as having its own independence of spirit which should be trusted above all else—an innateness, and an intuitiveness, which should be relied upon, throwing aside the tendency to overthink and overcomplicate things. Ralph Waldo Emerson was also of this school of thought, which is usually called transcendentalism. The idea is that the trappings of "creeds" should be thrown aside because they make it difficult for people to connect with the world around them as nature intended. Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" focuses upon this concept and the idea that all people have in themselves the same instincts as other creatures in nature but that too much schooling has made them unable or unwilling to rely upon these instincts.

See eNotes Ad-Free

Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Approved by eNotes Editorial Team