Ralph Waldo Emerson Questions and Answers
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is Emerson asserting in this statement? "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy...
This quote comes from Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." In this essay, originally a speech given to college graduates, Emerson urges young people on the cusp of adult life to look inward rather than...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is the contribution of Ralph Waldo Emerson to American literature?
Emerson contributed to American literature by being at the forefront of bringing European—and particularly English—Romanticism to the United States under a particularly American guise called...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, why should people trust themselves?
In his essay, "Self-Reliance", Emerson says, "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." He says that people know themselves better than they know anyone else...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In paragraph 13 of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Education," where do examples of allusion, analogy, rhetorical...
Emerson uses various rhetorical devices, such as the ones you have mentioned, making him sound much more conversational than cerebral and philosophical. He wants his ideas to be accessible to...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In his essay "Education," explain the effect of at least five examples of figurative language that Emerson uses to...
Figurative language is language that goes beyond the literal meanings of words to create an enhanced effect. One example of figurative language Emerson uses in this essay is the following: the...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Within Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay titled, "The Poet," what are the references made to the crisis in the relationship...
In "The Poet," Emerson writes: For all men live by truth, and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. The...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Would Emerson's ideas about education be supported in elementary schools today? Why or why not? He believed children...
While Emerson would be pleased at elementary education's advancement, he would say there is more to do to create a system of formal elementary instruction that maximizes student choice. Emerson was...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why does Emerson criticize schools as bureaucratic institutions?
The great Transcendentalist who wrote Nature perceives in the bureaucracies of public school the "costly machinery against nature" in which the modes of education aim to save labor and expedite...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Summarize Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Address on the Fugitive Slave Law," delivered in May 1851.
American author, philosopher, and leader of the transcendentalist movement Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) presented his impassioned “Address on the Fugitive Slave Law” to the people of Concord,...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is an analysis of Emerson's poem "Sursum Corda"?
Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "Sursum Corda" is a short work that highlights the power of the Holy Spirit and its intents and comings and goings as the wind. The poem is one stanza of eleven lines....
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What are some examples of analogies that Ralph Waldo Emerson uses in his essay "Education"?
This is an essay in which Emerson presents his typically Transcendentalist views on education, arguing against the traditional education system and broadening the term in our thinking to encompass...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have you ever had an experience with nature that transported you as Emerson describe? If not , please discuss the...
Certainly there are many such incidents of discovering the beauty of nature in the everyday that I could quote, but I guess if I had to pick one, it would have to be when I climbed up a mountain in...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In Emerson's From Education metaphor "The college was to be the nurse and home of genius." There are two metaphors,...
I think you can extrapolate a lot of metaphors from "nurse." Two that I believe Emerson was going for are "to nurture" and "provide sustenance or entice." Emerson may have been describing schools...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What are the two things that are being compared (metaphor) in Emerson's, "to draw a new circle"?
Did you mean Emerson's essay, entitled "Circles"?In "Circles" Emerson compares the eye and horizon to circles with all of nature following this pattern: "The eye is the...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is the meaning of the poem "Poet" written by Ralph Emerson ?
"The Poet" by Emerson is a difficult essay to follow, without a doubt. It needs time and patience, best broken down paragraph by paragraph, to understand it. Emerson explains how the poet fits...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Discuss Emerson's style with reference to some of his essays.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Transcendentalist, felt that the self is an autonomous spirit which acts according to universal moral laws. Located in all objects, this spiritual self develops from...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson and Thoreau. Despite their different backgrounds and experiences, Emerson and Thoreau shared a number of...
For individualism and conformity, I would start with Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance” and Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.” You can find elements of individualism, nature and conformity in their other...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Compare "Self-Reliance" or Walden to Woman in the Nineteenth Century as regards the responsibilities of the...
Margaret Fuller, in Woman in the Nineteenth Century, advocated for the rights of people to whom they had been denied in US society, especially women but also enslaved African Americans. Feminism...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is the meaning of the poem "Nature" (e.g., symbolism, characteristics, deeper meanings)?
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote extensively on nature, to the extent that he wrote more than one work with this title. It seems you are here referring specifically to Emerson's poetic output rather than...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Identify examples of imperative sentences in paragraph 13 of Emerson's "Education."
An imperative sentence can do a number of things, but they all amount to one goal: an imperative sentence tells someone what to do. Most often, they amount to a command or a piece of instruction....
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is an analysis of Emerson's "It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'always do what you...
Emerson's quote, "It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'always do what you are afraid to do,'" could be understood as follows. First, Emerson's use of "high counsel"...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is the role of poet according to emerson with reference to essay, ''poet", discuss. what are the functions of a...
The poet, according to Emerson, has to be just about everything. He has to be a seer into the soul of man, he must be an interpreter and a prophet. I know not how it is that we need an...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What does Emerson say is every person's destiny?
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born a New Englander and later became a transcendentalist, and these two formative aspects of his life contributed to his sturdy belief in self-reliance. His essay entitled...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What were Ralph Waldo Emerson's ideas regarding solitude?
Ralph Waldo Emerson's protégé Henry David Thoreau had more experience and inspiration with regard to solitude as he spent so much time living in isolation and seclusion (by choice). In March 1845,...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "Education," identify examples of rhetorical strategies in paragraph 13, and explain...
The text that I can find of this essay by Emerson gives the following in the thirteenth paragraph: Whilst thus the world exists for the mind; whilst thus the man is ever invited inward into...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In what sense were Poe and Emerson both Romantics? How did the Romantics differ?
In one sense, Edgar Allan Poe and Ralph Waldo Emerson are both Romantics because both privilege the individual and the individual's unique emotions and experiences. Emerson directly advocates for...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
How can I explain this quote by Emerson "life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy". how can i use examples...
What he's trying to say here is that you shouldn't spend a lot of time trying to think about stuff or whine about stuff, but rather take everything as it comes, deal with what life gives you. In...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In Emerson's poem "Love and Thought," what does "Eros and the Muse" mean?
In this poem, Emerson refers to Eros and the Muse as twins. Eros is erotic love—which Emerson understands as a creative force. Eros is the "love" of the poem's title. The Muse is the idea that...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Was Emerson a rebel or reformer?
Perhaps the main difference between a rebel and a reformer is that a rebel will usually attack and attempt to destroy the system they find objectionable while a reformer seeks to change it from...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"This is the perpetual romance of new life, the invasion of god into the old dead world..." What does the "this"...
Emerson subscribed to a new theory of education: he and other transcendentalists did not believe that the child is simply an empty vessel to be filled up with facts and figures; rather, the child's...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
How do you think Emerson would explain the difference between being original and being conventional?
Being conventional is the same as being traditional: a conformist. If one conforms to the general mores, ideologies, and thoughts of a particular time and place, one conforms without thinking,...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What does Emerson mean when he says that no law can be sacred to me but that of my nature?
Emerson is a transcendentalist. He believes that personal experience is by far the best way to learn about things. As a result, Emerson strongly believes in individual freedom. This is especially...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What were the political and social issues during Ralph Waldo Emerson's time?
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 and died in 1882. Thus, he lived through a period of major social and political turmoil, perhaps more than any other time in American history. He witnessed the...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Could you explain to me what Ralph Emerson is trying to say in his essay "The Poet"?
Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "The Poet" discusses the poet's role in society and the qualities that make up a true poet. He believes that poets are visionaries who are able to receive and...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
How is the theology of Emerson different form Calvinism?
Oh my gosh, PLEASE don't use the term "theology" here in regards to Transcendentalism. I had to spend an entire class period convincing one of my more fundamentalist Christian students that I was...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why does Emerson say “The use of nature history is to give us aid in supernatural history. The use of the outer...
This passage comes from the fourth section of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s major essay “Nature” (1836). This essay is one of the defining documents of the nineteenth-century American literary,...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Referring to Emerson, discuss the basic principles of American Transcendentalism.
Emerson's primary contribution to the Transcendental movement was the assertion of individual voice in all circumstances. Emerson's belief in human "transcendence," the ability to perceive and...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson wrote of the transcendence of the “Oversoul.” What did he mean by the term?
The concept is rooted in Emerson's readings of eastern philosophies such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Advaita Vadanta school of Hindu philosophy. In addition, Emerson further elaborated the concept...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is the comparsion and contrast for authors: Thoreaus and Emerson? I need to know what is the comparsion and...
In my mind, the primary difference between Emerson and Thoreau is the one between theory and practice. Both thinkers preached individualism in thought and rejecting the conformist ways of modern...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What are a couple of differences between Calvinism and Emerson's theological beliefs?
Emerson was raised within a Calvinistic society by a father who was a Unitarian minister. Even though he was raised in a society which supported Calvinistic theology, Emerson followed his own path...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
How did Ralph Waldo Emerson describe politicians and ordinary citizens in relation to the issue of slavery in his...
In this speech, Emerson denounces both politicians and ordinary people. He says that they are both complicit in the evils of slavery and that they have shown their lack of moral fiber. Emerson is...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Write Emerson's ideas about "THE POET'S" nature and functions? Emerson-- THE POET
Concerning Emerson's views on the poet's nature and function, I can give you only a limited answer, but since no one else has answered yet, I'll give you what I can. Looking at two specific poems,...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Compare and contrast Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat" with Emerson's "The Snow-Storm".
In "The Drunken Boat," the speaker is a boat whose human occupants have been killed by Indians. It floats aimlessly, wandering and weaving like a drunken person as it is pushed and pulled by the...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is an explanation of the historical influences on the transcendentalist movement via Emerson's work?
Whereas Europe, the Old World, had a breadth and depth of cultural sophistication, based on ancient precedent, the all-too-recently founded United States (mid-1800s), in terms of arts and letters,...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I need to find a Transendental primary source, but all the ones I find are very long. I need one with quotes I can...
If you are looking for poetry by either Emerson or Thoreau which depicts examples of why their texts are considered Transcendental, you may want to look at the following poems (both poets were...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Can anyone tell me what the central theme of Ralph Waldo Emerson's speech he wrote regarding "The Fugitive Slave...
Many abolitionists, such as Emerson and Harriet Beecher Stowe, were inflamed by the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, thinking it a step backwards into barbarity. Many, such as Stowe, thought slavery was...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What are 3 specific and distinct aspects or events in Emerson's life that influenced his writings. I have done a lot...
Ralph Waldo Emerson was influenced greatly my his Aunt Mary Moody. She was his fathers sister. His father died when Emerson was 8. According to Frank Shulman: The influence of Hindu scriptures and...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What are the metaphors in Emerson's quote, "this thought which is called I is the mould into which the world is...
There was an interesting philosophical discussion going on in Emerson's time about the way we "learn" about or apprehend the world. Locke and others had posited that everything we learn...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Who wrote these quotations: "I am going to move to a new city and start all over as a virgin" and "Truth is greater...
I did a search on Google and was able to find the second quotation for you: Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none. It was...