Emerson and Thoreau: BFFs?
Tuesday by Caitlin
One of the cool things about college is realizing that things you've studies in different classes can, sometimes, be related, and then you find that you are actually learning something new. I'll explain. In my Literature and the Environment class, I'm reading Thoreau's Walden. And in Literary Criticism, we read "The Poet", by Emerson, for class today. While reading "The Poet", I noticed a lot of similarities between Emerson and Thoreau- so much so, that I am starting to think that the two were not only (obviously) members of the Transcendentalist school, but that they were, in fact, best friends! OK, that might be stretching it a little bit, but what I'm trying to say is that Emerson and Thoreau had extremely similar views and thoughts, as evidenced in their writing. A lot of you might be yawning at this point, because you already knew this, and I'm sure Dr. Powers already knew this, but I didn't! It's a very exciting feeling, because no one explicitly told me that Emerson and Thoreau actually were friends, so I feel as if I discovered something. So if you already knew this, just humor me and follow along. I think I might also do some independent research on the similarities and relationship between Thoreau and Emerson, but that post will come in a few days.
There are a lot of passages from Walden and The Poet that I would like to talk about, but I think that would take a whole lot longer than I anticipated, so I'll just talk about a few things I saw. A main idea that both Emerson and Thoreau discuss is the idea that if people focus on material things, and model their lives around them and worship them, then they will never find joy and truth in the simple, natural beauties of life. Emerson writes: "If thou fill thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pine woods." Similarly, in Walden, Thoreau writes: "Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind...We worship not the Graces, but Fashion." In another vein, Thoreau says: "...a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper," while Emerson writes, "[The poet's] cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight; the air should suffice for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water."OK, so this focus on simplicity and authenticity is, undoubtedly, a prime trait of Romanticism and Transcendentalism, and that could obviously explain the similarities between the writing of Thoreau and Emerson. And I'm sure that is an adequate explanation, but there were so many other similarities in what I read than the few I listed above. So, more on that in my independent research later.
This kid really knows what Transcendalism means.
There are a lot of passages from Walden and The Poet that I would like to talk about, but I think that would take a whole lot longer than I anticipated, so I'll just talk about a few things I saw. A main idea that both Emerson and Thoreau discuss is the idea that if people focus on material things, and model their lives around them and worship them, then they will never find joy and truth in the simple, natural beauties of life. Emerson writes: "If thou fill thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pine woods." Similarly, in Walden, Thoreau writes: "Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind...We worship not the Graces, but Fashion." In another vein, Thoreau says: "...a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper," while Emerson writes, "[The poet's] cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight; the air should suffice for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water."OK, so this focus on simplicity and authenticity is, undoubtedly, a prime trait of Romanticism and Transcendentalism, and that could obviously explain the similarities between the writing of Thoreau and Emerson. And I'm sure that is an adequate explanation, but there were so many other similarities in what I read than the few I listed above. So, more on that in my independent research later.
This kid really knows what Transcendalism means.
