Emerson

Question 1

To what British literary movement were the Transcendentalists indebted?

Answer 1

The Romantics

The Transcendentalists shared their views about the intuitiveness and creativity of the mind, and their reverence for nature.

Question 2

When was “Nature” published?

Answer 2

First in 1836, and released in a new edition in 1849.

Question 3

What feminist writer worked closely with Emerson?

Answer 3

Margaret Fuller

Question 4

What was the name of the Transcendentalist journal run by Emerson, Fuller, and Thoreau?

Answer 4

The Dial

Question 5

What cultural critique does “Nature” open with?

Answer 5

Emerson questions the cultural tendency to revere traditions and old philosophies rather than seeking to experience God and nature directly, for ourselves.

Question 6

Nature: What are the two components of the universe?

Answer 6

1. The Soul

2. Nature (anything that is “Not Me”)

Question 7

Nature: What is Emerson’s definition of “Art”?

Answer 7

“Art is nature in combination with the will of man.”

Question 8

Nature: To what does Emerson compare himself when he is successfully in touch with the divinity of Nature?

Answer 8

A Transparent Eyeball - “I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”

Question 9

Nature: What does Emerson address in the chapter “Commodity”?

Answer 9

He discusses how Nature provides for all the basic needs of man. The mind of man is able to combine and recombine the gifts of Nature for everything he needs.

Question 10

Nature: What are Emerson’s three aspects of Beauty?

Answer 10

1) physical beauty
2) moral beauty (or virtue)
3) intellectual beauty (or truth)

Question 11

Nature: What is the love of beauty? The creation of beauty?

Answer 11

1.) Taste 2.) Art

Question 12

Nature: On what argument are Emerson’s views about language based?

Answer 12

Platonic Idealism

Question 13

Nature: What are Emerson’s three reasons Language is a product of Nature?

Answer 13

1. Words are signs of natural facts
2. Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts
3. Nature is the symbol of the spirit

Question 14

Nature: What is an example of a natural fact that is a symbol for a spiritual fact?

Answer 14

A lamb = innocence

An angry man = a lion

Flowers = grades of affection

Question 15

Nature: What is Emerson’s argument in “Discipline”?

Answer 15

That our lived experience in Nature is an education in understanding intellectual (“Understanding”/logical) and moral truth (“Reason”/intuitive).

Question 16

Nature: Which figure from the Quals list does Emerson quote in “Discipline”?

Answer 16

Bacon - “good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they be executed” (Of Great Place).

Question 17

Nature: What is Emerson’s belief about Universal Truth?

Answer 17

“Every universal truth which we express in words, implies or supposes every other truth.” This is the Unity in Nature, or Unity in Variety.

Question 18

Nature: What does Emerson mean by Discipline?

Answer 18

The means of arriving at comprehension

Question 19

Nature: What question is explored in “Idealism”?

Answer 19

Is there a higher law behind nature, and does visible nature really exist?

Question 20

Nature: What does Emerson conclude in “Idealism”?

Answer 20

He says that the question of “absolute existence” remains open, but lists aspects that convince us of the reality of the external world.

1. motion
2. poetry
3. philosophy
4. Intellectual science
5. religion and ethics

Question 21

Nature: In “Spirit,” what does Emerson claim Idealism does?

Answer 21

It helps us think about the distinctions between ourselves and Nature.

Question 22

Nature: What can we do once we recognize the distinction between ourselves and Nature?

Answer 22

We can explore their relation to each other - how the spirit acts through us.

Question 23

Nature: What are the three questions Emerson explores in “Spirit”?

Answer 23

What is matter?

Where does it come from?

What is its purpose?

In seeking to answer these questions, we come across many truths.

Question 24

Nature: What does Emerson argue in “Prospects”?

Answer 24

That is is better to be a naturalist than a student of empirical science - a naturalist remains open to intuition and the secrets of nature. In trying to define everything about Nature, we may miss out on some of its important truths.

Question 25

Nature: What famous phrase appears in “Prospects,” and what does it mean?

Answer 25

“A man is a God in ruins.”

Men have access to the divine, though our understanding is imperfect. Through intuition and seeking truth in Nature we can be more in tune with this inner divinity.

Question 26

Self-Reliance: For what does Emerson make an argument in this essay?

Answer 26

Individualism against everything else. Society will try to make you conform, but you must trust yourself. We must rely on ourselves for occupation, virtue, activity - everything. If we trust ourselves, and commit to being nonconformists, we cannot go wrong.

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principals.”

Question 27

The Poet: For what does Emerson call for in this essay?

Answer 27

A poet in touch with the true and particular spirit of America.

“Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles our imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.”

Question 28

The Poet: What poet famously answers Emerson’s call?

Answer 28

Walt Whitman

Question 29

The Poet: When was this first published?

Answer 29

In 1844, in “Essays”

Question 30

The Poet: What is poetry, for Emerson? The poet?

Answer 30

The expression of the soul which is accessible to all. The poet is the “sayer” or “namer” of these truths - not the creator.

Question 31

The Poet: What does each new age require?

Answer 31

“The experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems always waiting for its poet.”

Question 32

The Poet: What argument is made about language in this essay?

Answer 32

“Language is fossil poetry” - words/language were made by poets to describe the times in which they lived. Language has shifted over time, so that these true/natural origins are more or less detectable in certain words.

Poets can make old uses of words forgotten by using them to illuminate new or different truths of the current age. They “unlock our chains and admit us to a new scene.”

Question 33

The Poet: What are Emerson’s views on form?

Answer 33

That it is not important as long as the poem conveys Truth.