McElroy - Week 4 - What was the American Renaissance?

2. Introduction  “American Renaissance?”  Ralph Waldo Emerson • associated works  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • associated works  Henry David Thoreau • associated works  Conclusion

3. Ralph Waldo Emerson  Early Life and Overview  Religious Influence  Leading Exponent of Transcendentalism

4. Ralph Waldo Emerson Themes in Selected Works  Turning Away From Religion – Nature  Dripping with Transcendentalism - Nature  Protest of Indian Removal Policies – Letter to Martin Van Buren, President of the United States

5. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  A Multilingual, Well-Traveled Early Life  Back From Europe  America’s Greatest Poet?

6. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Themes in Selected Works  Continuing the “Nature” theme – The Jewish Cemetery at Newport  Backlash against Christianity? - The Jewish Cemetery at Newport  Anti-slavery – The Slave’s Dream

7. Henry David Thoreau  Early Life – Less Religious/Local Area  Transcendentalism  Political Activist

8. Henry David Thoreau Themes in Selected Works  Less government equals better government – Resistance to Civil Government  Hard questions about various facets of government – Resistance to Civil Government  Preoccupation with material goods – Walden

9. Conclusion  “American Renaissance”  Ralph Waldo Emerson  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  Henry David Thoreau  Conclusion

10. References Baym, N. (2008). The Norton anthology of American literature (Shorter 7th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. Britannica Academic Edition (2014). American Renaissance. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/EBchecked/topic/20120/American- Renaissance Britannica Academic Edition (2014). Ralph Waldo Emerson. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/EBchecked/topic/185770/Ralph-Waldo- Emerson Britannica Academic Edition (2014). Transcendentalism. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/EBchecked/topic/602448/Transcendentalis m Emerson, R. (1836). Letter to Martin Van Buren. President of the United States. In Baym, N. (2008).The Norton anthology of American literature (Shorter 7th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. Emerson, R. (1836). Nature. In Baym, N. (2008).The Norton anthology of American literature (Shorter 7th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

11. References Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (2004). In Encyclopedia of World Biography (2nd ed., Vol. 9, pp. 499-500). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3404703957&v=2.1&u=uphoenix&it=r&p=GVRL& sw=w&asid=b9f3a9096fe49efbc68fa3560454368a Longfellow, H. (1854). The Jewish cemetery at Newport. In Baym, N. (2008).The Norton anthology of American literature (Shorter 7th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. Poetry Foundation. (2014). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/henry-wadsworth-longfellow Thoreau, H. (1849). Resistance to civil government. In Baym, N. (2008). The Norton anthology of American literature (Shorter 7th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. Thoreau, H. (1854). Walden. In Baym, N. (2008).The Norton anthology of American literature (Shorter 7th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

Editor's Notes

The American Renaissance encompasses a timeframe beginning in the 1830s until roughly around the end of the American Civil War. It came about “in the wake of the Romantic movement” and “came of age as an expression of a national spirit” (Britannica Academic Edition, 2014). This was a period of time where American literature became less about functional accounts of voyages and political goals and more about traditional, artistic literature. This period’s culture, politics, and religion shaped the American Renaissance tremendously, and the concept of Transcendentalism had a major role in the movement as well. Additionally, poetry had a special role to play in the American Renaissance. While many authors came to the forefront during this timeframe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau and their respective works best depict the American Renaissance and the aforementioned ideas.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts, and became a pivotal figure of the American Renaissance. He is viewed primarily as a lecturer, poet, and essayist, as well as one of the leading exponents of Transcendentalism (Britannica Academic Edition, 2014). As the son of a reverend in the Unitarian church who descended directly from the earliest Puritans, it should come as no surprise that Emerson was raised in a very devout manner. This religious steadfastness wavered as he grew older, and his works touch heavily on all aspects of religion. It was Emerson’s personal doubts towards religion that steered him toward the idea of Transcendentalism, or “an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, the innate goodness of man, and the supremacy of insight over logic and experience for the revelation of the deepest truths” (Britannica Academic Edition, 2014). Transcendentalism did much to shape the American Literature, as a review of selected works will reveal later.
With his classic work Nature, Emerson expounded on some of his earlier pamphlets and speeches which were attacked by the press and others as being anti-Christian. A particular speech at Harvard University, in fact, saw him not invited back for over 30 years. The ideas expressed in Nature suggest there is more to understanding the world around us than through religion alone. Defined earlier as an idealistic system of thought based on a belief in the essential unity of all creation, Nature almost serves as a treatise on the subject of transcendentalism. Passages such as “Nature is a discipline of the understanding in intellectual truths” and “here again we are impressed and even daunted by the immense Universe to be explored” speaks directly to how the answers to life can be found with each individual and not via a dogmatic belief system (Emerson, 1836, 504-505). The literature of the American Renaissance and Emerson also reflected grievances with the fledgling country’s approach to removing Native Americans from their land in the name of Manifest Destiny. In a beautifully scripted letter to the President at the time, Martin Van Buren, Emerson was very blunt at times in saying “You, Sir, will bring down the renowned chair in which you sit into infamy, if your seals is set to this instrument of perfidy” when referring to official governmental actions that enacted the removal policies (Emerson, 1838, p. 587). Emerson clearly saw the American Indians as a integral, sacred part of the nature he adhered to with Transcendentalism.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Maine and proved to be an excellent student graduating from College at the age of 18. During a year of postgraduate study in literature and modern languages, he began to look at writing as a way of supporting himself. In a manner similar of Victorian English writers who would broaden their horizons with trips to Europe, Longfellow embarked on a 3 year journey living amongst local families in Paris, Madrid, and Rome becoming well-versed in German, French, Spanish, and Italian. This exposure to a more open-minded, European way of thinking affected him greatly. Upon returning from Europe, he began a professorship at his old college and became bogged down in instructional duties while longing for the more open-minded atmosphere of Europe. Outside of the classroom, he wrote several essays in French, Spanish, and Italian before moving towards poetry. Longfellow is viewed as perhaps the most widely-known American poet of his age due to his prolific writing and both the national and international attention he received. Many of his writings have secured a firm place in just about every school’s English program, and he is one of the few American’s to have secured a vaunted place of honor in the “Poets’ Corner” of the United Kingdom’s Westminster Abbey.
Longfellow continues with the Nature theme so prevalent in American Renaissance literature with his work The Jewish Cemetery at Newport. This can be seen with “Gone are the living, but the dead remain, and not neglected for a hand unseen, scattering its bounty, like a summer rain, still keeps their graves and their remembrance green” (Longfellow, 1854, p. 648). This “hand unseen,” with references to summer rain and keeping the graves/remembrance green is a clear reference to the role Nature plays in life. Likewise, Longfellow seemingly exhibits some of the “anti-Religion” of the time with references in The Jewish Cemetery at Newport that would appear to be quite anti-Christian. In writing about the dead in their graves, Longfellow asks “How came they here?” and talks of “persecution, merciless and blind” actions that contributed to their death (Longfellow, 1854, p. 648). Longfellow’s work The Slave’s Dream represents the public concern over slavery can found in some American Renaissance literature. Printed in 1842, this work speaks volumes about the collective debate occurring on slavery, approximately 20 years prior to Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address.
Unlike Emerson who was raised in a devout manner and Longfellow who travelled across Europe for 3 years, Henry David Thoreau was not as religious and tended to travel mostly in his local area. In fact, he acknowledged there was a place for travelers who went around the world experiencing different cultures, as well as a person (himself for example) who yearned to stay at home and write great literature (Baym, 2008). Through his connection and friendship with Emerson, Thoreau became involved with Transcendentalism. In his attendance of the New England Transcendentalists meetings, Thoreau met key members of society and developed a journal which served as his sourcebook for many of his works (Baym, 2008). While at first writing about simple naturalistic observations and a little moral commentary, Thoreau began to concentrate more on unjust government and issues such as slavery as an antislavery proponent (topics which littered the landscape of the American Renaissance) (Baym, 2008).
As many individuals became satisfied with the American system of government, Thoreau captures some of this discontent in his work Resistance to Civil Government. Thoreau espoused ideas such as “government is best which governs not all,” which demonstrates how some Americans began to feel aggrieved at the government’s reach into their daily lives (Thoreau, 1849, p. 829). Founded as a free democracy, the lifeblood of American government was the voting process. Thoreau and others felt the voting process had an easily corruptible nature to it, as he frames with “all voting is a sort of gaming… with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it” (Thoreau, 1849, p. 833). Thoreau was of the opinion that Americans had become too preoccupied with material goods, acquiring wealth, arranging mortgage payments, and so on. With Walden, he advocated for a more simplistic, minimalist lifestyle with an emphasis on frugality. He encapsulates this beautifully when speaking of fancy clothes as “our our epidermis or false skin, which partakes not of our life, and may be stripped off here and there with fatal injury” (Thoreau, 1854, p. 856).
The American Renaissance began in the 1830s and lasted roughly until around the end of the American Civil War. This period’s culture, politics, and religion shaped the American Renaissance tremendously, and the concept of Transcendentalism had a major role in the movement as well. Additionally, poetry had a special role to play in the American Renaissance. While many authors came to the forefront during this timeframe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau and their respective works best depict the American Renaissance and the aforementioned ideas. Emerson was one of the leading figures of the Transcendentalist movement. In such works as Nature and Letter to Martin Van Buren, President of the United States, Emerson spoke of nature as a discipline of the understanding in intellectual truths, a key tenet of Transcendentalism, in addition to Native American removal policies in practice by the United States that he found objectionable. Longfellow traveled Europe extensively and came back to America fluent in multiple languages. With many of his works, including The Jewish Cemetery at Newport and The Slave’s Dream, spoke of many American Renaissance topics including nature, an anti-Christian/anti-Religion bias, and moral objections to slavery. Finally, Thoreau followed in the footsteps of Emerson as a Transcendentalist and focused on simplicity in life (less preoccupation with material goods) and general questions about the role of government in every day life.

McElroy - Week 4 - What was the American Renaissance?

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Editor's Notes