Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln

Chris McCandless: a man so infatuated with nature, he practically committed suicide to bring himself nearer to it. This extreme liking for nature, along with other ideals, makes up the core tenets of the transcendentalist philosophy. McCandless demonstrates other tenets of transcendentalism as well, most notably the supremacy of the individual, by detaching himself from the mammon of this world. Another way he shows the supremacy of the individual, by the belief that one should not conform to the usual policies of life, causes him great trouble in some cases. As well as the belief that the individual supersedes all else, McCandless received much of his inspiration from nature. Finally, always following what he believes correct, McCandless

Abraham Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest both influenced the the United States in different ways and continue to shape our future. Abraham Lincoln influenced the United States more effectively and positively than Forrest. Firstly both men started with similar upbringings:, they were born into poor families, started a business, and lost a parent at young ages. Their educations could not have been further apart as Lincoln was a self taught lawyer and Forrest received no formal education. They quickly diverted paths as young adults when Lincoln went into politics and Forrest killed two men and stayed in the world of business.

This semester I have learned valuable tools and techniques when it comes to writing and analyzing different types of literature. I will thoroughly explore what Whitman, Columbus and Smith meant in specific passages of a few of their literature works. Whitman’s free verse poems, “Leaves of Grass” and “Song of Myself”, seemed to be most appealing. I also found Christopher Columbus’s “Letter to Lluis de Santangel” and “Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella” to be quite intriguing about life back then. Even John Smith’s writings such as “The General Historie of Virginia” and “A Description of New England” enlightened me to what it was they saw when venturing out in the new world.

There are differences of each of authors that are in different time period that can

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are two of the most influential writers of the Nineteenth Century. They influenced the American society and future writers to become an individual through their own writings. Transforming a movement known as Transcendentalism, both Emerson and Thoreau used this simple idea of nature, society and individualism to their advantage. Both used this simple idea to not only understand themselves, but also the world around them. Emerson and Thoreau held many of the same values on nature and relationships, but they did not agree on everything individualism had to offer a man.

An influential literary movement in the nineteenth century, transcendentalism placed an emphasis on the wonder of nature and its deep connection to the divine. As the two most prominent figures in the transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau whole-heartedly embraced these principles. In their essays “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience”, Emerson and Thoreau, respectively, argue for individuality and personal expression in different manners. In “Self-Reliance”, Emerson calls for individuals to speak their minds and resist societal conformity, while in “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau urged Americans to publicly state their opinions in order to improve their own government.

Both authors Frederick Douglass and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels focus on the topic of freedom. Both authors argue that they are being oppressed. However, this is where the similarities end. Engels and Marx believed that capitalism was a social system used by the proletariats to oppress the bourgeoisie, and that the only way to be free was to fight back against the system. On the other hand, Frederick Douglass focuses more on his individual story and his struggle for freedom, while he tries to appeal to his audience from an ethical point of view.

Renowned poets and philosophers Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, although being from different schools of thought, actually shared many of the same views about nature and mankind’s role in society. Whitman, being more of a ‘romantic’ poet, praised nature’s beauty and majestic qualities. Thoreau, on the other hand, was more of a Transcendentalist; The Transcendentalism school of thought emphasized individualism as a common theme and celebrated the ‘self’ as a separate, but equal, counterpart to the nature of our environment. While both of these poets had their opinions on the landscape around us, they were quite similar in their beliefs about mankind’s existence and skirted the line between both schools of thought.

Can you name poets that were clear examples of Bright Romanticism? A form of poetry that has an optimistic outlook. It stress an importance of nature. That has a valued a feeling over reason. A following of the heart rather than the mind. Also the setting apart from society. There are two who comes to mind; Thoreau and Emerson. Where Emerson and Thoreau were clear examples of Bright Romanticism exemplified by the inclusion of nature, a positive view of mankind, and a poetic style that broke traditional method.

Nature and wilderness were very important ideas, to some extent, for St. John de Crevecoeur and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each had their own opinions and ideas that contrasted against each other and were somewhat similar to each other; Emerson valued nature greatly, whether it be from looking at it as something to be proud of, to using nature as an example in his work, such as how we are a part of it and how random it can be. Crevecoeur believed that every land has its own form of culture as it does its own kind of nature. He describes how the land and nature was, and how it will be, by giving details of it in his pieces of work.

The structure of this work plays a crucial role in its development as it helps set the mood due to the lack of rhythm and use of free verse. Whitman reflects on all aspects the astronomer displays his discoveries on nature; portraying him as a man of knowledge, not experience since he believes in facts and proof. He mentions a catalog, “the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me” (2) and “the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them” (3), used to educate the audience. As previously mentioned, the anaphora with the word “when” used by Walt Whitman sets up a dreary environment, and leads to the poem´s climax. The poet embraces one transcendentalist idea strongly emphasized on Emerson´s Nature, individualism, as the speaker leaves the lecture hall to experience nature on by

Human nature is something that never seems to change. While humans all seem to be different from one another through physical and emotional attributes, their psychological behaviors are all mostly very similar. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, many authors successfully could explain the characteristics of human nature and the effects that it has on everyone and everything surrounding human beings. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe all convey the behavior of human nature in separate ways. These three authors show the curiosity, drive for perfection, and fear of human nature throughout their texts in detail. With these characteristics being prominent in human nature itself, it

When talking about Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman a similar question of “What came first the chicken or the egg?” comes to mind. Scholars may argue that without Emerson and his influential sermons and speeches that Walt Whitman would have never found his voice, but how can someone who so many consider one of the greatest poets of all time cease to exist? Ralph Waldo Emerson knew what he was doing when he published The Poet. It was an outcry for the American people to speak a truthful narrative about the human experience, warts and all. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an influential author and speaker, so when he wrote The Poet, Walt Whitman emerged and fulfilled his expectations after some hesitation from Emerson. Both authors paved the way for countless other writers and played a huge role in American culture and literature. While both authors have their respected writing styles, Walt Whitman found his voice through Emerson’s influence and responded to his call for American poets to step forth and show the world a new era of poetry and literature. Emerson had a specific idea of what poetry should be and although Whitman answered the call, he went in a different direction with his works and writing style.

All through his verse, Whitman commended the person. He envisioned a majority rule country as a bound together entire made out of special yet rise to people. "Tune of Myself" opens in a triumphant paean to the individual: "I commend myself, and sing myself" (1). Somewhere else the speaker of that overflowing lyric recognizes himself as Walt Whitman and cases that, through him, the voices of many will talk. Along these lines, numerous people make up the individual majority rule government, a solitary element made out of heap parts. Each voice and each part will convey a similar weight inside the single majority rules system—and therefore every voice and each individual is similarly

Along with the use of metaphors, the form of the poem plays an important role in uncovering the views of Whitman. First and foremost, this poem was written in free verse which is a form of poetry that lacks structure. The free verse stucture of the poem is shown in the lack of form in the stanzas of the poem. Some stanzas are six lines long while others are only one, and the lines can be either concise or drawn out. The poem also lacks any apparent rhyming scheme or rhythm. Unlike Shakespearean poetry, where the foot of the poem stays the same, the lack of any apparent structure to the poem leaves the reader unable to predict what is coming next. In addition to this, at the time this poem was written, free verse was not common. In fact, Whitman may have been one of the first poets to use this form, showing that he may have been rebelling against the predominant structured form in poetry. The lack of any apparent structure guides the reader towards the conclusion that Whitman did not like structure in poetry, and can even be