Ralph Waldo Emerson

             Ralph Waldo Emerson was a famous poet during the  mid-19th century.  Emerson was born on May 23, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up with five other siblings. While sadly three other of his siblings passed away at a very young age. He was raised by his mother and aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, because his father died of cancer two weeks before Emerson's eighth birthday. At age nine, Emerson enrolled in the Boston Latin School.  Four years later he started college at Harvard. During his college years, he started getting into poetry and writing. Hes lived in
places such as; Charleston, South Carolina and St.Augustine, Florida. After college he started helping his brother,William, working at a school. He eventually took charge of the school and became schoolmaster.

      Emerson's family including grandchildren.

                        1827 on  Christmas day, he met his wife Ellen Louisa Tucker in Concord. At the age of 18 she got married to Emerson and they moved to Boston. Unfortunately two years later Ellen died of tuberculousis. This was the same cause of death that happened to Emerson's brothers. Although he use to be involved with church, after his wife's death his beliefs started to fade. Four years later, he traveled around the world to Europe, Paris,Switzerland,  Rome, Florence and Venice. After two years out there, he came back home to Massachusetts. 

A picture of Ralph's family including grandchildren.

                                In 1835, Emerson proposed to a women named Lydia Jackson through a letter, in which she accepted. They moved to Concord, Massachusetts in house he bought that he named "Bush".  They later went down to Plymouth, where Lydia was from and got married. Lydia's name was changed to Lidian shortly after they got married. Together they had four kids, one named after Emerson late wife that passed away, Ellen. Emerson didn't have much money, yet supported his family his whole life. He received money from filing a lawsuit on his deceased ex-wife. The picture to the right is their home.                        

                      He died on April 27, 1882 as he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was  having serious memory problems. He passed away shortly after his trip back to Europe, England, and Egypt with his daughter, Ellen.         

                 Some of  Emerson's Work

·         The Conduct of Life - This was a piece that was a gathering of writings he wrote about his point of view on slavery. He was against slavery and believed in immediate emancipation of slaves.

·         Parnassus - He put together a book about anthology of poetry with poems from Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Julia Caroline Dorr, Jean Ingelow, Lucy Larcom and Jones Very.

·         Art - A poem he wrote that gave me a warm feelings. I enjoyed the flow the poem had. It was not long nor boring and kept my interest. It gave me a peaceful imagery in my head.

·         Beauty - In this poem, he tells a story with a man as the main character. He captured my attentions with his the line, "Beauty chased he everywhere, In flame, in storm, in clouds of air. ". It got me thinking, that beauty can be anywhere, sometimes you just can't see it.

·         Good-Bye - This yet another poem, just by reading the title you'd think this be a sad story. Yet Emerson give a twist to this good-bye, he makes it clear that it's a happy story.

·         Fate - This poem gave me a warm feeling. You can tell, Emerson is not the type to dwell on things as he says, "To mould his fortunes, mean or great". It tells us that things aren't always going to gum drops and lollipops on a hot summer day.

Why is Emerson a transcendentalist ?

          

 As I googled "famous transcendentalist" , Ralph Waldo Emerson was in the top 12 of this list. Some may ask why he falls into this category. It is obvious if you have ever read any of his poetry. The way he writes gives you calm feelings. He describes things such as love,fate, or beauty in a way, no one else would have thought about. He flows his poetry extremely well. I would amuse he gets his talent from his experience in life. It's surprising that a man whose first wife passed away, could ever speak of love again. Yet he found a way,  maybe help from his kids and new wife, Lydia. Whatever it was, it made this man an amazing poet and he definitely falls in the Romantic genre.

Work Cited



"American Transcendentalist Web" Ralph Waldo Emerson. Web.

             20 December 2011.

"Ralph Waldo Emerson" Ralph Waldo Emerson - All poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson

              Web. 20 December 2011.

"Famous Transcendentalist" Influential, Notable, Celebrity Adherents of Transcendentalism. Web. 2005.