Romanticism And Transcendentalism Essay

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Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit”(390). Emerson is showing his respect toward nature that it deserves. This respect is also a big factor in both Romanticism and Transcendentalism. Some of the big time Romanticists and Transcendentalists writers were Henry David Thoreau and Emerson. In Annie Dillard 's “Seeing” from Pilgrim in Tinker Creek incorporates her influences from Transcendentalism, Emerson Romanticism, and Thoreau.
Transcendentalism is a movement that believed in God, Nature, and Humanity are all connected in the over-soul. It also is the keeping your mind open to so that knowledge can come in. A good example of keeping your mind open is in Dillard 's writing when she says, “It’s all a matter of keeping my eyes open. Nature is like one of those line drawings of a mtree that are puzzles for children”(302). This is Transcendentalism because of the way she writes about nature as if she is confused by it but stars in hopes to figure it out. This also ties into the over-soul because it shows nature and god connected to humanity in the puzzle. In an article on Transcendentalists they wrote, “‘The Transcendentalists… believed in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new …show more content…

When Thoreau speaks about this he is talking about how excited he is for nature. This is more of a Romantic view of nature because all he wants is nature. That is also enough to get that excited about a book. Once Thoreau said “experience life on a simple level, in harmony with nature, united to material things”(385). It is very clear that Dillard was influenced by Thoreau because in an effort to find new meaning of nature she lived for a year in a small cabin in

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