Transcendentalism In Emerson's 'The Snow-Storm'

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One quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalism poem, “The Snow-Storm” is “His wild work so fanciful, so savage, nought cares he for number or proportion...”(Emerson and Thompson). This particular excerpt perfectly describes Emerson’s transcendentalism way of writing. “The tone of Transcendentalism is, in a word, exalted. The feelings expressed by transcendentalist writers are intense, the ideas serious, the reflection deep and meaningful,” (Literary Movements for Students 844) is an impeccable description of the 1830’s movement that began in New England and is known as Transcendentalism. “The Snow-Storm”, one of the most nature filled and transcendentalist poems written by Emerson, is teeming with imagery. This poem is an excellent …show more content…

With his wild imagination, Emerson wrote a number of fantastic poems that are full of imagery and screamed transcendentalism. The quote, “According to Emerson, the poet can shape, order, and ultimately enhance nature for those who are willing to look at its constants flux with an integrative eye,” (Perkins 205) is exactly what Emerson’s poems portray. To some, “The Snow-Storm”, is just a pretty poem about snow-fall and the outdoors, but to those who are willing to dig deep into the scenery and appreciate the words in the poem it is a call to nature, a compliment to God and a new and fascinating way of seeing the world. “…The whited air hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven, and veils the farm-house at the garden’s end,”(Emerson and Thompson) is an example of a type of way Emerson tended to write. This excerpt from the poem demonstrates personification through the air and displays how smoothly Emerson draws in the scenery, one word at a time, while describing something different. Another representation of how Emerson writes is, “…And when his hours are numbered, and the world is all his own, retiring, as he were not...” (Emerson and Thompson). Emerson uses personification by referring to the wind as “he/his” in the poem. The author describes the wind as an artist that is constantly making and forming new art with the snow, in nature (Overview: “The …show more content…

Emerson distanced himself from everything and escaped to nature to find peace and serenity (Hutch). In order to experience ‘oversoul’, which is “…The life or essence in all things ‘swallowing up all relations, parts, and times within itself’” (Gorely 205), one needs to take themselves ‘out of the world’ for a while and commune with nature. Emerson depicts communion with nature by the way he formats his poem, “The Snow-Storm”. The poem is written as it is being seen. Clearly someone is watching all of the snow fall and the wind blow. This is an example of how someone would spend time with and embrace nature in a transcendentalist way. This quote, “The sovereignty of this nature whereof we speak; is made known by its independency of those limitations which circumscribe us on every hand” ("Over-Soul: The First Series") was written by Emerson in one of his essays, Over-Soul, and it explains how nature is all around each person and it is only as powerful as they allow it to be. In “The Snow-Storm”, nothing else exists except for nature and the beauty it beholds. “The Snow-Storm” is a perfect illustration for transcendentalism because, “Nature is the focal point for much transcendentalist thought and writing,” (Literary Movements for Students 843). “…Enclosed in a tumultuous privacy of storm.

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