Who is Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and his ideology was disseminated through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay "Nature". Following this work, he gave a speech entitled "The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America's "inte...
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Ralph Waldo Emerson Poems

  • Fragments On The Poet And The Poetic Gift
    I

    There are beggars in Iran and Araby,
    SAID was hungrier than all; ...
  • Nahant
    All day the waves assailed the rock,
    I heard no church-bell chime,
    The sea-beat scorns the minster clock
    And breaks the glass of Time....
  • September
    In the turbulent beauty
    Of a gusty Autumn day,
    Poet on a sunny headland
    Sighed his soul away. ...
  • Written At Rome
    Alone in Rome. Why, Rome is lonely too;--
    Besides, you need not be alone; the soul
    Shall have society of its own rank.
    Be great, be true, and all the Scipios, ...
  • Self-reliance
    Henceforth, please God, forever I forego
    The yoke of men's opinions. I will be
    Light-hearted as a bird, and live with God.
    I find him in the bottom of my heart, ...
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Top 10 most used topics by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature 59 God 53 Sweet 53 Love 53 I Love You 53 Good 52 Never 51 Life 49 Heart 47 Earth 47


Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

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Comments about Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wambuimuchiri_: the purpose of life is not to be happy. it is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ralph waldo emerson
_alkennedy: “not in his goals but in his transitions man is great.” —ralph waldo emerson
760h7faith: do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -ralph waldo emerson
Gordontredgold: if two or three persons should come with a high spiritual aim and with great powers, the world would fall into their hands like a ripe peach. - ralph waldo emerson
X72oe: “judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.” ~ ralph waldo emerson
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Poem of the day

Ernest Dowson Poem
The Garden Of Shadow
 by Ernest Dowson

Love heeds no more the sighing of the wind
Against the perfect flowers: thy garden's close
Is grown a wilderness, where none shall find
One strayed, last petal of one last year's rose.

O bright, bright hair! O mouth like a ripe fruit!
Can famine be so nigh to harvesting?
Love, that was songful, with a broken lute
...

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