Tim Gracyk | Ralph Waldo Emerson poem "Good-Bye" Transcendentalist Movement American poetry "Goodbye" Concord MA @timgracyk | Uploaded September 2024 | Updated October 2024, 15 hours ago.
Good-Bye
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home:
Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.
Long through thy weary crowds I roam;
A river-ark on the ocean brine,
Long I've been tossed like the driven foam;
But now, proud world! I'm going home.
Good-bye to Flattery's fawning face;
To Grandeur with his wise grimace;
To upstart Wealth's averted eye;
To supple Office, low and high;
To crowded halls, to court and street;
To frozen hearts and hasting feet;
To those who go, and those who come;
Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home.
I am going to my own hearth-stone,
Bosomed in yon green hills alone, —
A secret nook in a pleasant land,
Whose groves the frolic fairies planned;
Where arches green, the livelong day,
Echo the blackbird's roundelay,
And vulgar feet have never trod
A spot that is sacred to thought and God.
O, when I am safe in my sylvan home,
I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;
And when I am stretched beneath the pines,
Where the evening star so holy shines,
I laugh at the lore and the pride of man,
At the sophist schools, and the learned clan;
For what are they all, in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?
_______________________________
The poem's speaker decries the world's false pride and flattery.
The speaker will leave life's vicissitudes, going to a sylvan home as a hermit. Time is better spend contemplating the ways of the Divine Reality.
During the years of the Van Buren presidency, a sort of Transcendental club was started. It was nicknamed "Hedge's Club" because like-minded people with Unitarian ideas met when a man named Hedge visited the Boston area (Hedge lived in Bangor, Maine). People did not meet a set hours--it was not technically a club with members. Nonetheless, people with similar ideas did gather often and talked. It was sometimes called "the brotherhood of the 'Like-Minded.'" Females members such as Fuller and Elizabeth Peabody probably did not use that name.
Brook Farm residents and Dial poets did not call each other Transcendentalists although the word was in use at the time. At first, the word was only associated with philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Americans whom we now call Transcendentalists were friends but did not say they headed a movement. People promoting individual thought do not join movements.
I like the word “transcend” in the name. It means to go beyond. If you are willing to go beyond the surface of reality in search of an ideal reality, you may be a Transcendentalist at heart.
Transcendentalism focused on the internal spirit and the importance of intuition as a source of knowledge. Logic and rational thought may mislead you. Trust your heart.
“Self-Reliance” (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a key tract.
The essay should be called “Soul-Reliance” due to its emphasis on the ideal self.
Emerson gave an American twist to ideas imported from Europe. He was influenced by Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and German idealists. Plato was a hero. He was more open to Eastern religions than others.
Emerson preached that a divine force is in each individual. That force is linked to nature. The personal divinity in each person and our connection to nature links us to the wider world.
Here are famous phrases from “Self-Reliance”:
a) To be great is to be misunderstood.
b) Envy is ignorance.
c) I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
d) Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Other key sentences from Emerson’s essay:
a) Insist on yourself; never imitate.
b) What I must do is all that concerns me…
c) Imitation is suicide.
Ironically, Emerson cites other writers when arguing that one must be independent in thought.
Emerson wrote poems as well as prose. His poem “Days” (1857) argues that we should take full advantage of the fresh opportunities or “gifts” that come with each new day.
"The Rhodora" (1847) communicates the Transcendentalist view that nature offers pureness and goodness.
“Brahma” (1857) is quintessential Emerson. The poem was a sensation in Boston when published, with many people asking each other, "What do the lines mean exactly?"
Brahma is the creator god of Hinduism. The word "Brahmin" soon came to mean intellectual leaders in the Boston area, such as Emerson.
Transcendentalism had a cluster of ideas that spread out like ripples on a lake. I use the name Walden Pond for that lake since the famous Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau built a cabin at Walden Pond and lived alone there, putting into action the principle of self-reliance.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson socialized with Transcendentalists in the 1840s and later recalled this term was used: “Disciples of the Newness.” I recommend his article titled “The Sunny Side of the Transcendental Period.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson poem "Good-Bye" Transcendentalism, internal spirit, intuition, "trust thyself"
Good-Bye
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home:
Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.
Long through thy weary crowds I roam;
A river-ark on the ocean brine,
Long I've been tossed like the driven foam;
But now, proud world! I'm going home.
Good-bye to Flattery's fawning face;
To Grandeur with his wise grimace;
To upstart Wealth's averted eye;
To supple Office, low and high;
To crowded halls, to court and street;
To frozen hearts and hasting feet;
To those who go, and those who come;
Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home.
I am going to my own hearth-stone,
Bosomed in yon green hills alone, —
A secret nook in a pleasant land,
Whose groves the frolic fairies planned;
Where arches green, the livelong day,
Echo the blackbird's roundelay,
And vulgar feet have never trod
A spot that is sacred to thought and God.
O, when I am safe in my sylvan home,
I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome;
And when I am stretched beneath the pines,
Where the evening star so holy shines,
I laugh at the lore and the pride of man,
At the sophist schools, and the learned clan;
For what are they all, in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?
_______________________________
The poem's speaker decries the world's false pride and flattery.
The speaker will leave life's vicissitudes, going to a sylvan home as a hermit. Time is better spend contemplating the ways of the Divine Reality.
During the years of the Van Buren presidency, a sort of Transcendental club was started. It was nicknamed "Hedge's Club" because like-minded people with Unitarian ideas met when a man named Hedge visited the Boston area (Hedge lived in Bangor, Maine). People did not meet a set hours--it was not technically a club with members. Nonetheless, people with similar ideas did gather often and talked. It was sometimes called "the brotherhood of the 'Like-Minded.'" Females members such as Fuller and Elizabeth Peabody probably did not use that name.
Brook Farm residents and Dial poets did not call each other Transcendentalists although the word was in use at the time. At first, the word was only associated with philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Americans whom we now call Transcendentalists were friends but did not say they headed a movement. People promoting individual thought do not join movements.
I like the word “transcend” in the name. It means to go beyond. If you are willing to go beyond the surface of reality in search of an ideal reality, you may be a Transcendentalist at heart.
Transcendentalism focused on the internal spirit and the importance of intuition as a source of knowledge. Logic and rational thought may mislead you. Trust your heart.
“Self-Reliance” (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a key tract.
The essay should be called “Soul-Reliance” due to its emphasis on the ideal self.
Emerson gave an American twist to ideas imported from Europe. He was influenced by Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and German idealists. Plato was a hero. He was more open to Eastern religions than others.
Emerson preached that a divine force is in each individual. That force is linked to nature. The personal divinity in each person and our connection to nature links us to the wider world.
Here are famous phrases from “Self-Reliance”:
a) To be great is to be misunderstood.
b) Envy is ignorance.
c) I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
d) Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Other key sentences from Emerson’s essay:
a) Insist on yourself; never imitate.
b) What I must do is all that concerns me…
c) Imitation is suicide.
Ironically, Emerson cites other writers when arguing that one must be independent in thought.
Emerson wrote poems as well as prose. His poem “Days” (1857) argues that we should take full advantage of the fresh opportunities or “gifts” that come with each new day.
"The Rhodora" (1847) communicates the Transcendentalist view that nature offers pureness and goodness.
“Brahma” (1857) is quintessential Emerson. The poem was a sensation in Boston when published, with many people asking each other, "What do the lines mean exactly?"
Brahma is the creator god of Hinduism. The word "Brahmin" soon came to mean intellectual leaders in the Boston area, such as Emerson.
Transcendentalism had a cluster of ideas that spread out like ripples on a lake. I use the name Walden Pond for that lake since the famous Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau built a cabin at Walden Pond and lived alone there, putting into action the principle of self-reliance.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson socialized with Transcendentalists in the 1840s and later recalled this term was used: “Disciples of the Newness.” I recommend his article titled “The Sunny Side of the Transcendental Period.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson poem "Good-Bye" Transcendentalism, internal spirit, intuition, "trust thyself"
