Emerson, Whitman, and Melville
The way I view the world has been greatly affected by my reading this semester. Thought I had read Emerson and Melville before, I never before was able to sound the depths of their work and fully appreciate it. This semester was my first real exposure to Whitman, as well. The best analogy for my new outlook is an image of the universe as a yin-yang; it is a complete, unbroken whole within which two polar opposites are constantly in conflict. But more significantly I have taken to heart the doctrine of "Self-Reliance," which is one shared by all three authors. Emerson presents a different system of learning than I had ever encountered. Throughout my previous education, I was taught to learn whatever was in the book. The only place original thought was accepted was in occasional creative writing assignments, and even then a stylistic formula was required. The sentence from "Self-Reliance," "A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages." (263) was a completely new idea to me. My mind originally dismissed the concept from his journals that "The dead sleep in their moonless nigh
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3205
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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