Spiritual Views in Emersons The Poet Essay -- Emerson Poet Essays

Spiritual Views in Emerson's The Poet Transcendental, and therefore pantheist, views run fluidly throughout Emerson's texts, especially as he attempts to define his image of the perfect poet in his essay, The Poet. He continually uses religious terms to express his feelings, but warps these terms to fit his own unique spirituality. This technique somewhat helps to define his specific religious views which mirror the view of transcendentalism and pantheism. Emerson's ideal poet is a pantheist who can express the symbols of the world through words. Emerson begins the essay by explaining that many people are taught "rules and particulars" to decide what is good art, and therefore deem themselves worthy critics although they have no feeling for art in their soul. He states that intellectual men, perhaps the cold Unitarians from which he broke away, theologians, and modern 'poets' do not acknowledge a relationship between the physical world and the mind and then praises the "highest minds" (such as Swedenborg, Plato and Heraclitus) who instead examine everything to its fullest manifold meaning. I find it interesting that in the lines "We were put into our bodies, as fire is put into a pan" and we are "but children of the fire, made of it, and only the same divinity transmuted, and at two or three removes, when we know least about it" that Emerson compares human souls to fire. Heraclitus believed that fire was the essence of everything, similar to Anaximander's concept of 'apeiron.' Emerson here shows his pantheistic view that we have all come from the same divine 'stuff,' and being "two or three removes" away from its Godly source, we are unable on a basic level to fully comprehend it. This is also remin... ...his ideal poet, and in doing shows that he feels the "poet is representative," both in using words as representative symbols and as a representative of life itself. The ideal poet becomes a portrait of a man incredibly close to nature, and therefore close to Emerson's view of God. The poet is a spiritual man who transcends our man made reality through introspection into the abyss of 'God's Reality,' bringing back with him carefully sculpted words for man-kind's consumption in an effort to help man-kind better understand life and the world in which it is lived. Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The Poet." The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 1. Third Ed. Paul Lauter, et al., eds. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 1646-1661. The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Brooks Atkinson. New York: Modern Library, 1950. Spiritual Views in Emerson's The Poet Essay -- Emerson Poet Essays Spiritual Views in Emerson's The Poet Transcendental, and therefore pantheist, views run fluidly throughout Emerson's texts, especially as he attempts to define his image of the perfect poet in his essay, The Poet. He continually uses religious terms to express his feelings, but warps these terms to fit his own unique spirituality. This technique somewhat helps to define his specific religious views which mirror the view of transcendentalism and pantheism. Emerson's ideal poet is a pantheist who can express the symbols of the world through words. Emerson begins the essay by explaining that many people are taught "rules and particulars" to decide what is good art, and therefore deem themselves worthy critics although they have no feeling for art in their soul. He states that intellectual men, perhaps the cold Unitarians from which he broke away, theologians, and modern 'poets' do not acknowledge a relationship between the physical world and the mind and then praises the "highest minds" (such as Swedenborg, Plato and Heraclitus) who instead examine everything to its fullest manifold meaning. I find it interesting that in the lines "We were put into our bodies, as fire is put into a pan" and we are "but children of the fire, made of it, and only the same divinity transmuted, and at two or three removes, when we know least about it" that Emerson compares human souls to fire. Heraclitus believed that fire was the essence of everything, similar to Anaximander's concept of 'apeiron.' Emerson here shows his pantheistic view that we have all come from the same divine 'stuff,' and being "two or three removes" away from its Godly source, we are unable on a basic level to fully comprehend it. This is also remin... ...his ideal poet, and in doing shows that he feels the "poet is representative," both in using words as representative symbols and as a representative of life itself. The ideal poet becomes a portrait of a man incredibly close to nature, and therefore close to Emerson's view of God. The poet is a spiritual man who transcends our man made reality through introspection into the abyss of 'God's Reality,' bringing back with him carefully sculpted words for man-kind's consumption in an effort to help man-kind better understand life and the world in which it is lived. Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The Poet." The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 1. Third Ed. Paul Lauter, et al., eds. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 1646-1661. The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Brooks Atkinson. New York: Modern Library, 1950.

The Ethics of the Media

The purpose of the media has become an ongoing question since the large amount of conflicts between the consumer and media. Why is the original purpose of the media so damn hard to figure out? It is time to confront this issue instead of blowing it off by saying, â€Å"We can never change the media, so why bother? † What kind of chickenshit statement is that?! If there are so many people with so much power, surely one of them realizes the downward spiral of the ethics of the media. I feel my sole purpose of this paper is to tell everyone my ideas and viewpoints on censoring the media. Ooooooo, censor. What a bad word that is when used in the same sentence with media. So many people believe censorship is a bad thing, but there is no other solution in stopping the â€Å"bad press. † When I sit back and look at the stories about stories that are bad and offending to someone, I realize something needs to be done. The media is out of control. True, there are many informing and needed stories, but, my god, how many times a day to we need to hear and read about how much money O. J. Simpson has to pay the family of Ronald Goldman? We, as consumers, need to sit back and ask ourselves, â€Å"What was the point of hearing or reading that story? Back to the censor issue. I, as an aspiring journalist, do not believe in total and complete censorship of the media, but also, as an aspiring journalist, I am embarrassed of some of the stories that are run, for instance, when the crime scene photos of Jon-Benet Ramsey were run in Globe magazine. Was there not anyone, an editor, a writer, or even a custodian at Globe who thought, â€Å"Uh, oh. These photos may get us into some trouble. † Was there not a single sole who had enough ethics to try and stop these pictures from being printed? This is where censorship comes in. If I could do anything in the world, I would first, stop world hunger, and second set up some guidelines and laws that the media must obey. Guidelines such as, no digging through peoples trash and no peeking in windows. Of course, we know that by law, there is to be no peeking in windows, or over fences, but there is no one at the editors desk to implicate these laws. There is supposed to be someone there to prevent these stories from running, but remember, their paycheck depends on how many copies are sold or how high the ratings are. This â€Å"censor person† needs to have a set wage. If there was someone to stop these types of occurrences, half of my problems with the media would be taken care of. This may sound like a lame solution, but we need to start somewhere. Obviously this is not a complete solution to these problems with the media, so the next step would be to start using the editors for weeding out the stories that are not giving some type of information that the consumer wants and needs to hear or read. This is also easier said than done. This solution also brings up questions like, how does the editor know what stories the consumer wants to hear or read about? That is the responsibility of the media. Let them take polls and give every effort to find out what we want. Journalism will only survive if it establishes a more valuable and clearly defined mission, (Morality of Mass Media, Ellen Hume. ) I could write a book about all the things I want to see changed in the media before I become a part of it, but I will not. There should be a line drawn so that the media can be punished for their wrongdoing. Many people agree that there should be a line drawn and like it or not, that line is called censorship. Our founding fathers did not want censorship on the media, but they probably did not think that the media would be doing such a crummy job. I do not want to say that all media is doing a bad job. Overall, they are doing a fairly good job, but there is still a large amount of dirty press that needs to be cleaned up.

To Hell With Dying as an Autobiography Essay - 781 Words

To Hell With Dying as an Autobiography When reading fiction, one can begin to wonder how much of a gap there is between the story the narrator is telling and the actual events that occurred to make the author decide to write the story. In Alice Walker’s To Hell With Dying, one could say that this story is basically auto- biographical. Although some people may have thought that To Hell With Dying was completely fiction, evidence from the story and other sources suggest otherwise. The love the narrator feels towards Mr. Sweet parallels with actual events that took place in Alice Walker’s life. In the preface of Donna Haisty Winchell’s book Alice Walker, it is revealed that Alice Walker was blinded in one eye at age†¦show more content†¦This part of the story may be a symbol showing how Mr. Sweet made Walker feel good in real life just as he makes the narrator feel good in the story. Walker admired the things that Mr. Sweet stood for. In the story and, most likely, in real life, Mr. Sweet had ambitions that were not possible to achieve because black men fare better if they are not [ambitious](1143). This did not discourage Mr. Sweet from becoming an artist. Mr. Sweet continued to sing, and it was through this singing that Walker realized that she wanted to become an artist 148). The memory of Mr. Sweet’s continuous singing also saved Walker’s life. In Alice Walker Winchell writes that Walker credits an old artist in Georgia with turning her attention to life at a time when death was much on her mind (12). Walker loves Mr. Sweet for saving her from death. Although there are differences between Mr. Sweet’s death in the story and in real life, there is still a parallel between the events. In real life. Walker couldn’t make it home when Mr. Sweet died because she was too poor. In the story she races home to see Mr. Sweet for the last time. Mr., Sweet gives his guitar to the narrator to remember him. Mr. Sweet’s gift of the guitar in the story symbolizes the gift of creativity he gave Walker in real life. Winchell writes, The seed of creativity was Mr. Sweet’s legacy to Walker. In the story the gift of creativity is passed onShow MoreRelatedDante Alighieri868 Words   |  4 PagesFlorence 3. on a comprehensive level, it’s an allegory about a journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise. 4. Rhyme scheme is terza rima (aba, bcb, cdc, etc.) 5. Plot: i. a man (Dante) is enabled to undertake a journey which leads him to visit souls in Hell, Puragatory, and Paradise. ii. he has two guides- Virgil who leads him through Hell and Puragatory and Beatrice- who leads him to Paradise iii. takes placeRead MoreMy First Lesson About Gambling1194 Words   |  5 Pageshe is just by living and dealing drugs. 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