Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Biography of Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson certainly took his place in the history of
American Literature . He lived in a time when romanticism was
becoming a way of thinking and beginning to bloom in America, the
time period known as The Romantic Age. Romantic thinking stressed on
human imagination and emotion rather than on basic facts and reason.
Ralph Waldo Emerson not only provided plenty of that, but he also
nourished it and inspired many other writers of that time. "His
influence can be found in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Herman
Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and Robert
Frost.". No doubt, Ralph Waldo Emerson was an astute and intellectual
man who influenced American Literature and has rightly received the
credit that he deserves from historians. He has been depicted as a
leading figure in American thought and literature, or at least ranks
up there with the very best. But there is so much more to Ralph Waldo
Emerson when we consider the personal hardships that he had to endure
during the course of his life and when we see the type of man that he
becomes. He certainly was a man of inspiration who knew how to
express himself by writing the best of poems and philosophical ideas
with inspiration.
To get an idea of how Ralph Waldo Emerson might have become such
an inspiration to the people, some background on his life is
essential. Can you imagine living a life with all your loved ones
passing away one by one? A persons life could collapse into severe
depression, lose hope, and lose meaning. He can build a morbid
outlook on life. Ralph Waldo Emerson suffered these things. He was
born on May 25, 1803 and entered into a new world, a new nation just
beginning. Just about eight years later, his father would no longer
be with him, as William Emerson died in 1811. The Emerson family was
left to a life marked by poverty. Ralph's mother, Ruth, was left as a
widow having to take care of five sons. However, Ralph's life seemed
to carry on smoothly. He would end up attending Harvard College and
persue a job of teaching full time. While teaching as a junior pastor
of Boston's Second Church, his life gained more meaning when he
married Ellen Louisa Tucker. Journal entries and love letters he
wrote at that time expressed lots of feelings and emotions that he
had. But after two short years of marriage, Ellen died of
tuberculosis. Suddenly, the one true person he had in his life was
gone. Life was losing it's meaning, and Ralph Waldo Emerson was in
need of some answers. This dark period drove him to question his
beliefs. Emerson resigned from the Second Church and his profession
as a pastor in search for vital truth and hope. But his father and
wife were not the only deaths that he had to deal...
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