Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is a reaction to the overwhelming democratization of American life and liberalism in the 18^th century. It is a response to the rise of science and technology. In fact, it was an attempt to redefine the relation of Man to nature and Man to Man. This essay will delve into the main issues of Transcendentalist poetry in America highlighting its main principles.

This movement is based on prominent premises. In effect, adherents to this movement glorify intuition and rejected all sorts of authority be it religious one. Intuition is important for it leads the person to God. It runs counter senses which provide the individual only with what is tangible and physical. More importantly, they advocate the belief that the individual soul can reach God known as the over- soul without the help of churches or members of clergy. Namely, Man should be in a direct communion with God. By being in such a relation with God, Man would become self- reliant and unselfish. In this respect, the transcendentalists wished to separate the ideas of 'religion' and 'spirituality. This is not to say that they were anti-religion, or atheists. However, they felt that there was more to be cultivated, spiritually, than could be done through the church and religious community.

Nature is also of extreme importance to transcendentalists, who desired to strip away the excesses of the world and get back to the simple truths of life. Those who worked with the land- farmers and foresters- were thought to be the best of men, and did not lose sight of true worth as opposed to city dwellers, who are cut off from nature. Nature tends to be emblematic of the divine. Each element in nature is a reminder of the presence of the divine. As a matter of fact, by contemplating nature, one could transcend the physical world and unite with the 'Over-Soul,' the true energy of the universe. 

More importantly, the transcendentalists championed individualism, which is the practice of independence in thought and action based on the premise that individual character and personality are of the utmost importance. Accordingly, individuals are free to pursue their goals and private desires without taking into consideration the interests of society. This idea greatly shaped America's identity.

Another key feature of the movement was its growing respect and value for the position of women. It was out of transcendentalism that women in the United States would begin to campaign for the vote. This movement also embraced a transcendent love of all races, and took up the cause of unjust treatment of Native Americans and slaves. Not every transcendentalist was concerned about these reforms, but many of them used their instincts to listen to the human nature of essential equality, since humans are all, as Emerson said, “part or particle of God. Transcendentalists highlight the value of equality. In fact, Whitman alludes in some of his poems that the meal is set for everyone’s honour since he invites everyone to his meal and none is slighted. The top and dregs of society are actually invited which connotes that society does not undermine the other and the different. In essence, transcendentalism focuses on opposites for being different is rather attractive and exciting.

 There is no progress without contradiction. The idea of difference is foregrounded. In this respect, hues are colored the same; everyone can thus get rid of anything except his difference. Namely, transcendentalism is at the heart of opposition and differences, it is the womb where opposites co – exist.

More to the point, individuality and conformity are central premises in transcendental poetry.  For Whitman and America, grass takes on an expanding form and definition; each blade of grass varies from the next, but each blade makes up the collective body, such as the individuals who live in America, who are not to be alienated from their likeness, or what is the collective body.  
This omnipresence of grass is not accidental. It corresponds to an essential characteristic and specific trait of American literature which distinguishes it radically from all other western literatures: its transcendental quality. Transcendentalism, far from being a dead and irreverent philosophy confined to the first half of the nineteenth century, is a fertilizing undercurrent, a constant in American literature from Emerson down to our own time

To sum up, transcendentalism is aspiring for a new structure of society where all different people dwell together in the same society. It also longs for championing individualism over conformity which creates a new sense of the individual free from the manacles of the masses J