On the Dominant ‘sage’ of the American imagination!

On the Noble Sage of Concord

If Rousseau’s Emile envisages a wonderful pattern or a benchmark for the education of children, an education that goes the Krishnamurti way, through the Nature connect, Emerson’s phenomenal work titled, Nature, published first in 1836, nurtures in American hearts an exemplary rubric for restoring the human-nature-god connect, which, to him, and a host of transcendentalists of his ilk, was lost somewhere down the way!

In other words, Emerson’s Nature, was also an exemplary benchmark of sorts, for it eulogises in such beautifully evocative language, the aesthetic, the spiritual and the practical advantages there are, to the American landscape, or in other words the benefits of the human-nature-god connect vis-à-vis the American landscape!

Interestingly, the year 1836 is memorable on many other counts too!

It was the year Carlyle published his Sartor Resartus and his subsequent The French Revolution: A History happened the next year, in 1837.

Very soon Thoreau got impacted by Carlyle and his Carlylisms, and subsequently went on to write a lovely bubbly essay that eulogises Carlyle and his oeuvre, on the title, Thomas Carlyle and His Works, in which, praising Carlylisms, he says, “He (Carlyle) does not go to the dictionary, the word-book, but to the word-manufactory itself”. Moreover, the Charles Dickens - Carlyle connect is so well-known for all to see!

And that’s another coincidence that Charles Dickens published his Sketches by Boz in the same year! (1836) Let’s also not forget the fact that Boz (Dickens) got married to Catherine Hogarth, only because of the astounding success of his Sketches! Added fact is that, Sketches by Boz remains his first published book ever!

Coming back to Emerson, who is fondly referred to as the ‘Prophet of the American Religion’ by Harold Bloom,

Well, the Emerson impact on a generation of writers is then not quite a surprise though! Thoreau took a leaf out of Emerson’s book when he made his observations of Nature much more concretised, like there was to the Hegel – Marx duo!

Whitman, in his Leaves of Grass gave poetic wings to Emerson’s clarion call for a return to Nature! Furthermore, the Emerson – John Muir connect is yet another pivotal topic for much interesting deliberation that needs more elucidation, albeit on a later post!

If Shakespeare’s titular claim to fame was ‘Bard of Avon,’ Emerson’s titular claim to fame rests in the sobriquet, Sage of Concord, and he remains - till date - the dominant ‘sage’ of the American imagination!

The Emersonian evocative enthrall continues…