The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Leader of the transcendalist movement and hero of American individualism and freedom
Written by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Narrated by Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe
5/5
()
About this audiobook
His father died before Emerson was eight and the young boy was raised by his mother and other female members of the family.
Emerson's formal schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812 when he was 9. In October 1817, at 14, Emerson went to Harvard College. He did not excel as a student but was elected Class Poet in his senior year which required him, as was the custom, to present an original poem on Harvard's Class Day, a month before his graduation on August 29th, 1821.
In 1826, faced with poor health, Emerson went to seek out warmer climates and eventually to St. Augustine, Florida, where he took long walks on the beach, and began writing poetry.
Initially Emerson made his living as a schoolmaster, then went to Harvard Divinity School which had opened in 1816.
Emerson met his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker in 1827, and they married when she was 18. They moved to Boston, but Ellen was already sick with tuberculosis. Emerson was now offered the post of junior pastor by Boston’s Second Church and he was ordained in January 1829.
Ellen died at the age of 20 in February 1831, after uttering her last words: "I have not forgot the peace and joy." Emerson was devastated and visited her grave in Roxbury daily. He also began to question his faith and began to disagree with the church's methods, and this eventually led to his resignation in 1832.
On November 5th, 1833, he made the first of an eventual total of some 1,500 lectures, ‘The Uses of Natural History’, in Boston.
He married Lidian Jackson on September 14th, 1835 and the couple moved to Concord. They would have four children.
Over the following decades a remarkable career would emerge. He would become renowned as an essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.
In January 1842 Emerson's first son, Waldo, died of scarlet fever. Emerson wrote of his grief in his classic poem ‘Threnody’ ("For this losing is true dying") published in his 1847 collection ‘Poems’. His poetic work is often overshadowed by the other facets of his career but there is no doubt that its contribution was immense. He remains one of the linchpins of the American romantic movement. Indeed, his works, from essays to poems, have greatly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets that have followed him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson died of complications from pneumonia on April 27th, 1882 at the age of 78 in Concord, Massachusetts.
01 - The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson. An Introduction
02 - Initial Love by Ralph Waldo Emerson
03 - Give All To Love by Ralph Waldo Emerson
04 - Lover's Petition by Ralph Waldo Emerson
05 - Art by Ralph Waldo Emerson
06 - Ode To Beauty by Ralph Waldo Emerson
07 - Culture by Ralph Waldo Emerson
08 - The Test by Ralph Waldo Emerson
09 - Nemesis by Ralph Waldo Emerson
10 - Water by Ralph Waldo Emerson
11 - Forebearance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
12 - Waves by Ralph Waldo Emerson
13 - Letters by Ralph Waldo Emerson
14 - Days by Ralph Waldo Emerson
15 - Berrying by Ralph Waldo Emerson
16 - May-Day by Ralph Waldo Emerson
17 - The Snow Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson
18 - Fate by Ralph Waldo Emerson
19 - The Lords of Life by Ralph Waldo Emerson
20 - A Nation's Strength by Ralph Waldo Emerson
21 - The World Soul by Ralph Waldo Emerson
22 - Teach Me I Am Forgotten By the Dead by Ralph Waldo Emerson
23 - Worship by Ralph Waldo Emerso
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. Although he began his career as a Unitarian minister, he gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism instead. Seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, he disseminated his thoughts through published essays and public lectures across the United States.
More audiobooks from Ralph Waldo Emerson
Leadership (Condensed Classics): The Prince; Power; The Art of War: The Prince; Power; The Art of War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Compensation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mastery of Life: The Self-Help Classics of Ralph Waldo Emerson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Reliance: The Unparalleled Vision of Personal Power from America's Greatest Transcendental Philosopher Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Power & Wealth (Condensed Classics): The Immortal Classics on Will & Money-Now in Special Condensations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essays On Transcendence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prudence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Related audiobooks
The Poetry Of William Wordsworth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5John Keats: Selected Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Milton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic American Poetry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5John Keats: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essays, Second Series Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poetry of Wind and Rain: Poets wax lyrical on the elements of showers to storms Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poetry of Flowers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5100 Greatest Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Keats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Top 50 Poems: Fifty of the finest poems ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summer: A Season in Verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPercy Bysshe Shelley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare's Sonnets (version 2) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5John Keats - A Tribute in Verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Poets: W.B. Yeats Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Essays On Transcendence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leaves of Grass Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCircles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Reliance: and Other Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings100 Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The American Scholar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays, First Series (version 2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Great Virtues - Three Essays by Emerson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nature: An Essay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tact Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Robert Frost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Poetry For You
Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gift of Rumi: Experiencing the Wisdom of the Sufi Master Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Milk and Honey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Boys Are Poisonous: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Classic Hundred Poems: All-Time Favorites Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inferno - Dante Alighieri Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prophet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spirits in Bondage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poems of T.S. Eliot Read by Jeremy Irons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beowulf: A New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metamorphoses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun and Her Flowers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf: Translated by Seamus Heaney Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rumi's Little Book of Life: The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Inferno of Dante Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strength In Our Scars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poetry of Walt Whitman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5W. B. Yeats: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 rating0 reviews