Ralph Waldo Emerson is widely considered one of America’s greatest poets and speakers. He is also regarded as the founder of Transcendentalism—a movement established romanticism that idealized nature and said that spirituality and divinity are both in humanity as well as nature. These ideas of a deep connection with nature were strange and new for the time, and so Emerson was to some a topic to debate, and to others, a man to admire. However, how new were these ideas? Has the power of nature not been underlined in previous literature and culture? Although many perceive Emerson as the unique creator of Transcendentalism and for noting how nature is perceived mystically and spiritually, the presence of past influences in his life, such as Irving’s Sleepy Hollow, seem to refute this claim. Ultimately, while some of Emerson’s ideas were inspired by previous sources, he stood out as a unique voice for change and for development. This is not to say that Emerson is not worth studying, or that his work is plagiarism; this noting of similarities gives us a better world view of how people perceive and understand their surroundings. Through this revealing of previous sources, we can look at concepts around the world and understand them as an amalgamation of ideas, rather than unique thought. Emerson used his influences—and his influence as a white, wealthy man—to persuade others to disconnect from the past and re-evaluate themselves in the present, so that we can positively improve the future.
In this Order of Exercises from the Dedication of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, we can see that Emerson gave an address at the event. This cemetery was named after The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a fictional story written by Washington Irving in the early 1800s about a man who disappeared after an encounter with a mysterious spirit known as the Headless Horseman. Ralph was born in 1803, so it is without question that hearing these stories as a child would have most certainly influenced him. These stories had a heavy emphasis on the mystery and romanticism of nature. Emerson’s ideas, specifically in Nature, are that of appreciation for everything that nature provides to us, about how beautiful it is, and about how we can derive understanding and spirituality from nature. These ideas fit smoothly into Irving’s fictional world of Sleepy Hollow.
Natureuses four different trains of thought to try to advocate for a closer relationship with the world around us: “Commodity; Beauty; Language; and Discipline” (Emerson 1828). Emerson argues that we owe everything we have to nature, and that we receive everything we need from nature, that nature is inherently made for us to look upon and to gaze at its beauty, that all language comes from nature, and that we can achieve a deeper understanding through nature. Emerson states that “the reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is because man is disunited with himself” (Emerson 1853). In saying this, Emerson is not only advocating for unity between man and nature, but, since we owe everything from nature and we understand ourselves through nature, Emerson is stating that we must find unity in ourselves in order to advance in life.
One way The Legend of Sleepy Hollowresonated with Emerson’s Nature is that it embraced entering nature in order to get away from the hardships of daily life. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the narrator, Diedrich Knickerbocker, says that “If ever [he] should wish for a retreat, whither [he] might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, [he knew] of none more promising than this little valley” (Irving 2520). Knickerbocker characterizes nature as being a place in which to “hide away,” as well as a place which offered a welcome refuge from the struggles of daily life in the bustling “civilized” world. Emerson seems heavily influenced by this idea. In the first chapter of Nature, Emerson says “to go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society” (Emerson 1826), essentially stating that to seek refuge, man must leave society to be one with nature. This is almost directly taken from Irving. In another Irving line, Knickerbocker states that “a drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land” (Irving 2520), and that the people who live in Sleepy Hollow “begin to grow imaginative” and “dream dreams” (Irving 2521). Emerson also notes the attachment of nature to the mind, when he states that “when we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind” (Emerson 1827). Emerson agrees with Irving, then, that nature (and particularly forests), bring out an inquisitive side in all of us, and that they tempt us to ponder about our surroundings. We can see this as well with Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, which is another tale about mysterious events happening in the woods. A man leaves his home, to seek asylum from his bothering wife and the constraints of a society who deems him lazy, falls asleep after imbibing drink from strange beings in the woods, and twenty years later, reawakes to find his community and life permanently changed. In the story, the Catskill mountains nearby are described as “always [having] been haunted by strange beings” (Irving 2517), and that it was an “abode of spirits” (Irving 2518). In each of these stories, the act of entering a mystical space in nature brought unknown ends. Additionally, both Emerson and Irving do not spare us the details of how beautiful and majestic nature is—while Irving often describes Sleepy Hollow as a place of wonder and beauty, with mystery hidden inside, Emerson instead lengthily describes the illustriousness and glory of nature, and how it distinctly affects us as humans. Neither withhold their pens when describing specific details of nature, and their descriptions of it transcend simple paragraphs (for example, when Emerson speaks about beauty in Nature, he continues for several paragraphs, describing the beauty of the natural world on page 1830). The purpose of this is to relate to the reader, and to describe a scene that will affect our emotions, which both Emerson and Irving have done. Emerson states that a sole part of nature is to “exist to the soul to satisfy the desire of beauty” (Emerson 1833). I believe both authors have done exceedingly well in describing in depth the scenes of nature that they present to the reader.
Ultimately, Emerson’s ideas about nature being mystical did not originate with his publishing of Nature. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle are both examples of how nature has been thought of continuously as having mystical, and perhaps even spiritual attributes. Since these stories were incredibly popular in the area and time Emerson grew up and lived in, it is not without question that these ideas were incredibly influential on him. Emerson uses this romanticized ideal of nature, however, in order to prove a greater point. Emerson states that “our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchers of the fathers” (Emerson 1825). While it’s true that Emersonian ideas may not be entirely original, Emerson recommends acknowledging, but not worshipping your past, seeking out nature in order to be closer to humanity, and beginning anew.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, edited by Paul Lauter, Richard Yarborough, John Alberti, Mary Pat Brady, Kirk Curnutt, Daniel Heath Justice, James Kyung-Jin Lee, Wendy Martin, D. Quentin Miller, Bethany Schneider, Ivy Schweitzer, and Sandra A. Zagarell, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2014, 2010, 2006, pp. 1825-1854.
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, edited by Paul Lauter, Richard Yarborough, John Alberti, Mary Pat Brady, Kirk Curnutt, Daniel Heath Justice, James Kyung-Jin Lee, Wendy Martin, D. Quentin Miller, Bethany Schneider, Ivy Schweitzer, and Sandra A. Zagarell, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2014, 2010, 2006, pp. 2519-2541.
Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, edited by Paul Lauter, Richard Yarborough, John Alberti, Mary Pat Brady, Kirk Curnutt, Daniel Heath Justice, James Kyung-Jin Lee, Wendy Martin, D. Quentin Miller, Bethany Schneider, Ivy Schweitzer, and Sandra A. Zagarell, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2014, 2010, 2006, pp. 2506-2519.
“The Dedication of Sleepy Hollow. Order of Exercises at the Dedication of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Sept. 29, 1855, 2, P.M. [printed program] (Concord: B. Tolman, 1855). Letterpress on paper.” Emerson in Concord: an Exhibition in Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Free Public Library, 2003, https://concordlibrary.org/special-collections/emerson-celebration/Em_Con_54
KIRBY ASSAF 