Paired Texts

Song of Myself and I Sing the Body Electric

These two poems are from a collection titled Leaves of Grass, which a little-known poet named Walt Whitman self-published and sent to Emerson in 1855. Impressed, Emerson wrote back to Whitman, praising his “free brave thought” in a letter that jumpstarted the young poet’s literary career. 

Other Student Resources

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This video, produced by theschooloflife.com, provides a brief overview of Emerson’s life, philosophy, and his role as the “Father of American Literature” and transcendentalism.

Transcendentalism and the Hudson River School of Art

Heimler’s History presents a short video that traces the growth of American literature from romanticism to transcendentalism along with parallel developments in American landscape painting.

Allegory of the Cave

A brief tutorial on Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” from the University of Washington. Plato created this allegory to illustrate his theory of “Forms,” with which Emerson was familiar and which he drew upon to explain how nature is only a shadow of universal truth or spirit.

'Nature-Deficit Disorder' is Really a Thing

This June 2020 New York Times article offers anecdotal evidence from parents to corroborate Richard Louv’s claims in Last Child in the Woods (2005) that modern-day children are suffering psychologically and physiologically from a lack of nature in their lives. For a challenge to the nature-deficit argument (and to Emerson’s “Nature”), see Nature-Deficit Disorder? at the National Association of Scholars website.

Seeing America's Wilderness for What It Is

Emerson was one of the founders of The Atlantic magazine, which launched this series on America’s natural spaces in April 2021. “Who Owns America’s Wilderness,” the first article in the series, focuses on John Muir, the 19th-century writer and activist who was inspired by Emerson’s philosophy to campaign for the establishment of America’s National Parks.

Teacher Resources

Transcendentalism

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy surveys the “origin and character” as well as the development and reception of transcendentalism.