The Hudson River School Transcendentalism Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman Ralph Waldo Emerson

America and Nature, BFFs Many Americans came to tie their national pride to the landscape and wilderness, believing that a correlation existed between the strength and vigor of American nature and this strength and vigor of American society (American Passages).

The Hudson River School The Hudson River School poets and painters “sought to capture the grandeur they found in the American wilderness as an expression of the greatness of the young nation” (American Passages). America is a promised land, in that it is based on freedom, liberty and justice for all. The nature and geography of America reflects the values it is founded on. How?

The Hudson River School Humans were so small compared to the Creation of God Through nature, they realized that humans should fear God, their creator. Desired to capture these ideas in their paintings and poetry

Transcendentalism: America's Movement People are inherently good God can be found in nature, for it is his creation Institutions don't contain the fullness of truth, only God Be self-reliant Follow your own beliefs, be who you are Carpe Diem—Seize the Day! Timshel—Thou Mayst Joy and intelligence is found in the small things: blades of grass, for example Peace is the ultimate experience and value Transcend society!

Walt Whitman An American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse

Whitman Quotes Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you. I exist as I am, that is enough. I celebrate myself, and sing myself. And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. Peace is always beautiful. “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” “Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”

Henry David Thoreau He was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state (Wikipedia).

Quotes from Thoreau --Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. --An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. --Be true to your work, your word, and your friend. --I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. --Let us first be as simple and well as Nature --Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds. --Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.

More from Thoreau --A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. --I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. --If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, Nature (Wikipedia).

Quotes from Emerson --All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. --Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. --Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. --To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty... it beholds every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again. --As I walked in the woods I felt what I often feel that nothing can befal me in life, no calamity, no disgrace (leaving me my eyes) to which Nature will not offer a sweet consolation. --Power is in nature the essential measure of right.