【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 rld is a microcosm of existence。 that the individual soul is identical to the world soul, or OverSoul. By meditation, by muning with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and goodness and truth. Transcendentalism ? In application, American transcendentalism urged a reform in society, and that such a reform may be reached if individuals resist customs and social codes, and rely rather on reason to learn what is right. Ultimately, transcendentalists believed that one should transcend society39。s code of ethics and rely on personal intuition in order to reach absolute goodness, or Absolute Truth. ? It was indebted to the dual heritage of American Puritanism. That is to say, it was in actuality romanticism on the puritan soil. 1. Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803 1882) 2. philosophy: 1) Strongly he felt the need for a new national vision. 2) He firmly believes in the Oversoul 超靈 and thought that the universe was posed of Nature and the Soul. One could find redemption贖回，補(bǔ)救，兌現(xiàn) only in one‘s own soul. 3) The individual, not the crowd, is the most important of all. That means to say he advocates the infinitude無限 of private man (transcendental individualism). 4) To his eyes, the physical world was vitalistic生機(jī)論的 and evolutionary. Nature is the symbol of spirit. 2. His Masterpiece: ? Nature 3. Evaluation to him: 1) He was the first American to call for an independent culture in both Nature and The American Scholar.(America‘s Declaration of Intellectual Independence).He called on American writers to write about America in a way peculiarly American. 2) Emerson‘s aesthetics places emphasis on ideas, symbol, and imaginative words, which brought about a revolution in American literature in general and in American poetry in particular. 3) He embodied表現(xiàn)，象征 a new nation‘s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative 形成的，發(fā)展的 period. 4) In modern times he is sometimes dismissed自心中擯除，不再考慮 /談?wù)? as having no sense of evil, and his optimistic philosophy as so much Transcendentalist folly愚蠢的行為，思想，做法 . 1) Henry David Thoreau(1817 1862) 2) was one of the three great American authors of the 19th century who had no contemporary readers and yet became great in the 20th century, the other two being Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. 3) His masterpiece ―Walden‖ holds that the most important thing for men to do is to be selfsufficient and strive to achieve personal spiritual perfection. He has been regarded as a prophet先知 of individualism in American literature. Walden can be read on more than one level. It is a book of essays put together,exploring subjects concerned with Nature, with the meaning of life,and with morality. Threau had three purposes in writing this book: to make the readers evaluate the way he lived and thought, to reveal the hidden spiritual possibilities in everyone39。s life, and to condemn the weakness and errors of society,such as the pursuit of material things. 4) He was very critical of modern civilization. He thought modern civilized life has dehumanized man and placed him in a spiritual quandary窘困 。 by trying to amass積累 material possessions, man is not really living, but is digging his own grave. Civilized man is the slave of matter. Spiritual richness is real wealth. 1. Walt Whitman (1819 1892) was a catalog of American and European thought and was susceptible易受影響的 to many influences, such as, the Enlightenment and its ideals of the rights and dignity of the individual, Transcendentalism, German philosophy, science, pantheism泛神論 , the idea of progress, and current American life with its western frontier spirit. 2. His masterpiece ―Leaves of Grass‖（ the collection of over 400 poems） ? About his poem: 1) He seemed to keep his eyes on society at large pared with Dickinson. 2) In his poems he extols 贊揚(yáng) the ideals of equality and democracy and celebrates the dignity, the selfreliant spirit and the joy of the mon man. 3) Thematically主題 he extolled an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness. 4) In technical terms, he added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter抑揚(yáng)格五音部 and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before. ? 哦．船長，我的船長！ ? 哦．船長，我的船長！我們險(xiǎn)惡的航程已經(jīng)告終， 我們的船安渡過驚濤駭浪，我們尋求的獎(jiǎng)賞已贏得手中。 港口已經(jīng)不遠(yuǎn)，鐘聲我已聽見，萬千人眾在歡呼吶喊， 目迎著我們的船從容返航，我們的船威嚴(yán)而且勇敢。 可是，心??！心啊！心??！ 哦．殷紅的血滴流瀉， 在甲板上，那里躺著我的船長， 他已倒下，已死去，已冷卻。 哦，船長，我的船長！起來吧，請聽聽這鐘聲， 起來， —— 旌旗，為你招展 —— 號角，為你長鳴。 為你．岸上擠滿了人群 —— 為你，無數(shù)花束、彩帶、花環(huán)。 為你，熙攘的群眾在呼喚，轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)著多少殷切的臉。 這里，船長！親愛的父親！ 你頭顱下邊是我的手臂！ 這是甲板上的一場夢啊， 你已倒下，已死去，已冷卻。 我們的船長不作回答，他的雙唇慘白、寂靜， 我的父親不能感覺我的手臂，他已沒有脈搏、沒有生命， 我們的船已安全拋錨碇泊，航行已完成，已告終， 勝利的船從險(xiǎn)惡的旅途歸來，我們尋求的已贏得手中。 歡呼，哦，海岸！轟鳴，哦，洪鐘！ 可是，我卻輕移悲傷的步履， 在甲板上，那里躺著我的船長， 他已倒下，已死去，已冷卻。 ? 我是無名之輩 ! 你是誰 ? 我是無名之輩 ! 你是誰 ? 你也是無名之輩嗎 ? 那么我們?yōu)橐粚?! 別說 ! 他們會(huì)傳開去 你知道 ! 多無聊 是 某某名人 ! 多招搖 象個(gè)青蛙 — 告訴你的名字 漫長的六月 — 給一片贊賞的沼澤 ! ? Differences between Whitman and Dickinson In contents: ① Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large。 Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. ② Whitman is ―national‖ in his outlook, Dickinson is ―regional‖. In forms: Whitman uses endless, allinclusive catalogs。 Dickinson uses concise, direct, and simple diction and syntax . Dickinson wrote altogether 1775 poems, of which only seven appeared in print in her lifetime. After her death her poems were discovered accidentally by her sister and were published intermittently間歇的（ of and on） . In 1950 Harvard University bought all her copyright, and five years later the plete works of the poet, including three volumes of poems and three volumes of letters, was published. She was rediscovered after her deat