Emerson, Whitman, or Thoreau?

It is a very difficult task to choose a favorite writer between Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau. All three are very commendable Transcendentalists and have published a number of mind-tickling works that offer new thoughts and ideas and a good, challenging read. But throughout my high school career, all the way back to my freshman year, Emerson's writing has always stood out to me and pulled me in. I would not like to put Whitman or Thoreau down, as I also enjoy their works of art thoroughly, but Emerson can write so elegantly and smoothly through his prose.

As I read through Emerson's compositions, from Nature to Self Reliance, I am many times in awe and confusion at the sentence structure, the word choice, and the metaphors that Emerson uses in his writing. If you look at my copy of Nature, and more specifically the first two paragraphs, you might think a mad man was annotating this text. But Emerson's talent stimulates a challenge in reading and understanding the literature. To state an example, Emerson writes, "Let us inquire, to what end is nature?" This simple sentence gets you thinking, shoves you right into a debate about what is nature? What isn't nature? What is its purpose? This is my favorite kind of writing and Emerson has proved to be a master of it; this kind of writing that gets you thinking and gets you engaged.

Another component of Emerson's techniques that draw me to him are his deep and sometimes crazy metaphors. One example of this is when Emerson write that he "becomes a transparent eyeball." He says "[he is] nothing. [He] see[s] all." When I first read this I probably thought he was crazy. It is an intense line to read and think about. But it is also so beautiful. He is describing how it is when "all mean egotism vanishes" and he becomes one with God, enlightened if I may. This type of creativity and provoking statements is exactly what draws my attention towards this writer and is why I could chose Emerson over the other transcendentalists we have covered. I see Emerson as simply spectacular.