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Similes
Paragraphs 21-24
Explanation and Analysis:
Emerson writes “Self-Reliance” with an elevated, philosophical, and poetic style. He uses many long sentences with grand appeals to the soul, mankind, and the forces of the universe:
For, the sense of being which in calm hours rises, we know not how, in the soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one with them, and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed.
These long, winding sentences with many clauses are typical of the essay, giving it a sense of loftiness. Emerson creates a feeling of awe by invoking entities as grand as space, light, time, and man. Additionally, Emerson’s style is simultaneously philosophical and poetic, mirroring the broader style of transcendentalism. On the one hand, Emerson is putting forward a philosophical argument, claiming that the particular feeling of the soul that emerges with self-reflection comes from the same source as space, light, time, and man. This is in the typical style of transcendentalists, who believed that a certain divine spirit was found in all things. But he advances his argument in a poetic manner. In phrases like “the sense of being which in calm hours rises,” Emerson adopts a Romantic style, appealing to the reader’s emotional, rather than rational, response.
Related Themes:
