I Become a Transparent Eyeball - Emerson

Dominant themes in Emerson's poetry are transcendentalism, experience, detachment, social construct, enlightened self-interest, agency, Nature, ratiocination and change.

In the poem, 'I Become a Transparent Eyeball' from his essay, 'Nature', Emerson attempts to encourage detachment. He tells us to always be in the process of 'becoming', for there is no greater glory and pride than in striving. Emerson asks that we live in the 'immediate'.

Emerson's ideology with regard to Nature and society was different from the contemporary perspectives - the British in general had a consumerist attitude toward nature in that its bounties and beauties were for mankind's enjoyment, supposedly. Thoreau, Emerson's counterpart believed that man was nothing in the face of Nature, that man will always be humbled by the majesty and simple brute force of Nature. Thoreau was a riot figure - he said that you must give up your claims on society if you dare ask that society gives up its claims on you. Emerson was more pragmatic - he says we can't give it up; we can't give up our homes, our libraries, our kitchens. He asks that we do not blame the world or society for what we are and who we are, and maintains that we do have the power to reject society if we dare to. Emerson was optimistic in his acceptance that we are capable of rejecting society and returning to our basic humanity, but we don't need to. We are creatures of comfort; we require company and the conveniences of life.

Emerson propagates an enlightened self-interest, a win-win situation - the rules of society prevent harm unto another. In this way one can do whatever he/she wants, but such that no one else is harmed. If it helps them, better!

ALSO:

Emerson: self-reliance, self-impression, intellectual father of England, nature wisdom -> pagan god of nature, parentheism

Structure: 1st stanza a breathless recollection - snowballing, building up; visual/concrete poetry, establishes difference between observation, sight (biological) and vision (philosophical), plays with like and dislike of the familiar and unfamiliar, respectively

1. Transcendentalism
 a) overcoming firmly constructed barriers
 b) seeing beyond the image or the definition
2. Id puribus unum
3. Society
 a) Society doesn't own us - we construct it
 b) Intention of Thoreau and Emerson - to question rules of society
4. Guilt
 a) American Literature eliminates guilt from its citizens - as opposed to Indian (and British) Literature, which reinforces guilt, obligation, duty and gratitude
 b) Americans dare - they have the audacity to do things, try thm out
5. Rebellion
 a) Rebellion is more aggressive, has multiple causes, spreads faster, is a reaction without solutions, is an act of defiance, and is personal, emotional, reflexive and instinctual; whereas
 b) PROTEST arises from rebellion, calls out stupidity on behalf of the system, is cause-oriented, organized, thought-out, intellectual, strategic, and offers alternatives.
6. Experience
a) a priori <knowledge that is innate, available to us at birth, like instinct>
b) experience
c) o posteriori <most of us are governed by this>

*mean egotism = what is visible is accepted as right, for convenience
*I am nothing = surrendered sight acc. vision (essentialism vs constructionism)
*Part or parcel = an act of Agency
*Pathetic fallacy in this poem = guilt structured by society

OTHER:

• brave idealism or sensible caution
• does sight obliterate vision?
• cannot discard all values of society (also costs)
• ^this depends on perceptions - what, then is absolute truth?
• Thoreau and Emerson's ideology based on similar central idea as in Into The Wild
• Streetcar Named Desire - dangerous to depend on state, because state can change its policies
• Thoreau gave up the world - went into forest to LIVE as opposed to EXISTING
• Transparent Eyeball akin to science fiction but not - more like playing with our minds polite-synonym

Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhileration.

(twilight, clouded sky symbolic of impaired judgement and vision)

(No expectations from that particular evening, living in the moment, truly happy)

I am glad to the brink of fear.

(Intensity of the feeling terrifies him.)

In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life is always a child.

(No experience with the woods, so learning constantly, grappling with environment like a child - like how a child learns quickly about his environment)

In the woods is perpetual youth.

(Because at whatever period of life, a return to the woods is a return to childhood, the woods signify perpetual youth.)

Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and a guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years.

(Plantations of God, not plantations of man; decorum and sanctity indicate purity of being untouched by man; perennial festival is the beauty of nature; guest is the man in the woods; enjoying so much he won't tire of it in a thousand years)

In the wood, we return to reason and faith.

(In society, we are confused between what we are expected to do and what we want to do. We forget what is actually right and what makes sense.)

There I feel that nothing can befall me in life - no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes) which nature cannot repair.

(Nothing too bad can happen to him in the woods except maybe blindness - no disaster can strike him)

Standing on the bare ground, - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, - all mean egotism vanishes.

(He is one with the Universe - bare ground and blithe air are raw natural elements - he is in direct contact with the universe; mean egotism is the phenomenon by which whatever is visible is accepted as right, simply for convenience.)

I become a transparent eyeball

(Emerson attempts to encourage detachment, tell us to always be in the process of becoming for there is no greater glory and pride than in striving. he asks us to live in the immediate.)

I am nothing;

(surrendered sight acceded to vision; essentialism vs constructionism)

I see all; 

the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me;

I am part or parcel of God.

(part or parcel = act of Agency)

In the woods there is isolation from society; all attachments to people lose their meaning and become a hindrance to the moment.


QUICK RECAP

EMERSON
Lines from poem (but don't explain the whole thing)
Title and significance of eyeball
distinction between life inside and outside the material world
significance of elements
perception of life
choice of words - philosophical
Juxtaposition

READ UP:
genius it seems
transparent eyeball is apparently a thing
Wilderness