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 a...