In "Life without Principle," Thoreau writes, "I would have had him deal with his privatest experience, as the poet does." What does this statement mean
8 answers
It sounds as if he's saying someone ought to be looking inward, learning who he is completely, learning to express his innermost thoughts -- from all directions -- as poets do.
It means the lecturer should have spoken on something close to his heart, something he dwells in, and knows.
Thoreau was not for cursory, sideline thinking. He was going for the meat, as he stated in the essay.
Thoreau was not for cursory, sideline thinking. He was going for the meat, as he stated in the essay.
Consider the context of that sentence:
"At a lyceum, not long since, I felt that the lecturer had chosen a theme too foreign to himself, and so failed to interest me as much as he might have done. He described things not in or near to his heart, but toward his extremities and superficies. There was, in this sense, no truly central or centralizing thought in the lecture. I would have had him deal with his privatest experience, as the poet does. The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. I am surprised, as well as delighted, when this happens, it is such a rare use he would make of me, as if he were acquainted with the tool."
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/lifewithoutprinciple.html
"At a lyceum, not long since, I felt that the lecturer had chosen a theme too foreign to himself, and so failed to interest me as much as he might have done. He described things not in or near to his heart, but toward his extremities and superficies. There was, in this sense, no truly central or centralizing thought in the lecture. I would have had him deal with his privatest experience, as the poet does. The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. I am surprised, as well as delighted, when this happens, it is such a rare use he would make of me, as if he were acquainted with the tool."
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/lifewithoutprinciple.html
2. In "Life without Principle," Thoreau writes, "I would have had him deal with his privatest experience, as the poet does." What does this statement mean?
In "Life without Principle," Thoreau writes, "I would have had him deal with his privatest experience, as the poet does." What does this statement mean?
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In emphasizing the importance of individual thinking and basing one's beliefs on one's own experiences Sojourner shows she has much in common with
2 answers