Discontinuity in Self-Reliance and When I Consider How My Light Is Spen

Discontinuity in boldness and When I Consider How My Light Is Spent Ralph Waldo Emerson emphatically proclaims in self-direction that the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is that they set naught at traditions but verbalizewhat they thought (515). Emerson declares that Miltons greatness is attributed not to conformity but earlier to originality. Miltons break with consistent expectations is epitomized in his use of a Petrarchan praise in the poem When I Consider How My Light Is Spent. Nonconformity and discontinuity in a mans approaching to life are the doctrines espoused by Emerson in his work ego-Reliance, and Milton embodies an Emersonian outlook while inwardly searching for personalised truth in his sonnet. The lack of formal structure in the full treatment of the two authors enhances rather than inhibits the readers grasp of the literature. Although both Emerson and Milton occupy a discontinuous literary style in their respective works, Emerson re vels in his lack of continuity to further promulgate his ideology of nonconformity and horror while Miltons use of discontinuity is procured in an attempt to understand his endow before God. The foundation for comparing the two works will be based on the following definition of discontinuity any literary approach that deviates from standard structural form. The absence of formal structure in Emersons Self-Reliance has been derided by some critics as an insuperable handicap to an abstract understanding of the work (Warren 200). A thorough examination of the work, however, evokes two fundamental claims Emerson provides a basis for some semblance of structure, and complete continuity is antithetical to the fundamentals of Emersons Se... ... The American Tradition in Literature. Eighth Edition. Ed. George Perkins. revolutionary York. McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994. Milton, stern. When I Consider How My Light Is Spent. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. M.H.Abrams et al. New York W.W. Norton and Company, 1996. Nicolson, Marjorie Hope. John Milton A Readers Guide to His Poetry. New York Octagon Books, 1983. Packer, B.L. Emersons spend A New Interpretation of the Major Essays. 19th Century literary Criticism 38 (1993) 200-208. Robinson, David M. Grace and Work Emersons Essays in theological Perspective. 19th Century Literary Criticism 38 (1993) 223-230. Warren, Joyce W. Transcendentalism and the Self Ralph Waldo Emerson. 19th CenturyLiterary Criticism 38 (1993) 208-213. Wilson, A.N. The Life of John Milton. Oxford Oxford University Press, 1983.