from Nature-from Self-Reliance-The Snowstorm
Vocabulary Practice
Cloze Reading
Name: ___________________________
Mod: ________
Using the word bank below, fill in the blank using the word that best fits the sentence. Refer to page 389
in your text if needed.
Connate
Aversion
Suffrage
Divines
Rude
Tumultuous
Blithe
Bastions
Radiant
Chaos
We recently have learned that Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the founding fathers of the
Transcendentalist movement. Emerson overcame a ______________________ upbringing, graduating
from the renowned Harvard University. After finishing school, Emerson joined the ministry where after
only three years of practice, resigned his position.
Though Emerson was a seventh generation minister, he found that he needed to be further
stimulated outside of what his position had to offer. After leaving his position, Emerson was able to
study the ideas of philosophers and ________________, thus beginning his contribution to the
Transcendentalist movement. With Transcendentalism, Emerson discovered something more
_________________ about the existence of man.
Many of Emerson’s most influential poems and essay’s encompass the fundamental features of
Transcendentalism. The ________________ imagery Emerson offers us in his book titled Nature,
exemplifies the Transcendentalist appreciation of the simple life and the beauty of the earth’s natural
surroundings. In Emerson’s Self-Reliance, he urges us as human beings to take a stand against the
_______________ of every day life; to be the individual that is you and not to conform to how society
thinks you should be. Emerson states, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the _________________ of the world…”
Though some traditionalists may find Emerson’s ideas to be ______________, unconcerned, and
even RUDE, his ideas and beliefs, as the ideas and beliefs of many transcendentalists, have exceeded the
test of time. Just look at the “hippy” culture of the 1960’s if you want recent proof. Though
traditionalists may look back at the sixties as a time of _______________ and turmoil, the
nonconformist guru’s of that time held steadfast to the _________________ of their beliefs, just as the
Transcendentalists of the Romanic Age held to the foundations of theirs.