Metaphysical themes and images in the early prose and poetry of Henry David Thoreau Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Hannah, Bruce Frank, 1919- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 06/10/2021 13:25:45 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553563 METAPHYSICAL THEMES A11D IMAGES IN THE EARLY PROSE AND POETRY 0? HENRY DAVID THOREAU by Bruce Frank Hannah, Jr. A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of tho Department of English In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts In the Graduate College University of Arizona 1941 /fy/ . 2- T A B U OF CONl'i-NTS Chepter Page I INTRODUCTORY: THOREAU'S PARLY READING. 1 II THCRIAU’S DIR CT USE OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY MATERIAL................................. 14 III THE HOMELY FI G U R E ........................... 29 IV THE ASTRONOMICAL FIGURE ..................... 42 V THE HUMAN MIND THEME.............. 53 VI THE MAN IN NATURE THEME AND TrCRTAU’S USE 0" SYMBOLISM.............. 69 VII IN CONCLUSIONi THE JOURNAL AFTER 1052. 88 143910 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY i r0iCRKAU<S EARLY READING By tiie ago of twenty-four Henry David. Baoreau had read the throo works which precipitated his thoughts on man end nature, and wlilch explain more fully than any other outside Influences the development of hi* unique contribution to American letters. By this tine (1641) ho had come to live at the homo of Ralph Waldo Emerson bo a recognized member of the most concentrated and self-conscious Intellectual circle over to Influence American thought, the New England tran- scendentailsts, and had packed in hia mind and notebooks the contents of the Hindu "Bhagaved Gita," Emerson^ Nature, and the volumes of Alexander Chalmers * s English'Poets con- - talnlng the writings of the seventeenth-century metaphysical school. It is the purpose of this thesis to trace, from this time until the publication of Walden, the importance of the last of these, metaphysical poets, in the growth of Thorecu’s self-expression, not so much as a source of particular ideas and images, but rather as an Influence toward a way of think­ ing and writing which was congenial to Tnoreau, which conse­ quently appealed to him In the work of other writers, end which for these reasons makes a convenient point of departure for analyzing his own prose end poetry. Ac use of meta­ physical imagery and themes is just one of the throo 2 contributory strands which color most highly Thoreau1o early writings, its inporfcance oust be evaluated with relationship to the other two, the doctrine in the "Bh&gevad Gita" and the philosophy of Nature. Ho natter how rich the background of a writer la In its complex of reading and other biographical incidents, the total effect of all his experiences on his writing is a aingle force In which it is difficult to discern the specific in­ fluence of a particular experience. The genius of Thoreau is simpler, externally, than that of most writers, as it was essentially the product of an isolated and independent mind feeding upon itself. His life, passed almost entirely within the boundaries of Massachusetts, was serenely free from worldly upheaval, and though he read widely and continuously, the processes of bis own mind were much more real and inter­ esting to him. The external life of even the mental hermit Thoreau can be over-simplified, however, and to study his early writings, first the interrelationship must bo shown between the ^Baberaved Gita.w Mature, and the seventeenth- century metaphysical poets: when and how much did he read them, which Ideas or particular sections appealed to him most, and what similarities arc reflected in his own writings! During the first year of his residence at Emerson * s home, if not earlier, Thoreau started reading extensively in books of Hindu scripture, as the quotations in his note- 3 book drawn from hi® reading for 1841 are almost entirely from 1 this material. The work which appealed to him most, and which he referred to again and again in his journal and in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, his first puW"-;<;-: llehed book, was the "Bhagavad Gifca,R a portion of the sacred Hindu epic Mahabhcrata. In this most famous section of the work the great god Krishna, having clothed his spirit In earthly fora, instructs the young Prince Arjuna, about to go into battle, in the doctrine which man must follow to attain the highest spiritual state, and in eighteen short chapters outlines the main points of Hindu philosophy with­ out going into the intricate religious code expounded in the laws of the Vedas and Menu, which Thoreau also read. Krishna's typically Oriental dissertations on such mystical problems as “The Mystery of Omnipresence" and "The Yoga of Devotions" did not appeal to Thoreau so much as chapter# on "The Secret of Work" and "Self Mastery," in which he found a basic for prac­ tical ethics very similar to his own convictions# Specifically, the ideas Thoreau found in the "Bhagavad Oita” which fitted in perfectly with his own moral reflections were the doctrine of individual Integrity and the more purely religious concepts of deity and immortality. One remark by Krishna suras up what was always Thoreau1s ideal of intellec­ tual development: "Know, 0 Prince, that when a wan froeth 1. ii. W. Adana, 0Thoreau*a Literary Apprenticeship," BP, XXIX (October, 1932), p. 619. 4 himself from the bond# of the desires of his heart, and findeth satisfaction in the Real Self within himself— #ueh 1 a one has attained Spiritual Consciousness.” It was his striving for this goal which drove Thoresu to live at Walden Pond, which determined the nature of each of hie friendships, and which was at once the strength end weakness of hi® thinking. Carried to the extreme, such an ideal led him to shun contemporary problems fro® time to time and live solely within his own mind, ostensibly to get the proper perspective on universal value#, but as often as not the result was merely rumination on his own ego. "We have repeatedly to withdraw ourselves into our shells of 2 thought like the tortoise,” said Thoreau, a reflection of the words in the "Bhegavad Gita," which says "When a man hath attained true spiritual knowledge, he beccmoth like unto the tortoise which is able to withdraw into Its shell 5 its limbs." this preoccupation with the Real Self con­ siderably narrows individual responsibility and the demands of duty, both for Thoreau and for the writer of the *Bhagavad Oita." Says the letter. Take hold of that work which lies nearest thy hand, and do it the best that is in thy power to do— end it will be well with thee...^Perform thy task for the sake of Duty to the Roal Self alone, and 123 1. bhhagavad Oita,u p. ob. 2. Walden Edition, Journal. Vol. II, p. 46. 3. "BMgfived■ Oita," p. 38 5 1 for no other motive. The central thesis of Thereto!’s MCivil Disobedience” is that / any individual constitutes a majority if he thinks and acts from the single, motive of personal integrity. In comparison with his staunch belief in the individual soul as the only determiner of truth, or right and wrong, most of Thoreau*s other philosophical ideas are relatively pale and unimportant, Whatever religious beliefs he held, in the conventional sense of the wordc, were more Hindu than anything else. Any allusion to a god or gods in his writing Is usually purely literary, with reference most often to Greek mythology. His ono attempt to define deity follows tho Hindu bo lief: ’’Each man1 s God— his Conception of Deity— 2 is himself at his best magnified to infinity.” Thoreau observed that a people frame their gods according to their circumstances and their ideas of authority and respectability. He even gees as far as to say, with characteristic emphasis 3 on the individual, "What a man believes, Goa believes.” Almost a corollary to his faith in man’s spiritual develop­ ment and his ability to conceive of Cod In his own Imago is his belief in the transmigration of souls, the Hindu eon- 4 coption of immortality. 1. Ibid.* pp, 44-45. 2. lela.. pp. 157-158. 3. Mi vers id e Edition, A u'cek on tho Concord and Kerrlmack Rivers, pp. 82-85*. 4. Por a complete discussion of this point oeo Raymond W. Adams, "Thoreau and Immortality," SP,XXVI (January,1929), pp. 58-66. 6 He comments in his journal after visiting a menagerie, "It is unavoidable, the idea of transmigration: not merely 1 a fancy of the poets, but an instinct of the race*" That he too had this Instinct and cherished it as personal belief is shown by M s letter to Mre* Imcy Ercvm written shortly 2 after the death of Fmereon*s eon, Waldo* His Intuitive feeling that the soul migrated from lower forma of life to eventual Immortality came to him also when he felt partic­ ularly close to nature, but, aside from the.concept of deity men tidied above, this was his only firmly held, belief which could be called a religious conviction* Emerson’s Nature, one of the earliest and most complete statements of transcendentalism as a. philosophy, v/rg an earlier and more personal Influence on Tboreeu than tho "Hhagavad Gita." Henry Seidel Canby, his most recent and most thorough biographer, says, "It is not too much to say that Tboreeu 'ws® made by two book®, •Mature1 and the 5 •Bh&gavad Gita* *" In the Hindu poem he found outlined the only religion which ever appealed to him, at least in his youth, and in Emerson*s treatise, which he probably 4 picked up to rena as a senior at Harvard in 1837, ho found a contemporary describing man*s relation to nature and 1* Walden Ea1tlon«' Journa1, Vol.