Henry David Thoureaus Civil Disobedience and Walden

Throughout the 1800’s a new movement in literature called Romanticism took place. There were the light Romantics who reflected the good aspect of life and the dark Romantics who reflected to darker aspect in life. Overall, Romanticism focused on optimism and individualism, kinship with nature, and power of darkness. One of the central American light Romantics Ralph Wald Emerson wrote Nature reflects Emerson’s perspective of nature while Self-Reliance expresses Emerson’s opinion about a person’s independence. Around the mid-1800’s Emerson befriend another light Romantic named Henry David Thoreau, who wrote Walden and Civil Disobedience. While writing Walden Thoreau was living in the woods trying to simplify his life, and Civil Disobedience was written while in jail for refusing to pay poll tax. Both Emerson and Thoreau reflected Romanticism by making referenced to nature, suggesting individualism, and mentioning optimism in life. Many works of Romantics have nature embedded in them in order to embrace the wonders of Mother Nature as a result, in Nature, Emerson shows the reader that nature’s beauty is within the observer. â€Å"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God..But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with admonishing smile.† Emerson explains how people take nature’s beauty for granted by not paying close enough attention to