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

Discontinuity in Self-Reliance and When I Consider How My Light Is worn out(p) Ralph Waldo Emerson emphatically proclaims in Self-Reliance that the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is that they set naught at traditions but spokewhat they thought (515). Emerson declares that Miltons greatness is attributed not to accord but rather to originality. Miltons break with consistent expectations is epitomized in his use of a Petrarchan sonnet in the poem When I Consider How My Light Is Spent. nonconformity and discontinuity in a mans approach to life are the doctrines espoused by Emerson in his work Self-Reliance, and Milton embodies an Emersonian outlook while inwardly searching for personal truth in his sonnet. The lack of formal structure in the works of the two authors enhances rather than inhibits the readers grasp of the literature. Although both Emerson and Milton employ a discontinuous literary style in their respective works, Emerson revels in his lack of c ontinuity to further promulgate his ideology of nonconformity and inconsistency while Miltons use of discontinuity is procured in an attempt to understand his place before God. The foundation for comparing the two works will be based on the spare-time activity 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 appropriate 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 smash continuity is antithetical to the fundamentals of Emersons Se... ... The American Tradition in Literature. Eighth Edition. Ed. George Perkins. rude(a) York. McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994. Milton, John. When I Consider How My Light Is Spent. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. M.H.Abrams et al. New Yo rk 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 Fall A New Interpretation of the Major Essays. nineteenth 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.