Transcendentalists believed that you should practice free thought; you should set aside any personal beliefs you carry in order to see every aspect of a subject. In Whitman's "O Me! O Life!" he describes the main question of life "What good amid these, O me, O life?" (Whitman, handout. 10) This is a rather dismal topic; he is basically saying what is the point? At the end of the poem he wraps it all up by saying "That you are here -- that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse." (Whitman, handout. 11-12) He is saying that you, your life, and your deeds will be remembered. In "I Don't Want to Live Forever" Listener says "I don' t want to live forever, I just want to live for me." (Listener, youtube.) In his eyes, living forever isn't necessary, and as long as he lives with the intent to leave the world with his 'verse' he will have lived it to the fullest. He also says later in the song "If I go looking for it, I'll probably find it, but not in the pages of a book." (Listener, youtube.) He shows another key characteristic of transcendentalists by saying this because they believe going out to find the answer in nature is more effective than finding it through a book.
“Listener – I don’t want to
live forever” Youtube. Tangled Talk
Records/Sincere Records/Broken Circles, 2010, October 22, 2010.
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