...grammatical and rhetorical structure that entangles these two moments: "Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not...revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?" Emerson's "Why should not we . . ." is a rhetorical form of inversion which ironizes the representation...

...generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not...by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? . . . [W]hy should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade...

...generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not...by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? . . . There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.6...

...imagination plays us false."21 Creative men should therefore be detached from the vertical generational line: "Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of...religion by revelation to us and not the history of theirs."22 In his monumental study of poetic influence, Harold Bloom negates the line of longitude...

...nature that was not mediated through scripture, prophets and history but could be experienced directly: Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of...revelation to us and not the history of theirs?... The sun shines today also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men,...

...generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?" Nature, in Essays and...

...Unitarian clergymen wanted to inject more "life," or emotion, into the dry bones of latter-day deism. "Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of...revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?" Emerson had asked in Nature. They were called "transcendentalism" initially as a pejorative to suggest...

..."Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe?" The emphasis is on the word also. "Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of...religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?"5 Pursuing his own question, Emerson sets out the main benefits we derive from nature, and...

...generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not...by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? . . . [W]hy should we grope among the dry bones of the past?" Nature is thus an attempt to find a language...

...of the dominant institutions and standards. As Emerson had asked, "Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not...tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not to the history of theirs?"33 Also like the Transcendentalists, the Beats attempted to reform the social...