Ralph Waldo Emmerson
"The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul." -This line represents the belief expressed by Emmerson, that freedom of the mind is the most important kind of freedom one is able to achieve.
Walt Whitman
"I resist anything better than my own diversity, and breath the air and leave plenty after me." -Freedom in this sentence from Whitman's Leaves of grass is expressed through the diversity of individuals within the nation. A yin and yang relationship between all people is the best example of a free nation.
Frederick Douglass
"In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both." -Douglass expresses the duality of freedom in these lines. Making example of the hardships many have to over come in order to gain freedom in its truest form- the mind.
Emily Dickinson
"Still! Could themself have peeped--" -I feel like this line in the poem 613-They shut me up in Prose expresses the oppression of women that was traditionally accepted during this timer period. A free woman was one who maintained the home and all of the qualities a "good woman" should. What Dickinson is showing in this line is the stifling nature of society at this time while calling for action. Asking the ones requesting her stillness to themselves be still, and see how freeing it is.
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