[10], Very enrolled at Harvard College in 1834. The principal, Henry Kemble Oliver, exposed his young assistant to philosophers and writers, including James Mackintosh, to influence his religious beliefs and counteract his mother's atheism. . [28] The same month he was released, Very stayed with Emerson at his home in Concord for a week. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States. These two consciousnesses, as I may call them, continued with me". He is insane with God — diswitted in the contemplation of the holiness of Divinity. Jones Very was an American essayist, poet, clergymen, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He died in 1880. During this voyage they visited Kronborg Castle, the home of Hamlet, forming an association which was to haunt and inspire young Very in the years to come. [14] Emerson made up for the meager $10 payment by inviting Very to his home for dinner. Jones Very is similar to these writers: Walt Whitman, Margaret Fuller, Emily Dickinson and more. Jones Very (1813-1880). His only real contact with his father was a sea voyage lasting two years undertaken when the boy was nine. Share. That same year he discovered Emerson's Nature. He was intense and somewhat socially awkward. George Willis Cooke, comp. [25], After this, Very told her she would soon feel different, explaining, "I am the Second Coming". [11], For a time, Very tried to recruit Nathaniel Hawthorne as a brother figure in his life. [6] When the younger Jones Very was ten, his father, by then a shipmaster, took him on a sailing voyage to Russia. [19] The first signs of a breakdown came shortly after meeting Emerson, as Very was completing an essay on William Shakespeare. He was to remain without disciples. There he was befriended by Elizabeth Peabody, who wrote to Emerson suggesting Very lecture in Concord. [42] She mocked the "sing song" style of the poems and questioned his religious mission. They never married. Nature. He was well-known and respected amongst the Transcendentalists, though he had a mental breakdown early in his career. Don't Stop Believin' By: Journey "Don't stop believin' Hold on to that feelin'" This song is full of transcendentalist themes. Very soon attracted the notice of the rather incestuous community of New England intelligentsia. With the light of grace shining through him so clearly, Very could not remain in his position at Harvard for long. They were fascinated by each other's company, though their relationship was never entirely placid. [35] In January 1843, his work was included in the first issue of The Pioneer, a journal edited by James Russell Lowell which also included the first publication of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart".[36]. Nature was for Very not a sacred text. I refer to Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville. He was soon dismissed, and returned to the house of his mother in Salem. Jones Very was born in 1813 in Salem, Massachusetts to Captain Jones Very and his first cousin Lydia Very. Jones Very (28 August 1813-8 May 1880), Transcendentalist poet and friend of Emerson and Hawthorne, is today best known for his intensely pious religious sonnets describing the nature of the "will-less existence" which he attempted to live and popularize in the late 1830s. However, neither Channing nor Emerson nor Alcott nor Hawthorne nor Sophia Peabody nor Elizabeth Peabody nor in fact anyone was willing to give up all in order to follow him. [12] He was chosen to speak at his commencement; his address was titled "Individuality". Her passion could not withstand her son's. Jones Very. The more radical poems were expunged, grammar and wording were normalized; the revolutionary nature of the work was softened for the public taste. Emerson wrote in his essay "The American Scholar": "We will walk on our own feet; we will work with [1] By 1827, he left school when his mother told him he must take the place of his father and care for the family. This can be viewed as an active rebellion against his mother's tenacious defense of atheism. There had been foreshadowing in his work that his mission was to last only a year. He was well-known and respected amongst the Transcendentalists, though he had a mental breakdown early in his career. His sonnets and Shakespearean essays surpass any that have since appeared in subtlety and simplicity of execution. So just how did a lonely, brilliant but erratic young poet from Salem come to the realization that he was the chosen one of God? Jones Very (August 28, 1813 – May 8, 1880) was an American poet, essayist, clergyman, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. Jones Very was born on August 28, 1813 in Salem, Massachusetts. I am proposing the establishment of a third.”[47] Winters, in speaking of Very's relations with Emerson and his circle, concluded, “The attitude of the Transcendentalists toward Very is instructive and amusing, and it proves beyond cavil how remote he was from them. Emerson, however, was surprised at Very's behavior in larger groups. Very then headed for Concord. [25] During his stay at the hospital, Very lectured his fellow patients on Shakespeare and on poetry in general. "The Son" is representative of the former, "The Eagles" of the latter. His class was not as formal as those of the more established professors, and he was not afraid to leave Greek behind and deliver soliloquies aimed at the moral improvement of his young listeners. Very spent five days with Emerson that autumn. But persisting, he attained to the advantage of bringing every man of his acquaintance into true relations with him... To stand in true relations with men in a false age is worth a fit of insanity, is it not?[38]. [31] He helped Very publish a small volume, Essays and Poems in 1839. [2], Very became known for his ability to draw people into literature, and was asked to speak at a lyceum in his hometown of Salem in 1837. There is, of course, the psychoanalytic interpretation. He was released after a month when the hospital realized that a) he was harmless and b) they could do nothing for him. These figures were to compose the audience for Very's passion play. Though his friends had feared for his martyrdom, it had not occurred. His temperament was delicate and nervous, disposed to visionariness and a dreamy idealism, stimulated by over-studies and the school of thought then in the ascendant. "[22] Very said he was also tormented by strong sexual desires which he believed were only held in check by the will of God. He heavily studied epic poetry and was invited to lecture on the topic in his home town, which drew the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Transcendentalism was one of the main theological threads in the fabric of American Unitarianism in the 19th C. I’m one of those people who still think of themselves as a transcendentalists. Very plunged whole-heartedly into his work, so much so that he graduated second in his class. A few weeks ago he visited me....He is a remarkable man. It was born from a debate between “New Light” theologians, who believed that religion should focus on an emotional experience, and “Old Light” opponents, who valued reason in their religious approach.These “Old Lights” became known first as “liberal Christians” and then as Unitarians, and were defined by the belief that there wa… When he was released, Emerson helped him issue a collection called Essays and Poems in 1839. Alcott, Amos Bronson (ed. He wanted to become closer to his deceased father by means of channeling the will of The Father. Jones thus grew up shy and reserved, and on the outskirts of village life. He professed to be taught by the Spirit and to write under its inspiration. Emerson disagreed. [32] The poems collected in this volume were chiefly Shakespearean sonnets. "[34] He was never widely read, and was largely forgotten by the end of the nineteenth century, but in the 1830s and 1840s the Transcendentalists, including Emerson, as well as William Cullen Bryant, praised his work. He wanted to transcend his sinful birth. ... George Ripley, Thomas Treadwell Stone, Jones Very, and Walt Whitman. He was never comfortable with women, and at this point he decided to eschew their society entirely. In a sense he was taking the tenets of Christianity and of particularly Transcendentalism to their logical conclusion, or at least one of their logical conclusions. With the light of grace shining through him so clearly, Very could not remain in his position at Harvard for long. Here is Transcendentalism in whole, with Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller restored to their place alongside such contemporaries as Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, Jones Very, Theodore Parker, James Freeman Clarke, Orestes Brownson, and Frederick Henry Hedge. [11] During his college years, he was shy, studious, and ambitious of literary fame. His whole bearing made an impression as if himself were detached from his thought and his body were another's. He was soon dismissed, and returned to the house of his mother in Salem. Very considered himself to be this new Teacher. Though Hawthorne treated him kindly, he was not impressed by Very. Jones Very History Will New Direction We feel unsatisfied until we know ourselves akin even with that greatness which made the spots on which it rested hallowed; and until, by our own lives, and by converse with the thoughts they have bequeathed us, we feel that … He had become interested in the works of Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Essays and Poems by Jones Very, containing the essays Shakespeare and Hamlet, as well as sixty-odd poems, was published in September 1839, one year after God had set up shop in the body of a man. Emerson did not believe Very's claim and, noting the poor writing, he asked, "cannot the spirit parse & spell? Very also published several poems in the Western Messenger between 1838 and 1840[33] as well as in The Dial, the journal of the Transcendentalists. He was granted by God perfect genius, perfect knowledge of this mortal coil. Byron was particularly important to him, though he was later to categorically reject Byron's philosophy as he drew closer to his God. [11] After graduating, Very served as a tutor in Greek before entering Harvard Divinity School,[2] thanks to the financial assistance of an uncle. A fire that bright cannot burn perpetually in a man. The spring and summer of 1838 saw Jones Very hard at work on his essay on Shakespeare, which was completed in September. That day was September the thirteenth. Poems about Nature. Jones Very (August 28, 1813 – May 8, 1880) was an American poet, essayist, clergyman, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. Very wrote to Emerson in July 1842, "Perhaps they were all improvements but I preferred my own lines. The Prayer. The fullness of God had departed from his frame. [21] As he told Henry Ware Jr., professor of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care at Harvard Divinity School, divine inspiration helped him suddenly understand the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and that Christ was having his Second Coming within him. After sharing the fullness of his vision with Elizabeth Peabody, he proceeded to enlighten the ministers of the town. Jones Very believed his role as a prophet would last only twelve months. The day of reckoning was nearly upon him. Very Jones was now a pure vessel through which flowed the same spirit of God that had flowed through Jesus Christ. Soon after, Very asserted that he was the Second Coming of Christ, which resulted in his dismissal from Harvard and his eventual institutionalization in an insane asylum. Jones Very was an American essayist, poet, clergymen, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. [2], Very continued writing throughout his life, though sparingly. His fellow patients reportedly thanked him as he left. Rev. To quote the Apostle Paul, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11: 1) and "we are the temple of the living God" (2 Cor 6: 16). His father died on the return trip,[3] apparently due to a lung disease he contracted while in Nova Scotia. When Ware did not believe him, Very said, "I had thought you did the will of the Father, and that I should receive some sympathy from you—But I now find that you are doing your own will, and not the will of your father". Prophet, poet and madman, Jones Very was, to say the very least, unique among the men of his time. Jones Very: Emerson’s “Brave Saint.” Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1942. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology American essayist, poet, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement Jones Very . His shadowy aspect at times gave him a ghostly air. In this magnum opus Very combined his infatuation with Hamlet (a topic which was later to be expanded in his essay on Hamlet, a companion essay to the Shakespeare piece) with image of Shakespeare as a divinely inspired poet. Yourself a newborn bard of the Holy Ghost, -- cast behind you all conformity, and acquaint men at first hand with Deity . . He was soon dismissed, and returned to the house of his mother in Salem. Dominant movement is transcendentalism. Transcendentalism has its origins in New England of the early 1800s and the birth of Unitarianism. Very continued to spread his gospel throughout the winter. JONES VERY, THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS, AND THE UNITARIAN TRADITION DAVID ROBINSON UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON, WISCONSIN 53706 Although he considered himself set apart from the world, a man through whom the Spirit revealed a higher truth, Jones Very has consistently provided his critics with an irresistible challenge He was 20 years of age when he entered as a sophomore, 3 years older than most of his classmates. He ventured, withal, to warn me of falling into idolatries, while he brought a sonnet or two (since printed) for my benefit. [41], The first critical review of Very's book was written by Margaret Fuller and published in Orestes Brownson's Boston Quarterly Review; it said Very's poems had "an elasticity of spirit, a genuine flow of thought, and unsought nobleness and purity", though she admitted she preferred the prose in the collection over the poetry. Very's "twelve-month state of grace terminated in September 1839, as he predicted it would" (Gittleman, 360). Very lived the majority of his life as a recluse from then on, issuing poetry only sparingly. He wrote to Emerson asking for more information about him and expressing his opinion of his poetry: "Though comparatively unknown, he seems to be a true poet. Very was winnowing the last wisps of worldliness and will from his soul. 1903. The summer of 1838 was a pivotal time. Very pleaded with both Emerson and his wife Lidian, with whom he formed a rather close relationship. One of these, the Reverend Upham, was somewhat less than convinced, and had Very forcibly committed to McLean Hospital in nearby Charlestown. Himself he had renounced, thus rendering him wide open to God. Jones Very Jones Very (August 28, 1813 – May 8, 1880) was an American essayist, poet, clergymen, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. 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