Can someone help me interpret this poem!?

Question

What Is Success?

What is success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;
That is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson


i dont really know the thesis of this poem so if you can help me on that i would reallyy appreciate it!!!

Answer 1

This is he first time that I read this poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson. THank you for posting it up.

In my humle opinion I am convinced that the "thesis" of this piece is the following:

Success is basically having accomplished all of the things in this life which are actully important. It is to have lived a meaningful life with relationships and contact with people who are meaningful and "real." It is a life of authenticity.

Notice the first lines...indeed many if not most people would agree that it is much better to laugh than to live a life of bitterness. It is much better to get recognition from people who are intelligent, wise and can teach us about this life rather than to simply get the false appreciation or superficial recognition that we are so much after in this materialistic society.

The piece is a kind of reminder of what truly matters in this life. Letting the reader know that it is not necessarily the making of a lot of money, or the owning of many material possesions, or of having popularity etc. that makes one successful, instead success is found in the things that will truly make a meaningful difference for the better in one's life and in the life of those who are in one's surroundings.

Notice the last line how it says that to realize that at least one individual has lived a life and has been helped by your existence...that is success.

I hope this helps.

Peace be to all.

Anaxios

Answer 2

He is saying that success is not a material measure like how much you make per year. RWE was big on the eternal cycle of life and the world and as such looked beyond the petty machinations of men to the natural world for inspiration. The reference to the garden patch along with a healthy child and a redeemed social condition shows the importance which he placed on the natural world; as important as the world of human endeavour.

Answer 3

You are a success in life if you had a good time, helped others, gained the respect and appreciation of others, and did things to make the world a little better than it was before you got here.

Answer 4

the first 2 strains of Walt Whitman's poem "Miracles" says all of it: "Why, Who Makes a lot of a Miracle?" "As to me, i understand no longer some thing of else yet miracles,". One does no longer opt for a level in English literature to relish or comprehend this poem, and in reading extra, that's like ingesting a form of fantastic wine, it only receives extra valuable and extra valuable, and the extra you examine, the extra immersed you change into. For Walt Whitman, strolling down the streets in long island is a miracle. what number of human beings that're older can keep in mind in early fall, suitable at the same time as the nighttime begins to fall, strolling residing house from college or events prepare, at the same time as each thing is quiet, and vehicles are making very last minute journeys residing house, and the sky is popping pink in the previous the darkness starts to set in, or that scent interior the air of anticipation of issues to seem ahead to, dinner on the table with one's kinfolk, or a quiet communique with one's mom, or an adventure the position one will see a ideal chum? Or what number of human beings can keep in mind an early summer morning, sitting interior the grass, watching bees, feeling the sunlight on our faces, watching our acquaintances carry their laundry, witnessing the rhythm of existence that would not get an interview on the archives or a piece of writing interior the newspaper? certainly, it may get a photo interior the artwork gallery, yet maximum human beings could bypass it by technique of. we are saying, "the perfect issues in existence are free", and definitely, the message of this poem is not only that genuine miracles aren't from now on purely suitable in the front human beings, and some thing we really are grateful for if we may purely provide up for a minute to comprehend it, yet as well, that this poem needs no interpretation to comprehend it or sense it; that's there for each person to adventure and comprehend.

Answer 5

He is saying that success is just life and how you live it (in a more spiritual and giving way) vs corporate success.

Answer 6

If near death it changes a person's perspective in life where they try to do the better than want they did before it ends, in thought live your life to the fullest.

Answer 7

Perhaps you should read it again.

Success.....what do you think success is???

Think this sentence before every line in the poem.

Do this and I wont have to type a lengthy answer for you.

Answer 8

He's saying that you can only measure success by what you do for others.

Answer 9

i think it means that this guy must have lived a very clean cut life lay back and let anyone walk over him , not the way life really is I'm afraid.

Answer 10

The Author is just describing what success is in his opinion