This prompt is based on your three authors for Week 2: Hesiod, Lucretius, and William Cullen Bryant. Here it is:
Although each of these writers differs considerably in his message, each expands our idea of “nature” by commenting on the relationship between natural and spiritual (or supernatural). The Ancient Greek writer Hesiod concludes that the fallen world has resulted from the habits shown by humankind of displeasing the Gods, which results in the degradation of the natural and civilized worlds. Lucretius finds no connection between natural and spiritual realms, placing each within its own distinctive domain. The painters of the Hudson River School portrayed natural scenes bathed in a warm, protective, quasi-divine quality of light. And Bryant’s poem offers a massage that conjoins nature and spiritual experience in very overt ways, arguing that the experience of God can be found in nature. Although differing in medium, theme, and content, each author offers us the idea that humans can find something meaningful in “natural” settings. Since one of the goals of the class is to understand nature writers help us understand what it means to “live well” (as expressed on the Course Overview PowerPoint), please begin by considering which writer offers us the most powerful expression of what is meant by living well? Please explain how each author develops this message over the space of about half to three-quarters of a page (single-spaced, otherwise using standard fonts), using specific quotes and allusions to the text to develop your points
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