Reflection Blog: Thanatopsis

“Thanatopsis,” as Randall Huff says, is not a very inviting title. It is something hard to pronounce and not a word in the English language. It is Greek for “Meditation on Death” or “View on Death” (Huff). It is really an appropriate title once it is translated to English because that is exactly what the poem is about. It is the expression of death and a personification of nature with their relationship to each other. Everyone has to come to the realization that death is inevitable, and the poem says that when a person dies they are basically becoming a part of nature just as everyone else has done before. Huff analyzes this thusly “once dead you eventually will be on terms of total equality with the richest, wisest, and most beautiful people who ever lived, and the whole earth in all its glory can be viewed as your collective crypt” (Huff). This is shown in the poem when Bryant says “Yet not to thine eternal resting-place shalt thou retire alone… Thou shalt lie down with patriarchs of the infant world, --with kings…” (Bryant). When a person dies it is not supposed to be a sad occasion, although it is not exactly a happy one either, but it is an inevitability that maybe just deserves attention and understanding.

The poem’s first several lines are really just personifying nature such as “She has a voice of gladness, and a smile and eloquence of beauty, and she glides into his darker musings, with a mild and healing sympathy” (Bryant). Then it goes on to explain the event of death and its relativity to nature. It says “Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim thy growth, to be resolved to Earth again, and, lost each human trace, surrendering up thine individual being, shalt thou go to forever mix with the elements” (Bryant). Bryant says that Earth fundamentally created people, and when they die they go back to being part of Earth. Then it says that the dead become “brothers” both to the composing pieces of nature and the people who have already died. The poem states that the oceans, brooks, woods, rocks and various other elements are “but the solemn decorations all of the great tomb of man” (Bryant). Then it says that for the people who think they die alone, with others living and laughing next to them, everyone will join the same fate and simply be together in the end. This is represented by the statement “yet all these shall leave their mirth and their employments, and shall come and make their bed with thee” (Bryant). Finally it concludes with “By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams” (Bryant). This can probably all be summed up by saying that everyone came from nature, so everyone has a tie with each other; everyone will eventually die and go back to nature; and that we should make the time worthwhile and embrace the inescapable end.

Bryant, William Cullen. "16. Thanatopsis." Bartleby.com. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

Huff, Randall. "'Thanatopsis'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0402&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 28, 2011).

Journal #19

I think that nature and spirituality are important for most people when thinking about life and death. Most people directly relate spirituality with life and death. Usually religion is what people use to explain what happens after life, and they use teachings of their religion during their life. On the other side, people that do not believe in a religion will most likely have to relate nature to life and death. After life the human body will decompose and become one with nature, and during life people are always around nature. We are basically living off nature all the time, and it continues to be with us even after death. Spirituality is very important in the cycle of life and death with people who believe in reincarnation. They cease to live, but they come back to life. Nature is not exactly as important unless you consider that they are coming back as something else. But they have their religion around the idea that they will keep coming back as a different being in a cycle. In short religion is a huge piece of importance for most people in their philosophies on life and death. They are constantly relating to their spiritual ideas, and they have to have faith in what is to come. Those who do not have religious beliefs are expecting to most likely have an end to their lives. The religious people almost all expect to keep on living whether it be in a new life or a new place. The atheistic people expect to have an end, but it sort of ends by infusing with nature. Everybody has their own beliefs about life and death and how things end or cease to end, but for the most part it will have some correlation to spirituality and/or nature. No matter what one of these two factors will impact somebody in the aspect of life and death whether it be a large or small influence.

Reflection Blog: Fireside poets

The writing style of the Fireside poets is completely different from the previous styles. They basically go in antithetical responses of each other. They cycle from one style to another style that is almost the exact opposite. But, at the same time, they are also getting progressively better.

The first style was of Puritans and Pilgrims, and this was based almost purely on religion. There were writers such as Anne Bradstreet who wrote a poem that expressed her faith in religion. She says “The flame consuming my dwelling place. And when I could no longer look, I blest His name that gave and took” (Bradstreet 91). What she means by this is that God will give and take, but she always has her faith in Him. Although this is poetry and also descriptive, it differs from the Fireside poets in one key aspect. Puritans wrote almost entirely based on their religion, but Fireside poets like Emerson write about things like nature, love, solitude, or many other similar topics.

The next style was the Rationalism period. This was a time of logic and reason and philosophical ideas, writing, and inventions. The writing of this era was a lot of documents, pamphlets, letters, and essays. With this most of the popular writing in America was politically oriented such as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.”The person who embodied the Enlightenment, and in the same respect the Rationalism period, was Benjamin Franklin. Franklin made every decision based almost solely on reason. He was one of the people who contributed to making political documents and writing highly influential letters. Franklin represents the style in his autobiography. At this time monotheistic religious fervor was dying down, so people were becoming more accepting of other religions. Franklin, in his autobiography, explains how he went to other churches simply to see what they preached (Franklin). He shows that he had a want for learning, and he would not reject a religion before giving it a try. This is in opposition to the Puritan belief. They wanted one religion and denounced others. The Rationalism was different because it answered questions with logic instead of religion. The Fireside poets responded to this with a more romantic style. Instead of emotionless but logical writing, the Romanticism period was more artistic and based basically on inner feeling and intuition.

The three periods can sort of be juxtaposed by the way they would answer questions. By this I mean the first thing that they would go to. The Puritans would go to religion and God. The Rationalists would use science and logic. And the Fireside poets would use intuition or just whatever happened to seem right. They seem to be getting increasingly better as far as writing goes. The Puritan writing appears primitive because they do not seem to do anything by or for themselves. They live in a relatively bad time period and only experience tragedies, so when something good happens it is an act of God. The Rationalism period was better because it was intellectual writing, but that was all it was. The Romanticism period is the next stage because they can actually tell stories with logic, meaning, emotion, and supernatural things.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Henry Altemus. 1895. Print.

Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 91. Print.

Journal #18

The perfect autumn day is when it is the right temperature and not too cold. It feels like sixty degrees outside and all of the trees have lost their leaves. It smells like the air is crisp as long as nobody is burning leaves. The perfect day has a temperature when you can still go outside without having to try to hard to keep warm. The best days in autumn are on the weekend and they are usually Sundays, but the best day is probably Thanksgiving. There is a lot of food and it sort of embodies the whole essence of autumn. Everybody gets together and it is exciting to finally see all of the food on the table. It smells delicious like a combination of all the food on the table. For some reason people eat Thanksgiving in like the middle of the afternoon, but I guess that is just part of the holiday. The rest of the day is everybody winding down from the meal and just talking. My whole family always has their own stories, and it is always a good day on Thanksgiving. As the day starts to die down, and day turns to night, everybody usually goes to bed early. But the best average day in autumn is on Sundays. It is always nice out and everybody stays inside and watches football. The game is exciting and the whole family watches. AS long as the Bears are playing, and winning, it is a good day. Fall is really just a time to sit around and do nothing especially on the weekend. I think the best thing about this time is that you get to do nothing, so the best day in Autumn would the day that is fit for doing nothing. The only other thing that goes along with doing nothing in autumn is Thanksgiving, but there is really nothing to do except at this time. Autumn is really a season of relaxing.

Journal #17 Nature

A time that I bonded with nature would be when I was thirteen. I was living in the woods for three years now, so I first started living there when I was ten. I was eating berries and nuts, and living on my own. I had finished building my hut that I was working on for awhile. It was created from leaves and sticks, and that is where I was sleeping. Everyday I would go out and try to hunt for animals. I had great difficulties at first, and the best thing I could catch was a rabbit. After a few months I developed tools and weapons. My first weapon was a rock that I sharpened and fastened to a stick. This is about the time that I finally became one with nature. I saw a large deer, I believe it was a buck, and I was going to be cautious to catch it. I stealthily got close to the large animal, and in one quick motion I pierced it with my spear. I now had to create a fire so that I could cook the meat. I would soon begin eating my first big meal since I was living in the forest. I was truly bonding with nature, and I knew I could make it out in the woods. The next day it began to rain and it was coming down so hard that I could hardly see one foot in front of me. My hut was coming down, so I needed to find new sticks for support. I was picking up a perfect stick when I came face to face with a wild boar. The boar tried to attack me, but I quickly evaded it. I took the stick and I struck the beast. I had defeated the animal. Now that I had bonded with nature, I decided to try to find my way home. I walked half a mile and I was back at my house. I had been through an insane experience, and I had bonded with nature. I was ready to go back to society.

Journal #16

I basically wrote about this in my last blog, but I guess I can just reiterate all of it. Almost all of the ways to communicate with my group will be focused around technology. Somebody said facebook and twitter, but I do not have either of these. I think I will use my phone, email, or just whatever happens to work the best. It looks like half of my group is in this school, so I could really just meet them here. But the rest of the group I will have to use some form of technology to communicate with and collaborate with. I guess this could sort of prepare me for college, but I have done something just like this before. In college and now it all just depends on how much each group member will work. I do not like doing projects like this because most of the time there are a lot of people who are just not going to do a considerable amount of work. My sister has had to do a project in college where she had to work with a group, so they had to email each other to communicate. They had to communicate to find out where they would get together. Just like with most things like this it did not work very well. They did not all do their work, and the project did not go well. I hope I do not have to do anything similar to this in the future because it is much easier to work with people in person. When the people are not nearby to work together there is a whole new obstacle that needs to be conquered. It is just simply easier to work with people when you can meet with them in person, and when you can't it is a lot more difficult. Basically I hope that I do not have to do very many more projects like this in my future school career, but I think there will be more.

Journal #15 Communication

I think that it will be hard to work with people who are not nearby. We had to do something similar to this in Internet class last year, and it did not work. We were supposed to collaborate and create a video, but nobody did anything, we could hardly ever contact anyone, and we basically did our own videos in the end. I really do not like doing things like this, but maybe it will work out in the end. I think we will have to rely solely on technology for communication. I do not have a facebook, twitter, etc, so I will probably just text my group. I will might also use email, but that is probably all I can come up with unless someone in the group comes up with something. I guess if we have group members in the school that can help because we can just meet with them in person. I really do not think that this particular project will have to many problems in regard to communication, but I will have to wait and see because anything can happen. I hope that I am paired with good group members who will do their work because I feel like I will have to do a lot of work for this. I think that as long as my group consists of smart people that will do the work then we will be fine, but I do not know exactly what this project entails. I hope there is not too much work, especially if we are getting other homework. The honors English class is supposed to have more work, but hopefully it is not a lot more work. We seem to get a lot of work in this class with the blogs, so I expect there to be less reflection blogs for homework. I think communication will not pose as much of a problem, but getting the work done might be more of a difficulty.