I think that “Flower de Luce” and “The Chambered Nautilus” are two good poems to compare with each other and relate to the Romanticism Period in which they were written. They both have all of the common qualifications that make up a Romanticist’s work. There is description, emotion, and an inner feeling or relation within the topic.
The meaning behind “Flower de Luce” is that Hawthorne’s death is going to greatly affect Longfellow. Hawthorne’s writing has been very important, and his final statement stanza is about who could finish his work but “unfinished must remain” (Longfellow). “The Chambered Nautilus” is literally about an animal that keeps building on its shell, but the meaning behind it is about spirituality. People, like the nautilus and its expanding shell, continue to grow. Eventually the nautilus is supposed to leave his shell for a “new temple, nobler than the last… till thou at length art free, leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea” (Holmes). This is a metaphor for people leaving their hard worked lives and accomplishments behind to transcend to heaven. “Flower de Luce” is sort of similar to this message. It deals with death, but more about a man’s legacy. I guess “The Chambered Nautilus” could be seen as having a very similar idea. If you look at it as the nautilus leaving the shell behind, then this could be its legacy. No other creature will be able to fill the shell the way that nautilus did, just like nobody can finish Hawthorne’s work after he has died.
Both of these poems fully embody the period. They handle both the Romanticism ideals and the ideas of transcendentalism. This is seen in “The Chambered Nautilus” at the end with a few lines such as “O my soul, as the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low vaulted past” (Holmes). This is like leaving life behind to go onto the afterlife. “The Chambered Nautilus” seems like more of a positive view of death. “Flower de Luce” deals with the subject of death as neither positive nor negative. It is just about a man’s legacy and how he should be missed. Longfellow says “I only hear above his place of rest their tender undertone, the infinite longings of a troubled breast, the voice so like his own” (Longfellow). I see this as saying that his family is above near his grave praying for him. They would be the voices that are like his own, and they have their tender undertone which would be their prayers. Both poems do a good job with detail. Holmes uses words that seem very vivid like “lustrous, irised, and sunless crypt” (Holmes). Longfellow probably uses more detail by describing the day and how “the lovely town was white with apple-blooms” (Longfellow). Longfellow also expresses his emotion in this work. He is clearly dismal from the loss of his friend. There does not appear to be as much emotion in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem. He is writing about a sort of serious topic, not that it is more serious than Longfellow’s, but it does not call for as much emotion because the literal meaning is just about a sea creature.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "801. The Chambered Nautilus”. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 07 Dec.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Journal #20 Autumn
The poem starts off by saying that Autumn comes by the rain. Then "with banners, by great gales incessant fanned, brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand" (Longfellow). This means that it is like a banner waving in the wind very lustrously. Then it says that Autumn stands like Charlemagne over the land, and it blesses the farms. So Autumn is very powerful and brings good things. Autumn is like the moon, "suspended so long beneath the heaven's o'erhanging eaves" (Longfellow). It ends by saying that the wind scatters the golden leaves.
I think that Autumn in this poem represents America during the 1800's in a few ways. It is brought in by the rain, which in this case would be like the early colonization of the country. Then it becomes very bright like how America begins to prosper. The next line is "And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain" (Longfellow). This would America is harnessed to Britain. It is then compared to Charlemagne, so this could be when America gains its independence. It is then blessed, and the people's prayers are answered. The last line, "thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves", could be the expansion of America. Now that it is independent it is expanding like how the wind scatters the leaves.
The poem could obviously allude to many different things. Autumn could represent ideas and people, but I like to bring it into what was going on in history. It could relate to a person that needs to keep on moving on. That would pretty much be related to all the same ideas I attributed to America above, but instead with a single person. Autumn is heralded by the rain, so this person would be born into a rough life. The person then works, like Autumn into its brightness, to greatness. Eventually the person becomes great, and they can spread their ideas to help others. Of course there are a number of different ways to interpret this.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011.
I think that Autumn in this poem represents America during the 1800's in a few ways. It is brought in by the rain, which in this case would be like the early colonization of the country. Then it becomes very bright like how America begins to prosper. The next line is "And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain" (Longfellow). This would America is harnessed to Britain. It is then compared to Charlemagne, so this could be when America gains its independence. It is then blessed, and the people's prayers are answered. The last line, "thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves", could be the expansion of America. Now that it is independent it is expanding like how the wind scatters the leaves.
The poem could obviously allude to many different things. Autumn could represent ideas and people, but I like to bring it into what was going on in history. It could relate to a person that needs to keep on moving on. That would pretty much be related to all the same ideas I attributed to America above, but instead with a single person. Autumn is heralded by the rain, so this person would be born into a rough life. The person then works, like Autumn into its brightness, to greatness. Eventually the person becomes great, and they can spread their ideas to help others. Of course there are a number of different ways to interpret this.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Reflection Blog: Nautilus
Compared to the last couple of poems, “The Chambered Nautilus” was a much shorter work. But this does not mean it had less of a thematic significance. Literally the poem is about an animal known as a nautilus. It is living in its own shell for a long time, and it grows old. It sees a new shell, and it makes it the new home. The nautilus then hears a voice say that it needs to leave its old shells behind and go to a better one each time. So the nautilus’s life consists of a continually growing shell that it needs to give up for better shells.
The poem really leaves a lot to interpretation. One way to see it is that the nautilus is simply like a human, constantly growing and getting better. This is a boring interpretation, so I like to think it alludes to something more important. I think it is a metaphor for the religious fervor and experiments going on at the time. The poem says “Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; wrecked is the ship of pearl” (Holmes). I think this is saying that theological ideas are no longer constrained, but they can “unfurl” like a snail. America is not being held to Calvinistic ideas of predestination like they used to be, but they can have new ideas where everyone has a chance and spirituality comes from within. Then it says “still as the spiral grew, he left the past year’s dwelling for the new” (Holmes). As one religion seems to be dominating the people are wanting something new. It goes on to say “thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee… a clearer note is born than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn… through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings” (Holmes). The heavenly message would be from God, and it is clearer than Triton’s message. Triton would be from Greek mythology which seems like it is comparing Greek ideas to Calvinism. It says that this new message is better than that one, and then in thought a voice that sings is heard. This is like the spirituality that comes from within. That voice then leaves a philosophical message about continuously growing. The whole poem exemplifies the Romanticism Period with its wording, but it is literally about an animal which shows the influence of nature. Combined with the idea of religious connections coming from within, the whole poem does a good job of relating to its literary period.
Randall Huff says that the moral is “to keep growing spiritually… for ever loftier temples until finally free from the outgrown shell (the physical body after death)” (Huff). This is pretty close to what I see, but instead of being about religious ideas it is about a single person’s experience with religion. This is definitely a plausible translation. He also says that it is a political statement, and that he saw “his father's ministry as an advancement over its more fundamentalistic predecessors and his own even more liberal beliefs as an advance over his father's” (Huff). Once again this could be very possible, but I do not have a vast amount of knowledge on Oliver Wendell Holmes and his father. That is definitely an interesting interpretation that he could have wrote this about his father’s beliefs being the original shell and his own beliefs being the new layers.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "801. The Chambered Nautilus”. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 07 Dec.
Huff, Randall. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." 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= CPAP0070&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 8, 2011).
The poem really leaves a lot to interpretation. One way to see it is that the nautilus is simply like a human, constantly growing and getting better. This is a boring interpretation, so I like to think it alludes to something more important. I think it is a metaphor for the religious fervor and experiments going on at the time. The poem says “Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; wrecked is the ship of pearl” (Holmes). I think this is saying that theological ideas are no longer constrained, but they can “unfurl” like a snail. America is not being held to Calvinistic ideas of predestination like they used to be, but they can have new ideas where everyone has a chance and spirituality comes from within. Then it says “still as the spiral grew, he left the past year’s dwelling for the new” (Holmes). As one religion seems to be dominating the people are wanting something new. It goes on to say “thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee… a clearer note is born than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn… through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings” (Holmes). The heavenly message would be from God, and it is clearer than Triton’s message. Triton would be from Greek mythology which seems like it is comparing Greek ideas to Calvinism. It says that this new message is better than that one, and then in thought a voice that sings is heard. This is like the spirituality that comes from within. That voice then leaves a philosophical message about continuously growing. The whole poem exemplifies the Romanticism Period with its wording, but it is literally about an animal which shows the influence of nature. Combined with the idea of religious connections coming from within, the whole poem does a good job of relating to its literary period.
Randall Huff says that the moral is “to keep growing spiritually… for ever loftier temples until finally free from the outgrown shell (the physical body after death)” (Huff). This is pretty close to what I see, but instead of being about religious ideas it is about a single person’s experience with religion. This is definitely a plausible translation. He also says that it is a political statement, and that he saw “his father's ministry as an advancement over its more fundamentalistic predecessors and his own even more liberal beliefs as an advance over his father's” (Huff). Once again this could be very possible, but I do not have a vast amount of knowledge on Oliver Wendell Holmes and his father. That is definitely an interesting interpretation that he could have wrote this about his father’s beliefs being the original shell and his own beliefs being the new layers.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "801. The Chambered Nautilus”. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 07 Dec.
Huff, Randall. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." 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= CPAP0070&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 8, 2011).
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Reflection Blog: Irving
“The Devil and Tom Walker” is a fairly simple story. Tom Walker is a man who is so greedy that he has a reputation for it, and he has a wife that is the same (Irving 242). Their relationship is nothing close to loving and they hide things from each other. Tom meets “Old Scratch” and is reluctant to tell her. She goes out and basically sells her soul for nothing. Tom does not even care that his wife is gone, but is interested in a treasure and the valuables that his wife took. He makes a deal with the Devil also, and scams people his whole life. In his twilight years he tries to find a way to beat the Devil, but is eventually taken away (Irving 250).
A strong theme in this is about greed. Tom and his wife are both very greedy, and this gets them into trouble. This is a good Romanticism-related theme. They are consumed by material needs, but transcendentalists are about nature and really the opposite of greed. The moral is that greed is not a way to live life. There are finer things in mortality than material wealth. The story does a good job with description, which shows that this was written in the Romanticism period. Walker takes a shortcut through a swamp, and it is described with immense detail like “the swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood” (Irving 243). I would consider the amount of detail to be unnecessary. Irving could have left it by just saying it was a swamp. Everyone knows what swamps are like, but it was the writing style of the time.
Both of Irving’s stories are pretty similar. They both have a wife that is unlikeable, which is kind of weird. It would seem like a simple part of a story if he had a termagant wife in only one of them, but it seems like he must have some sort of problems with his own wife. A difference in the stories would be the main characters. According to Don D’Ammassa “despite his [Rip Van Winkle’s] willingness to work hard without pay to help others, he has never been able to make a financial success of his small farm or at any other job he has attempted” (D’Ammassa). Tom Walker is the opposite because he becomes a usurer. His job becomes ripping people off and making money. Both works also have similar themes. The theme in “Rip Van Winkle” is to not run away and let life fly by; and in “The Devil and Tom Walker” it is to not be greedy, but also to live a non-materialistic life. They both have lessons about being more carefree in life and just living. They also embody Romanticism. Almost the majority of the stories are description, but “Rip Van Winkle” does a better job with bringing in nature. Rip has to “escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife” to go into nature (Irving). The stories are quite similar in a lot of ways with only a few differences.
D'Ammassa, Don. "'Rip Van Winkle'." Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EFHF0432&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 6, 2011).
Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 242-250. Print.
Irving, Washington. "4. Rip Van Winkle By Washington Irving. Matthews, Brander. 1907. The Short-Story." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 06 Dec. 2011.
A strong theme in this is about greed. Tom and his wife are both very greedy, and this gets them into trouble. This is a good Romanticism-related theme. They are consumed by material needs, but transcendentalists are about nature and really the opposite of greed. The moral is that greed is not a way to live life. There are finer things in mortality than material wealth. The story does a good job with description, which shows that this was written in the Romanticism period. Walker takes a shortcut through a swamp, and it is described with immense detail like “the swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood” (Irving 243). I would consider the amount of detail to be unnecessary. Irving could have left it by just saying it was a swamp. Everyone knows what swamps are like, but it was the writing style of the time.
Both of Irving’s stories are pretty similar. They both have a wife that is unlikeable, which is kind of weird. It would seem like a simple part of a story if he had a termagant wife in only one of them, but it seems like he must have some sort of problems with his own wife. A difference in the stories would be the main characters. According to Don D’Ammassa “despite his [Rip Van Winkle’s] willingness to work hard without pay to help others, he has never been able to make a financial success of his small farm or at any other job he has attempted” (D’Ammassa). Tom Walker is the opposite because he becomes a usurer. His job becomes ripping people off and making money. Both works also have similar themes. The theme in “Rip Van Winkle” is to not run away and let life fly by; and in “The Devil and Tom Walker” it is to not be greedy, but also to live a non-materialistic life. They both have lessons about being more carefree in life and just living. They also embody Romanticism. Almost the majority of the stories are description, but “Rip Van Winkle” does a better job with bringing in nature. Rip has to “escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife” to go into nature (Irving). The stories are quite similar in a lot of ways with only a few differences.
D'Ammassa, Don. "'Rip Van Winkle'." Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EFHF0432&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 6, 2011).
Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 242-250. Print.
Irving, Washington. "4. Rip Van Winkle By Washington Irving. Matthews, Brander. 1907. The Short-Story." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 06 Dec. 2011.
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