American Lit 251 final exam

The soul selects her own society - Dickinson

"The Soul Selects Her Own Society" was written by Emily Dickinson in the 1860s, but the message of the poem is as timely today as it was then for Dickinson. Renowned for her reclusive nature and her prolific poetry published after her death, this poem allows the reader a sense of her inner thoughts about her own reclusive nature. With the opening line of the poem, the reader is immediately introduced with the alliterative words "Soul, selects Society". Dickinson capitalizes Soul and Society giving the sense that both are proper nouns. Society has the association of a group of people who function together as in a greater community. The Soul represents the eternal inner presence of a person. According to the first line of the poem, Dickinson is stating that one doesn't really choose their own community of friends and acquaintances, rather it is something beyond common sense. It is like a gravitational pull to the people and the components of civilization that a person connects with, instead of a conscious decision that the mind controls. This line gives the sense that perhaps others were telling her that she needed to broaden her "society". It appears that this is Emily Dickinson responding to this type of observation from others indicating that who she accepted into her society was not her decision; instead it came from her soul. Dickinson writes the poem with halting use of dashes which cause the reader to pause and it gives more emphasis to specific words and phrases. The dashes are used internally and at the ends of the lines. In the second line Dickinson sets the single word "then" off with a dash before continuing with the rest of the line. This gives the poem a poignant pause or a sense of temporary suspense that makes the reader want to discover what does happen "then" or next. Dickinson follows it with the harsh phrase of "shuts the Door". The imagery of the door shutting to eliminate people from entering the society is striking to the reader. The connotation of shutting the door is that of slamming it in the face of someone and retreating inside. This reveals that Dickinson knew that she was shutting people out of her life, but it was beyond her control. In the third and fourth lines Dickinson states that the door was shut to "the Divine Majority/present no more." The words "Divine" and "Majority" may indicate those holier than her or even that Dickinson felt she was in the minority that most people were in the Majority which may not have been like her. By indicating that the Divine Majority is "present no more", Dickinson may be revealing that she believes people have been shut out for so long that they are no longer interested in coming through the door; that they are no longer considered part of her society, or even that they have passed away. In stanza two, Dickinson continues to write the poem using dashes for emphasis. In this stanza she indicates that it could be an emperor in a chariot arriving at her door and she would not admit him. This could mean that Dickinson is speaking about suitors. It appears to indicate that even if an emperor was at the door; her soul would not give him the opportunity to get a foot in the door even. Even if he would be someone that great, once the door of her heart is closed, it is never opened again. In the third stanza, Dickinson states "from an ample nation/Choose one." This is indicative of her understanding there is a wide world beyond her front door and many people that one can decide to include in the inner circle of one's society, but instead only one is deemed worthy. This connects back to the opening line of the poem which states the soul "selects". It isn't the soul must accept all. The soul chooses only one. This could be indicative of one soul mate or love of one's life. Dickinson continues on by saying once the one person is allowed into the society the "Valves of her attention" are closed like stone. Dickinson uses the simile to create the image of a heart of stone. Valves could be symbolic of valves in the heart. If the valves close, no life blood will surge through the veins and arteries. Dickinson can be symbolically saying that her heart is closed to another "Emperor" in a chariot. It may also be symbolic that she thought the one she did let in was an "Emperor" and perhaps she will not succumb to the shiny enhancements that another suitor may bring to entice her to allow him into her life. With the poem "The Soul Selects Her Own Society", Dickinson provides an abundance of room for interpretation. She sends a message about how one does not always choose who they love and care for; instead it is the "Soul" that makes the decision not the mind.

This is my letter to the world - Dickinson

"This Is My Letter to the World" is believed to have been written in 1862, the year during which Dickinson first began to share her poetry with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a minister, writer, and editor who had a special interest in struggling young writers. Although Higginson was not successful in helping Dickinson present her work to the world during her own lifetime, he did offer her advice and personal support throughout her prolific writing career. This poem was finally published four years after Dickinson's death, in a collection edited by Higginson called Poems by Emily Dickinson. It is usually unwise to assume that the poet is the same as the speaker in a poem; however, "This Is My Letter to the World" is strikingly descriptive of Dickinson's literary career. Although Dickinson wrote some 1,800 poems, only seven of them were published in her lifetime, and those were all greatly altered by editors who did not always comprehend Dickinson's unconventional poetic style. Dickinson may have been frustrated by the poor reception that her work received from her contemporaries, but she also seemed to recognize that true genius is often misunderstood in its own time. As the poem indicates, Dickinson kept writing her poetry with the confidence that some day its proper audience would discover it.

Name 4 of the 7 characteristics of the detective story and show how "The Purloined Letter" exemplifies these.

1. blundering police official cooperating with the unofficial detective - Prefect of the Paris Police, Monsieur G, consults C. Auguste Dupin for the crime of a stolen letter. 2. cool courage and flawless deduction of the detective 3. applications of well-known facts or scientific data 4. clue is hidden in the obvious place or there is an insignificant detail -Dupin respects the Paris Police but he points out how they do not use their imaginations to solve the crime. Minister D was going to put the letter in a place that was visible but not to everyone. After "visiting" the Minister, Duplin finds the letter and goes back the next day with a distraction to retrieve it. Duplin gets the letter and replaces it with one he wrote

Transcdentalism

A strong intellectualist mysticism among Unitarian thinkers stimulated the transcendental movement that was neither a religion, philosophy, nor literary theory; however, it did contain elements of all three. Basically, transcendentalism is the view that the basic truths of the universe lie beyond the knowledge we obtain from our senses. Through the senses we learn the facts and laws of the physical world, and through our capacity to reason we learn to use this information. True reality is spiritual. There is another realm of knowledge that goes beyond or transcends what we hear or see or learn from books. It is through intuition that we "know" the existence of our own souls and their relation to a reality beyond the physical world. Intuition, which Emerson called the "highest power of the soul" is a power that "never reasons, never proves, it simply perceives." This follows the idealism of German thinker, Immune Kanto, who believed that intuition surpassed reason as a guide to the truth. Emerson believed that God acted and spoke through the individual. The idealism of the Transcendentalist is seen in their belief in the perfectibility of man. One criticism of the transcendentalist is their optimism. They felt God is good and God works through nature. Therefore, even natural events that seem tragic can be explained on a spiritual level. Death is simply a part of life. If we trust in the power, each of us has to know God directly, then we will realize that each of us is also part of the Divine Soul, source of all good. All we need to do is discover the God within each of us, and our lives will partake of the grandeur of the universe. Evil only occurred as a result of civilization and society; therefore, the individual should either retire from society or trust his own instincts, his own nature. The Transcendentalists consisted of a small number of individualists; most of them friends of Emerson who lived in or near Concord, Ma. They, like the Puritans, believed the individual experienced God firsthand; however, unlike the Puritans they believed this ability was given to everyone, not just an elect few. Transcendentalism was democratic, asserting that the power of the individual mind and soul are equally available to all people. Also like the Puritans, the trans. encouraged close self-scrutiny of the individual; however, unlike the Puritans, the trans. advocated self-confidence, spiritual wealth, and new intellectual insights. They felt that God, humanity, and nature shared a universal soul. Like the Romantics, they held great faith in the goodness of the natural world and in the value of individualism. No part of the natural world is trivial; Emerson once said that even a corpse had beauty, for decay brings growth. The supreme example of trans. art comes from Thoreau who combined his talents as a naturalist with his trans. ideas. For him, the study of nature was important as a means to self-knowledge. The general achievement of trans. was to relate all individuals to both the natural world and to their own inner worlds. It increased the territory of human understanding. Even Lowell, who was not sympathetic to trans. thinking, paid tribute to Emerson's intellectual force when he said that Emerson made us "conscious of the supreme and everlasting originality of whatever bit of soul might be in any of us." Nature was considered a spiritual force and a source of inspiration. It was a compromise between rational Deism and Calvinism. Like Rational Deism, it retained the acceptance of liberal scientific thought, rejecting original depravity and inherited guilt of man. In Unitarian belief God was a unity not a trinity; it was the human potential that made them important and the Holy Ghost was the divine spark in all of us. God co-existed with the universe and the individual and man was seen as one who could communicate with the Oversoul of the universe. This belief that man is one with nature and that the individual has the right to think and believe as he pleases, minimized organized religion. Transcendentalists viewed society as a corrupt force that needed to be reformed. They formed the Transcendental Club that published The Dial, a magazine edited by Emerson. Another powerful member of this group and influential critic who edited The Dial was Margaret Fuller, a feminist. The founder of The Dial was George Ripley who also helped to begin Brook Farm, a self-governing experimental community. It survived for 6 years and became the setting for Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance. Brook Farm was to be a utopia, the perfect society. One pursuit of the Trans was perfectibility. Reform movements were strong within the group, for situations such as poverty, slavery, and ignorance mocked the divinity that all men shared. There were many reform movements active in mid-19th century such as women's rights, abolition of slavery, and improvement of public education.

Walden

Central theme—to live fully we must rid ourselves of society's bondage and be true to ourselves. Calls upon his personal experiences to give greater support of his observations. Most important thing for him to do is to give a simple account when writing. Offers criticism of a society which has developed through bankruptcy and denial. He speaks of the evils of owning property. Men need leisure People have false values. Trans. Idea—Freedom from dull habit can lead to spiritual truth. He has gotten no wise advice from adults. Accepted truths are not to be trusted without proof. He speaks of the snake still in the tepid state and compares him to man who is also apathetic. His scrupulousness is shown through his wish that he had built his own home and could live his life more deliberately He paid $28.12 ½ on his home and shows the expenditures. He addresses the fact that he knows it appears he will be boasting of his accomplishments. He finished the house in about 3 months. How did he feel about the money he spent on his education? He advises students to live life, not play at it or study it. The notes that studies should be more practical as well as theoretical. Irony—there is an illusion that going to college means positive advance, not all the time according to Thoreau. The usefulness of progress should be evaluated. He speaks of the crop he produced at Walden and decides he did better than anyone else because the experiment was good for his soul. People criticize him for being selfish because he does not believe in philanthropic deeds. How does he view do-gooders? In chapter 2 he explains why he went to the pond? To live simply and confront life's basic truths. Trans. Theme—living in harmony with nature is a source of inspiration. Compares humans to ants to underscore what he means by meanly. We waste our lives on trivial and nonessential things. Trans.—only by simplifying our material lives and rising above the material world can we discover spiritual reality. He uses exaggeration and repetition to persuade the reader that his opinion of the post office and newspaper is right. He describes the battle between black and red ants drawing parallel with human warfare. Thoreau shows an ability to study and then write specific details about nature. Describes the loons and hunters trying to outwit each other. His sympathies are with the loon, the natural inhabitants. He explains why he left Walden. He welcomed further change and development. He wanted to keep improving and to avoid habit or consistency. Trans.—optimism in his beliefs in progress through self-reliance Speaks of simplicity and solitude Make your dreams come true through action. Trans.—spiritual reality is available only to people living as true individuals. Like Emerson he believed God put man in a time and place for a purpose. Apparently his stay was successful in almost every way. Trans.—society can be and should be reformed.

Poe Biography

Edgar Allan Poe Hearing the name Edgar Allan Poe brings to mind tales of horror and a raven who croaked "nevermore." We wonder about the men who wrote these macabre prose selections and verses and speculate on his motives. The fact is that most of Poe's poetry is a response to a woman in his life at the time. You'll see that Poe hungered for maternal love, female companionship, and fulfilling passion, but was left wanting in most cases. Born in Boston on Jan.19,1809,Poe was the second son of David Poe,Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, who travelling actors. The expense of raising two boys, William and Edgar, moving, and David's alcoholism plaqued the family. Poe's father abandoned his family responsibilities while they lived in Richmond, Virginia, at the same time that a third child, Rosalie, was born. A few months later Elizabeth Poe died from pneumonia, and the three children were seperated. William went to live with his paternal grandfather, Rosalie was adopted by the MacKenzie family in Richmond, and Edgar, who was only three years old, was taken in by the wealthy merchant John Allan, also of Richmond. Although the merchant did not legally adopt Poe, the young Edgar took his surname. Life for "Master John" in the homestead was not always happy since John Allan made the child fell unwanted. His wife, Frances Allan, however interceded on Edgar's behalf and protected him from the wrath of her husband. Ironical as it may seem, John Allan spent a considerable amount of money educating Poe at the best schools in England. While in the Allan homestead. Poe became quite attached to Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, the mother of one of his playmates. She noted his obvious writing talent and encouraged him to pursue a writing career. It was this maternal attention that Poe so sorely needed that made him respond to her. At age 14, he wrote the first of his "To Helen" poems envisioning Mrs. Stanard as a goddess. Her death from TB left Poe very depressed and he is said to have haunted her grave at night. Poe's first girlfriend was Elmira Royster, whom he met in Richmond during a summer vacation. The romance flourished, and before Poe departed for school in England, he and Elmira became engaged. Her father, however, disliked Poe because he knew Poe would not be able to provide financially secure marriage for Elmira. John Allan would never bequeath his estate to Poe! Thus Mr. Royster intercepted the correspondence from Poe and suggested to Elmira that she should find a more devoted and suitable husband. In a few months, news reached Poe that his financee had married a Richmond gentleman. Edgar was devastated! Poe returned to the US for his college education and attended the U of Virginia. Unfortunately, his drinking and gambling became excessive and Poe lost the small allowance his guardian Allan had provided. Eventually, Allan used his business influence to get Edgar accepted into West Point. When he was dismissed from the academy a short time later, John Allan disconnected his affiliations with Poe and refused to allow him on the Richmond estate. Poe wrote "The want of parental affection has been the heaviest of my trials." Orphaned again, Poe returned to his paternal aunt, Mrs. Maria Clemm, and found a home. Poe tutored her ten-year-old daughter, Virginia, and found joy in sharing his knowledge with the inquisitive young girl whom he called Sis. Although they were first cousins, Poe and Virginia eloped when she was 13 years old and were secretly married in Baltimore in September 1835. 8 months later Virginia and Edgar were married again with Mrs. Clemm's permission. The marriage of Virginia and Edgar was not a happy one. They continued to live with Mrs. Clemm since both were more or less dependent on her. Financially, Poe could not support his wife. Virginia was frail and unable to manage a house. Because of the 19 years age difference between the two, Poe babied Virginia and tried to humor her. Furthermore, his excessive drinking habits were reappearing, placing an additional strain on the marriage. His drinking has been vastly exaggerated; his constitution could not tolerate alcohol and even the slightest amount made him senseless. In 1835 when he was hired as the editor of "The Southern Literary Messenger," an influential magazine, he was dismissed for drunkenness, but was rehired in 1836. The poem "Annabel Lee" refers to Poe's marriage and desire for a martial contentment that was absent. Virginia too, sensed Poe's dissatisfaction with their relationship and tried to rekindle their earlier romantic bliss in a Valentine Poem she composed entitled "To Poe". The Poes and Mrs. Clemm moved several times as Edgar sought work. Often penniless and needing medicine for Virginia's escalating Tubercular condition, Mrs. Clemm liquidated their possessions and begged for money. She saw potential greatness in Poe's literary works and while disappointed in their material worth, she loved Poe as a son and never deserted him. She even asked Poe's contemporaries Longfellow and Charles Dickens for money. Dickens, on his second trip to the US, is said to have sought her out and give her $150. Poe recognized that Mrs. Clemm was a forceful organizer and provider in his life and wrote a sonnet "To My Mother" in her honor. In it, he claims her as a real mother and the epitome of maternal affection he longed to feel. When Virginia became totally bedridden, the rumors of Poe's love affairs began to be circulated. VA heard the gossip about Sarah Ann Lewis, an aspiring poetess who was pursing Poe in hopes of attaining his praise and promotion of her poems. Elizabeth Ellet wrote anonymous letters to Virginia implying that Poe was having scandalous liaisons with numerous women. There was some truth to the stories since Poe was indeed chasing women. One notable affair was with Mrs. Sarah Helen Power Whitman, a spiritualist and poetess who habitually dropped shawls and handkerchiefs in a seductive manner and referred to Poe as her Raven. Poe's second "To Helen" poem is about Mrs. Whitman. She flattered him with her poetry and Poe proposed marriage to her in a cemetery. Some of her friends warned her that the romance dissipated because of Poe's flirtations with yet another woman. Mrs. Frances Sargent Locke Osgood and Poe met when her husband was hired to paint Poe's portrait. After the painting had been completed, Poe begged Mrs.Osgood to flee with him and chased her to Albany, Boston, and Providence, refusing to admit the affair was over. Edgar Allan Poe's behavior was very erratic. Scholars who have studied his life in great depth, see the irregular temper and insatiable drinking habits as symptomatic of diabetes. Unfortunately, the ailment was never diagnosed properly and tales of drug abuse surfaced to explain Poe's bizarre behavior and to account for the gory details that characterized his short stories of horror and psychological torment. The strain of his marriage, Virginia's illness, the instability of his finances, and the romantic flirtations wrecked havoc on Poe's mind and body. All things considered, it is remarkable that Edgar Allan Poe has left us a wealth of short stories and poems that to this day display his literary genius. In the last year of his life, he was engaged to be married twice. The second engagement was to Elmira Royster who had been his first sweetheart. Returning north from Richmond on a business trip before his intended marriage, Poe stopped off in Baltimore. While in Baltimore suffering from crippling depression over Virginia's death, from hallucinations and physical exhaustion, Poe continued to communicate with his mother-in-law citing anticipated lecture tours. His movements and companions while there have remained a mystery, but 6 days later he was found by a newspaperman who recognized him. He was wearing torn clothing and lying unconscious on the sidewalk in the rain. He died without fully regaining consciousness. Without a doubt, the circumstances of Poe's death were almost predictable. Poe died on October 7, 1849; his last words were "Lord, help my poor soul." Poe's reputation continued to suffer after his death with the slanderous and inaccurate accounts of his life written by Rufus W. Griswold, whom Poe unwisely had hired as his literary agent. Hoping to enrich himself by publishing titillating stories about Poe, Griswold began his post-mortem series of gossipy articles with the following obituary that appeared in the newspaper on October9, 1849. Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore that day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was well known personally or by reputation in all this country; he had readers in England and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends; and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art lost one of its most brilliant, but erratic stars. His accomplishments were substantial. He was the most important American poet before Walt Whitman. His poems had considerable influence on the 19th century French symbolist poets and through them all modern poetry. His literary criticism was a major contribution to a developing theory of Romantic literature. Along with Hawthorne he is credited with giving the short story its modern form. The detective story has been traced back to his invention. The supernatural in America reached its highest peak in Poe. It is above all for his exploration of this dark side of our inner experience that Poe remains an important writer.

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church - Dickinson

Exposing the Hypocrisy of Religion in Emily Dickinson's Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church Who does society consider the faithful? Is it the man on the street corner screaming for everyone to repent their sins before the apocalypse? Is it the zealot who straps a bomb to his body, and walks into a crowded marketplace? Is it the monk who renounces all his worldly possessions, and takes refuge in a monastery? While these may be extreme examples of the faithful, they all have one thing in common; they are conveying their devotion in their own way. It doesn't matter who people choose as their god, be it Allah, Buddha, Jesus or Vishnu. The one common aspect of every religion is that you worship. Congregations around the world are supposed to prove their faith by worshipping at their local synagogue, church, or mosque. A place of worship can be a huge monstrosity of a building, or a small clapboard house in the middle of a cornfield. It doesn't matter where you worship, what matters is that you be present to worship. In Emily Dickinson's poem, "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-"; the speaker conveys her faith and devotion in God by communing with nature, therefore creating her own church at home. By juxtaposing the solemnity of worship with the natural beauty of one's backyard, Dickinson questions the hypocrisy of conventional religion. The first quatrain sets the tone for the poem: Some keep the Sabbath going to Church- I keep it, staying at Home- With a Bobolink for a Chorister- And an Orchard, for a Dome- (1-4) The first word of the poem is a slight to society; the "Some" in question are the people who feel they must abide by society's conventions, and attend church to exhibit their piousness. Hypocrites and doubters attend church because it is what is expected of them, and they must maintain the façade. In this one word Dickinson is able to illustrate how "Some" people buckle under the pressure of conformity. The first two lines of the stanza create a chiasmus, emphasizing the "going" of the people and the "staying" of the speaker. The people who attend church for the mere formality of it are actually giving away some of their faith, but by staying at home and truly living with God, the speaker is keeping something for herself. Dickenson's utilizations of perfect rhyme and the capitalization of "Church" and "Home", further underline the speaker's belief that her home is all the church she needs, and that she doesn't have to leave the confines of her home to prove her faith. The speaker demonstrates her devotion to God every hour of every day, not just on Sundays. In the second quatrain Dickinson contrasts the opulent with the simple: Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice I just wear my Wings- And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church, Our little Sexton-sings. (5-8) In the first line of the stanza, Dickinson application of alliteration and capitalization underscores the importance of the words "Some", "Sabbath" and "Surplice". Once again the hypocrites and non believers are participating in a performance, except now they are taking it one step further by wearing their hallowed robes to exemplify their righteousness. The speaker does not need to dress in sacred garments to communicate her virtuosity; she is perfectly happy with what God has given her. The speaker understands that a person's outward sanctity must coincide with their inner self, without sincere conviction there is nothing. Dickinson applies perfect rhyme to the second and fourth line of the poem: "Wings" and "sings" are brought together to stress the speaker's freedom with her faith. Dickinson accentuates this point even further by placing a period at the end of the word "sings". The third and final quatrain conveys the speaker's belief that she does not need to meet her maker to enter Heaven, but that she is already living Heaven on earth: God preaches, a noted Clergyman- And the sermon is never long, So instead of getting to Heaven, at last- I'm going, all along. (9-12) Notice the word "getting" in the third line; this is another slight to the charlatan's who are making their attempts of "getting" into Heaven. The truly faithful do not have to try to get into Heaven, they know they are going. Not only does the speaker know she's "going", but she is so blissfully content in this belief, that she has already found God's heaven in her own backyard. Dickinson' once again emphasizes her point by using a period at the end of the poem. There is no question that the speaker is a true believer, and there is no question as to where the speaker is going when her time comes. She is going to Heaven, period. At first glance the poem's utilization of harmonious language and perfect rhyme create a pleasant image, but look closer and the reader is able to detect the critical analysis that is slowly revealed. Dickinson is able to create a poem that on the surface seems airy and light, but her clever use of alliteration, capitalization, and word choice divulges a different story. The poem's form coincides with the poem's topic and content; all is not what it seems. Society must look past their exterior, and one must be introspective to have faith. One must remember the significance of the journey not the destination.

When Jo finishes her novel, she has to decide if she want to "bundle it back into [her] tin-kitchen, to mould, pay for printing it [herself], or chop it up to suit purchasers, and get what [she] can for it." She asks her father, her mother, Meg, Amy, and Beth what she should do. What advice did she get from each one of these family members?

Father - let it wait and ripen Mother - take the criticism from other to improve Meg- tells Jo not to leave a word out of it or she will spoil it Amy- tells Jo to take Mr Allen's advice and let the characters tell the story and make the most money possible Beth - only says she would like to see the book printed soon

I never lost as much but twice - Dickinson

I never lost as much but twice closely relates to Dickinson's life and in fact, the poetess speaks of two fundamental loss in her life and presents an anti-puritan attitude towards God! In this article we are attempting a critical analysis of I never lost as much as twice! Yes, annotations and summaries are included! The poem I Never Lost as Much but Twice was written after the death of Leonard Humphrey and Benjamin Newton. It may be possible that the poetess is expressing the loss of their death. "Twice" and "sod" signifies the death of two people. The second loss may be a betrayal or faithlessness of a friend. In human life, these are the two greatest emotional losses we encounter and Emily makes it clear though this poem. The keynote of the poem is, she leaves it to the readers to identify the loss, as individual losses are deeply personal and may not fit any genre.

At the end of the story, Melville states, "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, Humanity." How does this statement illustrate the theme of the story?

I think it illustrates the theme of the story because it shows how the lawyer is perplexed at the idea of Bartleby working at the dead letter section of the post office.

Because I could not stop for Death - Dickinson

In this poem, Dickinson's speaker is communicating from beyond the grave, describing her journey with Death, personified, from life to afterlife. In the opening stanza, the speaker is too busy for Death ("Because I could not stop for Death—"), so Death—"kindly"—takes the time to do what she cannot, and stops for her. This "civility" that Death exhibits in taking time out for her leads her to give up on those things that had made her so busy—"And I had put away/My labor and my leisure too"—so they can just enjoy this carriage ride ("We slowly drove - He knew no haste"). In the third stanza we see reminders of the world that the speaker is passing from, with children playing and fields of grain. Her place in the world shifts between this stanza and the next; in the third stanza, "We passed the Setting Sun—," but at the opening of the fourth stanza, she corrects this—"Or rather - He passed Us -"—because she has stopped being an active agent, and is only now a part of the landscape. In this stanza, after the realization of her new place in the world, her death also becomes suddenly very physical, as "The Dews drew quivering and chill—," and she explains that her dress is only gossamer, and her "Tippet," a kind of cape usually made out of fur, is "only Tulle." After this moment of seeing the coldness of her death, the carriage pauses at her new "House." The description of the house—"A Swelling of the Ground—"—makes it clear that this is no cottage, but instead a grave. Yet they only "pause" at this house, because although it is ostensibly her home, it is really only a resting place as she travels to eternity. The final stanza shows a glimpse of this immortality, made most clear in the first two lines, where she says that although it has been centuries since she has died, it feels no longer than a day. It is not just any day that she compares it to, however—it is the very day of her death, when she saw "the Horses' Heads" that were pulling her towards this eternity.

Bartleby the Scrivener

Ironically the story is about the narrator, his responsibilities, and his weaknesses. Why add "A Story of Wall-Street"? The story shows how Wall Street merely uses people like Bartleby like a kind of industrial machine. This is a story about social responsibilities. Human beings owe one another support through their common humanity. The lawyer did not like to get involved. The mentioning of walls throughout the story symbolizes the ways we are cut off from one another. The 3 office workers represent humanity. Before Bartleby comes along the lawyer is used to eccentric workers and he overlooks them showing his kindness. Turkey is the easy-going one. Nippers is the ambitious one. Gingernut represents the childish. Why does the lawyer tolerate Nippers and Turkey? They also have times they don't work, but they are predictable. He is displeased but he tolerates because they just have character flaws. They are not being subordinate. Possibly the story is a comment on how stressed workers become with the mechanical work brought about by the industrial society. Each worker has a way to resist the monotony of the job. The other workers are hostile because Bartleby departs from the social patterns. They recognized it even more because they have to do his work. "A fraternal melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam." Every man descended from Adam and has a moral weakness. Just as Bartleby's job had become so mechanical so does his verbal reaction, "I would prefer not to." Although on the surface the lawyer appears to be interested in Bartleby, he really does nothing to try to understand him and really get to know him. To him Bartleby is a curiosity. The lawyer's concern for Bartleby ceases when organized society intrudes. Melville implies that we use organized institutions as substitutes for our own person responsibilities. More walls—prison walls. Why does Bartleby refuse to talk to the lawyer? He feels wronged or it may be a symptom of his withdrawal from life. The lawyer has been changed. He has been affected by Bartleby. Shows how all humanity is interconnected.

The Conqueror Worm - Poe

Lo! 't is a gala night Within the lonesome latter years! An angel throng, bewinged, bedight In veils, and drowned in tears, Sit in a theatre, to see A play of hopes and fears, While the orchestra breathes fitfully The music of the spheres. Mimes, in the form of God on high, Mutter and mumble low, And hither and thither fly— Mere puppets they, who come and go At bidding of vast formless things That shift the scenery to and fro, Flapping from out their Condor wings Invisible Wo! That motley drama—oh, be sure It shall not be forgot! With its Phantom chased for evermore By a crowd that seize it not, Through a circle that ever returneth in To the self-same spot, And much of Madness, and more of Sin, And Horror the soul of the plot. But see, amid the mimic rout, A crawling shape intrude! A blood-red thing that writhes from out The scenic solitude! It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs The mimes become its food, And seraphs sob at vermin fangs In human gore imbued. Out—out are the lights—out all! And, over each quivering form, The curtain, a funeral pall, Comes down with the rush of a storm, While the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy, "Man," And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.

Melville biography

Melville wrote Hawthorne and said: "Until I was 25, I had no development at all. From my 25th year I date my life. Three weeks have scarcely passed, at any time between then and now, that I have not unfolded within myself." At this time he was working on Moby Dick and it was his intellectual development he was referring to. He began reading every thing he could get his hands on however, he had already experienced more than most have experienced by their 25th birthday. He had sailed the oceans and lived briefly with the cannibals. In Moby Dick, Ismael, the novel's narrator, says that the whaling ship was his "Yale College and Harvard." Melville was born in NY to a very prominent family. Melville's father gradually failed in business and died when Melville was 12, leaving the family in debt. His mother was then forced to ask help from relatives. Melville's mother was a Calvinist and critics say her dark view of humility and predestination had profoundly affected him. During adolescence Melville combined clerking jobs with brief periods of education. For the most part he was self-educated from his work with debating and literary societies. He shaved his whiskers so he would look more like a Christian when he looked for a job as a law clerk. At 19 he shipped as a seaman aboard a merchant vessel on a voyage to England. In 1841 he sailed aboard a whaler for the Pacific. Melville was repulsed by the crewman and by the brutal officers so with a friend he deserted. He deserted to a remote island where he stumbled upon a tribe of natives who in many ways lived an idyllic life but also practiced cannibalism. For a month or two Melville was apparently both a guest and captive of these people before he was able to escape aboard a passing whaler that took him to Tahiti. This ship was just as bad so Melville deserted again. He shipped aboard another whaler and some months later, in order to get passage home, he enlisted in Honolulu for service aboard a US naval vessel. He was eventually discharged at Boston at the end of 1844. During the next few years, Melville wrote 5 novels from these experiences. Typee (1846) a fictional account of his stay at Nuku Hiva. Being a first modern novel of a south sea adventure, it was an immediate success. A second novel, Omoo (1847) was based on his experiences in Tahiti and was also a success. He married and settled first in NYC and then on a farm near Pittsfield, Massachusetts where he net Hawthorne who greatly influenced Melville's writing. His third novel, Mardi (1849) was a travel narrative but was also an allegorical voyage of the mind and this sharply disappointed his readers. This audience wanted physical adventures not mental ones. He tried to recover financially by quickly writing a book on his first voyage and another on his naval service, but these had limited success. By 1850, when he was writing Moby Dick, Melville had reached the height of his creative powers and a crisis point in his career. He completed this masterpiece in 16 months while supporting his wife, children, mother, and two sisters. Readers still remembered him as the man who lived among the cannibals and would not accept any other writing from him. He wrote Hawthorne, "Dollars damn me. Try to get a living by the Truth—and go the soup societies...What I feel most moved to write, that is banned—it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot." Moby Dick was to be a monument to the whaling industry, complete with masses of information but a novel that also included man's inward journey dealing with the tragedies of human thought. Because of this psychological approach to the novel, it was not a success. Because of Hawthorne's intervention, Moby Dick was dedicated to him. Melville saw Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter as the Shakespeare of American Lit. Again, driven by the need for money, he wrote Pierre (1852) that was even darker and more difficult and even less popular. It was a perverse novel that appealed more to women. It was his biggest failure. The most objectionable thing about it was that a fellow tries to sleep with his sister. Then a fire in the publisher's warehouse in 1853 destroyed the remaining stock of his books. For a time he tried magazine writing and produced such brilliant stories as "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and "Benito Cereno" but they brought him little money. In 1855 he became nearly bedridden from rheumatism. When his last novel, The Confidence Man, appeared in 1857, it closed a decade of almost unbelievable productivity. This book begins as a satire on gullibility. For nearly twenty years he labored obscurely as a customs inspector in NY. He isolated himself from literary associations and would not discuss his work. He wrote only poetry. His one last great work of fiction was Billy Budd written after his retirement from the customhouse but not published until 1924. This work helped revive his fallen reputation. When he died in 1891 he was remembered as the author of one or two entertaining stories of the South Seas. Like the Transcendentalists, Melville sought evidence of the human spirit in the principles of nature. Unlike Emerson, Melville had to acknowledge his own perception of division and disunity: Even though the ocean was beautiful, sharks and other terrors swam in its dark depths. The presence of evil in all of existence haunted Melville's imagination. That is what he most enjoyed in Hawthorne's work. Melville wrote, "t is that blackness in Hawthorne that ...Fixes and fascinates me." Hawthorne noted that Melville went far beyond him in exploring the "horrors of the Half-known life" that lie beneath the surfaces of existence. Melville presented shipboard life as brutal, depraved, and malicious and he was convinced that absolute evil must destroy each other.

Thoreau Biography

On July 4, 1845, the date was deliberately chosen, a young man ended a three-year stay at the house of a friend and moved into a cabin on the shores of Walden Pond in Massachusetts. He was 28 and to all appearance, a failure. He had lasted only two weeks as a teacher (he refused to whip a child, then a mandatory form of punishment); his public lectures had been uninspiring (in fact he would become so involved his own lectures that he would forget his audience and begin to mumble.); the woman to whom he had proposed marriage had turned him down; he had little interest in family business, and despite his impressive Harvard education, he had not realized his literary ambitions. Henry David Thoreau was the self-unmade man rather than the self-made man. Thoreau was also a difficult man to get along with. Thee days before leaving for Walden Hawthorne had written a NY publisher that Thoreau was "tedious, tiresome, and intolerable." He was born in 1817. His father was manufactured pencils and his mother took in boarders. He entered Harvard in 1833 and graduated 4 years later. He was independent and eccentric even then; he attended chapel in green coat, "because," he wrote, "the rules required black." He never ranked higher than middle of his class. At Harvard he became familiar with English literature and with the German philosophers who provided much of the underpinnings of Transcendentalism. After spending an unhappy year in New York, he came home and in 1945 set out for Walden Pond. Walden Pond was an experiment to rediscover the grandeur inherent in a simple life led close to nature. He wished to pursue the essentials of reality. Believing that real knowledge came through experience, he had once written "the end of life is education." However, his cabin was only 2 miles from town and he commuted to Concord almost daily. Walden is considered one of the greatest works ever produced in America. Its subject is the relation of the order and beauty of nature to the mind and spirit. His model was nature and his style was simple. For him, nature contained spiritual reality. Although he was here for two years, his experiences are condensed into four symbolic seasons. In summer, he could live most directly in nature, for his hut was little more than a roof against the rain. In autumn, he finished the house and the fireplace and this was a period of reflection, of storing up experiences of summer for winter use as a squirrel stores up nuts. In winter, Thoreau valued signs of life; animals that do not hibernate, the fish that still swim beneath the ice of the pond. Winter was the season of reading and meditation. Spring was the time of rebirth, comparable to the Creation that is repeated each year. On the manuscript of Walden Thoreau had sketched a rooster and written under it that he hoped his book would wake up his neighbors. While at Walden, Thoreau's other famous act took place. As a protest against the Mexican War, which he saw as an attempt to extend American slave-holding territory, Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax. He spent the night in jail before someone paid the tax for him. When Emerson asked why he was in jail, Thoreau allegedly asked Emerson why still out of jail. Thoreau was vocally and radically opposed to slavery. While at Walden, and again in 1851 after the Fugitive Slave Act had been passed, he helped fugitive slaves make their way into Canada. Near the end of his life in 1859, he was one of the first defenders of John Brown, the radical abolitionist who staged a famous raid on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Thoreau remained at Walden for a little more than 2 years. In 1847, he left and moved in with the Emersons. During the next few years he worked on Walden and his lecture "Civil Disobedience" an essay that asserts the primacy of the individual conscience and the need for action in keeping with that conscience. This essay was especially important in helping to inspire the form of passive resistance used by Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King,Jr. in the U.S., for it asserts the individual's moral responsibility to resist immoral acts of government. In 1849 he moved into his father's house and lived there for the rest of his life. He supported himself by making pencils, taking odd jobs, and doing survey work. He worked in pencil factory until one day he said he made the perfect pencil and could see no reason to do the same thing day after day. He would survey land for others, but he said he would never own land for that would tie him down too much. He became a Concord record keeper, he could predict to the day when each wildflower in the area would bloom. Thoreau's books did not sell well. 1000 copies of A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers was published and only 294 were sold. He had the publisher send him the remaining copies and wrote in his journal that he had a library of over 900 volumes and over 700 were books he had written. In 1861, he caught a cold and it was discovered he had TB. He traveled to the mid-west in hopes that the changes of air would help, but it did not. He returned to Concord and began getting his writing in order. He faced his coming death with great calm. The town constable who had arrested him wrote Emerson he had never seen a man dying with so much pleasure and peace. Near the end his aunt supposedly asked him if he had made peace with God and he replied, "Why Aunt, I didn't know we had ever quarreled." Thoreau's life was the life Emerson espoused, for Thoreau was the self-reliant nonconformist. The townsfolk of Concord would have been shocked to find that Thoreau whom they considered an "interesting failure" would be no more widely read than the great Emerson himself.

Pain has an element of blank - Dickinson

Pain - has an Element of Blank" is a poem written by Emily Dickinson. This poem, also known under the title of "The Mystery of Pain", speaks about how pain is pain. We don't know when it began or if there was ever a day without it. We only feel it. And its future is itself. It will always be there. This writing is made up of only two stanzas with four lines in each. In the first stanza "recollect" is imperfectly rhymed with "not". In the second stanza "contain" is perfectly rhymed with "pain". Dickinson writes the poem in pairs where the first line of the pair is longer than the second.

The Purloined Letter - Poe

Poe defined the detective story and set the scene for famous detective story writers who would come after him. The seven characteristics of the detective story are as follows: Violent crime committee (not in "The Purloined Letter") A blundering police official cooperating with the unofficial detective Impossible conditions Cool courage and flawless deduction of the detective Applications of well-known facts or scientific data The clue is hidden in the obvious place or there is an insignificant detail The innocent suspect dramatically saved from unjust punishment (not in "The Purloined Letter). Of the 7 characteristics, 5 are used in this story. What are they and how are they used? We are given the facts of the case in the same order in which they are revealed to the narrator, who is Dupin's friend The simplicity of the case makes it most disturbing to the Prefect of police. The Prefect laughs at what he considers Dupin's folly. This foreshadows Dupin's solving the crime. Dupin is perceptive—a man who dares all things. When he states that the poet is a fool, we know that the Prefect is the fool because Poe held the poet in great esteem. The narrator is like Dr. Watson for Sherlock Holmes. He serves as a foil for Dupin. Both the Prefect and Watson are outsiders observing the movements of a master sleuth. The Prefect wants Dupin's help in acquiring the letter and he will share the reward. The Prefect has looked everywhere in the minister's rooms and cannot find it. A month later Dupin has the letter after two brief visits to the home the minister. Poe believes the imagination of the poet as well as the analytical ability of the scientist is needed to solve mysteries successfully. If the minister had only been mathematical, the Prefect would have been successful. Abstract intelligence often fails when applied to human situations. Therefore, the only one who will solve the mystery most readily will be the one who has insight into personality as well as logic and science. Minister D and Dupin are similar—both are men of reason as well as poets. They are imaginative as well as bold. He planned the disturbance in the street and he then switched the letters. The Minister had done Dupin an evil turn in Vienna and he delights in getting the best of him.

The Raven - Poe

Poe received $10 for this poem and he picked up the nickname the raven because he was short and dark. This poem dramatizes Poe's belief that the supernatural affects our past. He uses alliteration and assonance to create a musical effect. The time and atmosphere suggest sadness. Lenore is identified as Miss Royster and as his young wife, Virginia. Line 11 notes that she is nameless here in this world. Familiar sounds terrify him because he is in a state of fear. The echo he mentions in line 29 is probably his own mind. In line 41 the rave is more comical than threatening. The self-absorbed tormented speaker reflects the Romantic focus on the self. Nevermore becomes increasingly relevant and meaningful each time it is spoken. In lines 58-60 he shows extreme pessimism. Lines 70-72 reflect the Romantic interest in the exotic past. Lines 79-84 he speaks to himself and fantasizes the appearance of angels or mercy, but the refrain reveals the truth. Liens 88-90 he wants to know if h is grief will subside in life or in the afterlife, but the refrain remains the same—"Nevermore." The climax comes in the next to last stanza. The lover rejects the raven's message but the raven waits. The demonic raven stays on Pallas, a place of honor and overshadowing rationality The speaker realizes he will never escape from the Raven's shadow of despair.

To Helen - Poe

Poe was interested in classical themes. This poem is a statement of the Romantic, idealized love of pure beauty and deals with an ideal of beauty that can exist only in the imagination. He begins by giving her beauty an air of mystery and unreality. In stanza two he shows how Helen's classical beauty mentally transports him back to those glorious periods. Naiad is the nymph of quite, fresh waters which contrast with the desperate seas. Notice the allusions to Zeus, Leda, and Paris. The poem was written for Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, the mother of one of Poe's friends. The end of the poem mentions Psyche who personifies the soul. He shows at the end her beauty is timeless.

Explain Whitman message as represented by the three images in "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" — the lilacs, the Western star, and the song of the bird.

The message for these symbols is to represent Lincoln's death and the time of it. In the poem, spring returns, which makes the lilacs blossom. Whitman expresses that each leaf of a lilac is a miracle. The Western star is to represent Lincoln, but there are other meanings behind it, like mourning and death. The song of the bird symbolizes death and how a renowned life will come out of death.

My life closed twice - Dickinson

The speaker uses the metaphor of death to describe the torment two cataclysmic events inflicted. What these two events are we don't know, and I think there is little to be gained in trying to read the poem biographically; by asking, for example, is she referring to the deaths of two people? and if so, to whom? was she in love? were her feelings reciprocated? What matters is that the pain of these events was so sharp that she feels as if her life ended. Despite her feeling, she is, of course, still physically alive, so that she can experience more than one loss and the pain of that loss. Obviously, "its close" at the end of line 1 refers to her literal death. Dickinson uses metaphors of vision ("see" and "unveil") for revelation. What happens after death, in immortality? She compares what might be revealed to the pain she suffered twice before. The last two lines of this poem present a powerful paradox; parting is both heaven and hell. We part with those who die and--hopefully--go to heaven, which is, ironically, an eternal happiness for them; however, we who are left behind suffer the pain (hell) of their deaths (parting). Is there any comfort in this poem? What is the one thing we "know" about heaven? Is heaven, for living human beings, connected to hell? A personal note: these lines chill me every time I read them, and they stay with me afterward.

Ligeria- Poe

The story is the representative example of romanticism, dealing with the faraway time and place Note in his description of Ligeia—there is so much unknown about her background (last name, family, home); all we know is her physical appearance. The original story included a poem at the time of her death. The poem is entitled "The Conqueror Worm." He claims that Ligeia wrote it . The theme of the poem is of death at its most reprehensible. The poem tells of a play (a tragedy) entitled Man. The actors are like puppets moving at the bidding of "vast formless things." The hero is the worm because it wins in the end. Ligeia must escape the common end of all flesh—death. She is obsessed with the idea that man can defy death if his will is strong enough. At Ligeia's death the narrator plunges into despair. He remarries the opposite of Ligeia and moves into a house with ornate furnishings. There is fantastic interlacing of flowers, foliage, and fruit with figures of men and animals. He begins to use more opium. The new wife is afraid of him and he comes to detest her. He sits by his dying wife and gives her a goblet of wine. Before she drinks several drops of a liquid appear in the wine. Her condition worsens and on the third day she dies. He thinks of Ligeia. The narrator is a typical Romantic hero. He is constantly striving to understand a love more than he has in the past. Lady Ligeia is the quintessential Romantic heroine. She wants a life not subject to time. Lady Rowena represents the normal ordinary world that the narrator hates. He hears a sob and finds Lady Ligeia at the end of the story.

Gettysburg Address

This has been called one of the great American poems. Uses parallel structure as excellent rhetorical device. 3 parts of the speech—1. Exordium—which lays out the foundation of the speech 2. Argument—seeks to convince and persuade 3. Summary of the argument. Edward Everett had spoken for two hours, so Lincoln said his speech would be short, short, short, and it was. Everett wrote Lincoln the next day and said Lincoln had come closer to the central idea of the occasion in a few minutes than he had in two hours.

Annabel Lee - Poe

This is a romantic poem written in a mood of despair. Annabel died because the angels were jealous of their love. In the fifth stanza he observes that their love is stronger than death. Their souls will never parted although separated in body but united in spirit. The poem deals with a feeling of loss of love.

There's a certain slant of light - Dickinson

This poem focuses only on the effect of a certain kind of light that the speaker notices on winter afternoons. It quickly becomes clear that this is not going to be a poem extolling nature or winter light's virtues, for this light "oppresses." What kind of oppression this is, exactly, is what the rest of the poem describes. In the first stanza it is described as "like the Heft/Of Cathedral Tunes -," which is not a common simile for something oppressive, making it clear that this light's oppression is of a complicated nature. This slant of light gives a "Heavenly Hurt" to the observer of it—that is, something that causes no outwardly visible damage ("We can find no scar"), but instead causes a mental or spiritual change ("But internal difference, / Where the Meanings, are -"). This change cannot be induced through teaching ("None may teach it - Any -"); instead, it must be experienced. Though it is "Despair," it is an "imperial affliction," that is, a regal or royal affliction, that although painful, leads to an uplifting. It is powerful enough that even nature notices its presence ("When it comes, the Landscape listens -"), and its departure allows for a preternatural understanding of death ("When it goes, 'tis like the Distance / On the look of Death -").

Much Madness is Divinest Sense - Dickinson

This poem states that what is often declared madness is actually the most profound kind of sanity ("Much Madness is divinest Sense -"), when viewed by someone with "a discerning Eye." What is often called sense or sanity is in fact not just "Madness," but profound madness ("the starkest Madness"). It is only called "Sense" because it is not defined by reason, but by what the majority thinks ("'Tis the Majority / In this, as All, prevail -"). Since the majority rules, the act of agreeing, no matter to what, means that you are, in the public mind, sane ("Assent - and you are sane -"). If you disagree, or even hesitate in your assent, you are not only declared crazy, but dangerously so ("Demur - you're straightway dangerous -"). The act of disagreeing with the majority leads to a loss of freedom ("And handled with a Chain -"), thus one can either be physically free, but ruled by the majority, or imprisoned with their own beliefs.

Success is counted sweetest - Dickinson

This poem's message, carried forth in a few different metaphors, is that those who succeed never truly appreciate it—it is only those who fail, or who lack something, that can truly appreciate how wonderful it would be if they did succeed. The dilemma presented by this poem is that it is not just those who strive for longer before succeeding that can appreciate it more, it is only those who "ne'er succeed" who can count it "sweetest" to succeed. This means, then, that no one ever truly appreciates success to its full desert, because those who could, once offered the chance, lose the ability to. The next metaphor changes the scope of the poem slightly; it is no longer just about success, but about want and desire, too. Here, for someone "To comprehend a nectar," that is, to truly understand all the wonderful aspects of nectar, and to be satisfied by it, not just to scarf it down, "Requires sorest need." That is, only the starving can truly appreciate food. Again, we have the dilemma that as soon as one has their first bite, they are no longer starving, and they quickly lose their ability to appreciate it. The final two stanzas elucidate one last, more extended, metaphor. Here Dickinson has taken us to a battlefield, and she compares the perspectives of the winning and losing sides. Not only can the soldiers in the winning army not feel the same appreciation of victory as the losing soldiers, but they cannot even truly understand what it is. Those soldiers left "defeated" and "dying" on the battlefield, however, can, as they must listen to the other side's celebrations of their victory.

Show how Thoreau's life and/or work reflects the ideas he espouses, especially as these ideas relate to Transcendentalism. Address his ideas concerning nature, self-reliance, and nonconformity, illustrating with an event from his life or an example from Walden.

Thoreau went to live in Walden to find his true self. One of the most important things for him to do is to give a simple account when writing. He believed men needed leisure. People have false values, and accepted truths are not to be trusted without proof. Follows transcendentalism by being independent and relying on himself.He grows his own crops and built his own house. Walden lived in harmony with nature as a source of inspiration.

Resistance to Civil Government

What does Thoreau mean when he says, "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"? Thoreau went to jail because he refused to pay a poll tax that he felt would go toward the war with Mexico which could add more slave states. He believed that he was not alone in feeling that slavery was wrong. He notes that we do not have to oppose wrongdoing actively, but we have to refuse to engage in it, which is what he thinks he does by refusing to pay the poll tax. In the section on the present laws for those who go into debt, he notes the inequity of the law. He also notes that the government is symbolized by the tax collector, which explains his not paying the tax. He believed that a single righteous person or a small group of such persons can redeem a whole society. His feelings about a peaceable revolution are ideas espoused later by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ghandi. How did he feel being in jail? He notes th e changes he felt after being in jail. How did he feel about taking advantage of the things the government was providing for him?

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" - Whitman

When JFK died this poem was read a number of times because it was suitable since the poem never mentions Lincoln's name and is for any fallen national leader. He deals with coming to terms with grief through an understanding of death (universal meaning) Written as an elegy—a solemn reflective poem usually written about death in an informal style. This poem is considered a masterpiece because of its topic, combination of the traditional elegy and free verse, and its universal appeal. Whitman never met Lincoln but was an avid fan. Irony—he uses lilacs which represent spring—a time of renewal and rebirth. Poem begins as a lament for Lincoln. Whitman associates them with Lincoln's death and will continue to do so. In section 2 he uses the apostrophe—addresses an inanimate object as if alive. The star symbolizes Lincoln—How is he the Western star? Symbol of the poet's love of memory of Lincoln. He will now associate the odor of the lilacs to death Throughout the poem the lilac (representing human love and memory) contrasts with the song of the thrush, which represents immortality and its being separated from humanity. Even the animals feel the loss which is common to the elegy The song he sings suggests that death lead to life—symbol of immortality. Sections 5-6 refer to the President's body being taken by train from the capital to Springfield, IL. An entire nation mourned, businesses closed and homes were draped in black Whitman did not see the body or coffin at all. He uses the gesture of placing the lilac on the coffin to associate himself with the funeral service. Section 13 is a transition. Whitman is now ready to listen to the thrush, ready to turn from his lament to the consoling ideas of immortality. In section 14 he speaks of walking with the two deaths or the three could be the lilac, star, and the bird. Death is to be greeted with joy. Gone now are the grief and sorrow. He has accepted death like life. He moves on to talk of other deaths (soldiers killed in battle) Section 16—these lines build to line 190 which ends with joy. He explores the thought of immortality. All symbols of Lincoln who too will live on through what he left behind

Song of myself - Whitman

Whitman celebrates the infinite variety within the individual. Trans.—the self is universal and is thus representative of all mankind. What is true for him is true for all. In celebrating his individuality he speaks for all individuals. Follows the self-reliance endorsed by Emerson. He will put aside all prior knowledge and tradition that tends to bias experience and he will face life. Confront life's central nature. In the second section notice the use of free verse. Why does it fit? Poet is not restricted just as the poem isn't. Just as Whitman believes in freedom and individualism, his verse abandons rigid structure. Informal—to establish an informal relationship with the reader. Trans.—man's self-reliance. Section 5—in medieval poetry the debate or dialogue between the body and soul was a conventional device, but not with the sexual undertones Whitman uses. Section 6—Grass is a symbol of hope and renewal. It is his banner and inspires trust. It is a reminder of a higher power. It is innocent, pure, and new each spring. A secret, but universal language. Trans.—physical death leads to feeding the soil which leads to plant life which leads to releasing the infinite soul. Section 10—reveals his passion for freeing the slaves. Section 15—illustrates his catalog technique This is another one of Whitman's lists and note his summary statement at the end. We are all one. In section 16 he also uses this technique. Section 21—the miseries of life he transforms into poetry. The poet is universal. Section 24—touches on the transcendentalist idea of man's divinity. Section 31—shows how common things are equal to more awkward things. Section 41—catalog of religions Whitman hopes for a universal religion embracing aspects of all faiths. Section 52—use of words here shows his loose, lively, informal style Onomatopoeia00thius cry is loud and jarring just as he intends his poetry to be. Sums up the theme of the return of the self to nature. The message and spirit will remain after the poet is gone. The "I" in Whitman as well as all people in their celebration of the individual.