Romanticism poem 1: I Heard an Angel by William Blake (CULTURE, PLACE, AND TIME)
The culture of romanticism is evident in I heard an Angel by William Blake. He uses objects that symbolize an awe of nature. These objects include the day, new mown hay, haycocks, rain, and grain. There are strong feelings of misery and mercy that are also a part of the romantic culture. According to William Blake’s biography, he grew up in London during the French Revolution. His word choices of mercy and peace exemplify this time period.
He has a battle of his own with good vs. evil or Angel vs. Devil to illustrate the sufferings of war and that mercy could be “the worlds release.” The Angel brings “Mercy Pity Peace” and a song for the awe of nature to enjoy. The Devil brings a “curse over the heath & the furze”, keeps mercy away, strikes poverty, takes away pity, and makes the world miserable. This can be applied to the French Revolution in the form of three words “Mercy Pity Peace.” Mercy would be a cease-fire and democratic non-violent solution to the problem. The devil would wish for malevolence among the people. Pity makes people empathetic in a time of war. Thus, the devil would want the people to be apathetic towards their enemy. Considering them to not be human at all would be best for the devil. Peace is the calming awe of nature. Terror would be the opposite of peace. Gun shots, corpses, and unnatural fire and smoke would be a part of the French Revolution. An angel blesses with “Mercy Pity Peace” and a devil curses with malevolence, apathy, and terror.
Gothic poem: Alone by Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Allen Poe’s Alone exemplifies the gothic characteristics of pain, death, and cruelty. According to (SOURCE JOJO), Poe’s mother died of tuberculosis and his father abandoned him a very young age. He had to move in with another different family that included a businessman who wanted Poe to go in his successful footsteps despite Poe’s lack of interest in business. He could not afford to complete university as his step-father couldn’t afford it any longer. Poe burned his belongings to stay warm until he joined the army. After his time deployed by the army he came back to his home-town to discover the woman that he loved had been engaged to another man. At this point he was truly alone as he would not marry Virginia until 1836 (Poetry Foundation). According to Interesting Literature, Alone was written an 1830 when Poe was 21 years old. The culture at the time would’ve been hostile toward native Americans as Andrew Jackson was the U.S. president at the time. From February 22 to when the bill was signed into law on May 28 there must’ve been debates throughout the country on this decision of a mass land grab that would result in The Trail of Tears (LOC.GOV). Because of his military service he must’ve felt a connection with the event that was about to occur. This gothic period will contain much death, pain, and cruelty much like Poe’s poem. In Alone he used phrases the phrases “my sorrow”, “all I loved, I loved alone”, and “(when the rest of Heaven was blue) of a demon in my view.” Allen was communicating the sorrow of a lost typical childhood when his mother died and those around him wouldn’t understand him. He loved alone as there is no companion in his life at the moment. The demon would show himself as a dark thundering storm forming where heaven’s blue should’ve been. The storm/demon/calamity began in his childhood where heaven’s blue should’ve been yet he was not as “others were.”
Victorian poem 1: How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Browning
How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Browning was a love letter written before 1846 to her soon to be husband Robert Browning (Poetry Foundation). How Do I Love Thee? was written in the Victorian era, which began in 1837. There were many advancements socially, politically, and technologically throughout the era due to the industrial revolution. The right to vote for all men owning land worth more than ten pounds in an annual rent had finally passed. The steam engine had brought great opportunities for Europe’s economy to develop and communications technologies like the postal service and telegraph allowed communication opportunities for the middle class (Victorian slides).
Elizabeth Browning had written several political poems over her career (Poetry Foundation). Although the poem How do I Love Thee? is devoid of politics and focuses on her passionate love for Robert, she does bring a political culture when defining love. She states in her poem that “I love thee freely, as men strive for right.” and “I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.” She had emphasized that a person should strive for a pure freedom without praise as this is a love for your country in her case London and eventually Italy.
The love for her husband is expressed with passionate and thoughtful descriptions. She describes a deep love that goes as far as she can reach with “the breath, smiles, tears of all my life” (Browning). Her love to Robert is a love that has been lost by others, “I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints.” This is a love she wants to keep even after death, “if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” When Elizabeth said “better” she not only meant experiencing an extended eternal love but a love with a healthy body as she had been sickly for most of her life with a weakness to her lungs (Poetry Foundation).
Victorian poem 2: The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth
Henry Wadsworth’s The Arrow and the Song the Victorian era’s love for romanticism (VICTORIAN SLIDES). The awe of nature is shown by the air, earth, and oak mentioned (ROMANTICISM RESOURCE). The Arrow and the Song was written on October 16, 1845 in The Belfrey of Bruges and Other Poems (library u Toronto). Wadsworth was born in the year 1807 in the newly formed United States of America, which had finished its revolutionary war in 1783. He had been named after his uncle Henry Wadsworth who had died at Tripoli harbor in 1804. Wadsworth would’ve been heavily influenced by the patriotism of the newly formed country.
In the beginning of The Arrow and the Song we have an arrow shot in the air that we could assume is being shot by Henry as the narrator. It flew out so quickly that he had not known where it landed. Then he “breathed a song into the air” and it had been lost as well “for who has sight so keen and strong, that it can follow the flight of song.” Both the arrow and song were quick actions that took flight and fell back to earth. After a long time had passed, both the arrow and the song are completely intact, “I found the arrow, still unbroke; and the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend.” At the time of publication 1845 Wadsworth had a cooperative relationship in writing with his wife Fanny (Poetry Foundation). According to find a grave, Fanny was 12 years younger then Henry though they had met 1836 when she was traveling through Germany and Switzerland and would marry seven years later in Cambridge. Fanny was the song though the arrow is something much deeper. It is a child. According to Calhoun, Henry’s first wife Mary died of pregnancy complications. The arrow as a symbol for children comes from the book of Psalms 127:4-5 “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.” Fanny and Henry had six children together so the arrow had been found by Henry unbroke and his song had been found in his best friend Fanny.
Modernist poem 1: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening has visually calm writing with clear descriptions of a snowy forest. The forest has a frozen lake indicating a cold winter has come. Robert describes himself (or possibly someone else) watching the “woods fill up with snow.” It is “the darkest evening of the year”, which probably indicates the winter solstice though it may be related to the theme discussed later. His little horse is confused by the stop at a seemingly uneventful location. The only sounds are “the sweep of easy wind and downy flake.” Finally, he describes the woods as “lovely, dark, and deep” leaving with a note that he will continue onward “but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep.”
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening seems to be a poem simply on the awe of nature like romanticism though this a poem in the modern era of 1923. According to Edsitement, modernist poetry has the poet question the fundamental of the self. What does it mean to be a person in the world with confusing thoughts and feelings. In the case of Robert Frost’s poem we have a man looking at a calmer side of death. He’s calmed by the woods “lovely, dark, and deep” and the horse is confused by his intentions as he wants to be near the calm of death something an animal would find perplexing indeed. He’s watching his life fill with snow to which he’ll one day stay in the calm of death. But not yet he has “promises to keep” and a long distance to go before he sleeps under the calm forest. Robert Frost had a desire to print “forty pages of footnotes” for this small poem, which makes sense as he was dealing with the temptation of a calm death. The poem was an exploration of the self’s desire for rest. Frost was 49 when he wrote the poem and would continue living for 39 more years in Boston Massachusetts and would win four Pulitzer Prizes.
Modernist poem 2: The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens’ The Emperor of Ice-Cream takes the unconscious surrealist’s desires used in modernist writing to allow the meaning and language to be ambiguous with distinct feeling of strange other worldliness. According to the Poetry Foundation, the meaning of The Emperor of Ice-Cream is the inevitability of death. This makes sense as the symbols of “boys bringing flowers”, “that sheet on which she embroidered fantails once and spread it so as to cover her face”, and “her horny feet protrude” from the sheet. The ambiguous language and comes from the title and line of “the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.” Because of its ambiguous nature I’ve decided to link with the closest relevant for Wallace, which is World War 1. World War 1 ended in 1918 and had world leaders coming in and out of the war, which sacrificed so many lives for a cause some might disagree with especially with America joining so late. The only emperor is the one who commands ice-cream could be interpreted as a commentary on the wealthy‘s indulgence on luxury goods. The emperors weren’t really all powerful commanders directly as the world had assumed. The poem can be interpreted as a satire.
Another interpretation by Allen involved Steven’s trips to Key West and Havana with Caribbean culture in which they serve desserts at the wake before a funeral. This is also supported by the local cigar maker in the first line “Call the roller of big cigars” another staple of the Caribbean culture. So we have a wake for a woman in the with Caribbean traditions being practiced.
Lastly, I’d like to examine the dead woman. She has a dresser that is missing “the three glass knobs.” Her dresser was not maintained so maybe she was missing income to repair it as her funeral wasn’t lavish. Maybe she had lost her husband in World War 1 and was surviving off a female’s wage for the time, which was much lower than a man’s.
Short Fiction The Turn: A Perfect Day for Bananafish by Jerome Salinger
Jerome Salinger’s A Perfect Day for Bananafish was a tragedy of post World War II violence. Jerome was in the United States military from 1942-1944 (biography.com). He was among the infantry that stormed Utah beach in the battle of Normandy. He had scene much action and was developing his stories during his service. After the war had ended, he suffered a nervous breakdown that required him to hospitalized so the war had traumatized him. Jerome brought these experiences four years later to his story about the veteran Seymour Glasse’s suicide.
Seymour Glass has been traumatized by the war. His experiences are not understood by the people around him and they would constantly talk behind his back. The civilians who had not been to the war torn Europe were now heavily influenced by consumerism. Even Seymour’s wife Muriel wasn’t as concerned as she should’ve been for his health because she cared about her appearance. She had dodged questions from her mother about his health in ways that put the attention back on her and her opinions about someone else’s clothing. According to Norris and Richardson, the bananafish exemplify this consumerist greed by them eating too many bananas and dying in a hole. It’s because of this society that he pulls the trigger and ends his life.
Jerome knew the significance of the Ortgies calibre 7.65 that Seymour used to kill himself. The gun was used by German officers in World War II (guns.com). It is likely that Seymour would’ve taken the weapon home after the war had ended, which adds a deep cut to this story. Jerome played with the shifting prospective, which was a part of modernist literature at the time. It is important to note that Seymour has shifted his perspective when he goes back to the hotel room. Instead of Jerome using Muriel’s name he has changed Seymours perspective to disassociate her as being just a girl is in this room “he glanced at the girl lying asleep on one of the twin beds.” After all, this woman was not the person he had left behind to go fight in the war. She was no longer the person he had fell in love with that would be “making dolls for poor children.” She had become selfish and apathetic towards Seymour. When he took out the gun it was him going back to a time when he cared about her. When he longed to be back with Muriel. He killed himself because he knew she had eaten too many bananas and that she had nothing ahead of her but an inevitable death.
Short Fiction The American South: A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’ Connor
Flannery O’ Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find had multiple characteristics from southern gothic literature like a grotesque character with negative qualities, violence, freakishness, and question of what good truly means (YOUTUBE SOURCE). The story communicates the protagonist doubts about her own faith as well as misapplied moral superiority. Flannery had explained that the brutality in her stories were to ground characters into a reality so they could prepare to “accept their moment of grace” (britannica). She had lived in Georgia in the south of United States. Flannery grew up around Roman Catholic beliefs, which she’ll use in her story A Good Man is Hard to Find. The story follows the protagonist simply know as grandmother. She
Short Fiction Dystopia: Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair by Frederik Pohl
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Short Fiction Sex, Drugs, and a Little Rock and Roll: ? By ?
References
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43663/i-heard-an-angel
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-blake
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edgar-allan-poe
https://interestingliterature.com/2018/03/19/a-short-analysis-of-edgar-allan-poes-alone/
Edgar Allan Poe’s “Alone” — Poem, Review and Interpretation
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/indian.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/elizabeth-barrett-browning
HOW DO I LOVE THEE POEM CITE
VICTORIAN ERA SLIDE CITE
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/henry-wadsworth-longfellow
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44624/the-arrow-and-the-song
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+127%3A4-5&version=NIV
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17619608/frances-elizabeth-longfellow
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-frost
https://edsitement.neh.gov/curriculum-unit/introduction-modernist-poetry
ROBERT FROST Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening POEM
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70138/wallace-stevens-the-emperor-of-ice-cream
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wallace-stevens
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45234/the-emperor-of-ice-cream
J. D. Salinger: Seeing the Glass Family (A Perfect Day For Bananafish)
https://www.biography.com/people/jd-salinger-9470070
https://www.guns.com/news/2012/12/11/the-ortgies-pistol-of-bananafish-and-dead-nazis
Bananafish STORY