LITERATURA AMERYKAŃSKA
I SEMESTR
I. Puritan literature and culture (17th century)
1. William Bradford “Of Plymouth plantation”
a) As a providential view of history
The historian of Plymouth interprets the experiences of the Scrooby Separatists as they spent
years of self-imposed exile in Holland and eventually once more uprooted themselves for
the long, uncertain, and dangerous voyage to New England. The voyage on the Mayflower
offered, in his eyes, instances of the "providences"--or intrusion into human history--of
God. Over and over again, the "saints" are saved by God's "providence," and the
wicked are punished as God moves His people toward their destiny. In fact, Bradford
sees his compatriots as having undergone a more rigorous testing than the Hebrews: there
was no "Pisgah" for them to ascend and see another Promised Land. Yet the very rigors of
their tests, greater than any borne by earlier saints, simply emphasized the greater glory and
rewards for faith and perseverance. In the relatively brief excerpts from Of Plymouth
Plantation, Bradford characteristically interprets even the slightest detail of their ordeals as
an instance of the "providence of God" and therefore a reinforcement to the sense of
"mission" for the Plymouth settlers. They are able, through God's clear intervention, to
repulse the Indians, to find food and a safe harbor, to survive even with the uncooperative
"strangers" in their midst, and to outwit and defeat the iniquitous Thomas Morton and Merry
Mount's "riotous prodigality and profuse excess."
b) as an introduction of themes developed later in course of American
literature (religion, relations with Indians, language, realism, testing the ideal against the
real)
17th century highly influenced mainly two powerful minds: Jonathan Edwards and
Benjamin Franklin. Their most important similarity concerns the contribution to religious
thinking. Edwards', as the last great proponent of the purest Puritanism, Franklin's as
the most widely known eighteen's century American Deist.
Jonathan Edwards philosophical essays provide sample evidence of his genius and his
early inclinations towards idealism. His keen interest in science led him towards the
rationalistic type of idealism, which we can also see later in the works of the Nineteenth
Century American Transcendentalists. As the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty had
lost its appeal among the colonists, Edward took it upon himself to revitalize it. He drew
attention to both intellect and emotion.
Edwards was initially successful only to be subsequently rejected by his own congregation;
he went a remote parish and preached Indians. Keeping in mind that Edwards possessed
both an exquisite mind and considerable rhetorical skills, we can interpret his defeat of the
dogma he preached. People were no longer willing to accept the system in which God was
all-powerful and man was of no consequence: the doctrine of predestination, the cornerstone
of Calvinism, did not go well with those who saw the arrival of the Age of Reason which
brought about not only a rational approach to the world , but first of all the belief in
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progress.
Benjamin Franklin was such a believer. His early essays were for him an exercise in
logical, rational thinking in which he convinced himself of the existence of Deistic God.
He supplemented it later with other arguments, yet the basic premises remain unchanged:
reason could not render a different conclusion. Puritans were not always free from initial
doubts either.
The 18th century intellectual revolution concerned the vision of God, but not the rational
thinking which had always been the cornerstone of American society.
In Franklin's world there was no predestination and man alone was responsible for what he
would do with his own life.
2. Anne Bradstreet “Upon a burning house” “To my dear and loving
husband” “The author to her book”
a) as representation of Puritan philosophy of life
Logic and ethics were the two great concerns of Puritan philosophy. They are seen in her
poems but she sometimes demonstrates a sensitivity to beauty not usually found in the
Puritan theological approach. She must often deny her own ability to think to be able to put
forth a coherent system of thought. Nonetheless, the struggle that exists mutedly throughout
her work is philosophy in itself, and it says: Deny what you must to be what you must, for
this is the way to social peace and even to heaven".
“To my dear and loving husband”

She wrote a poem about love and not about God because she might have been punished

The love to her husband is eternal, given by God

She loves him because she knows he loves her – she doesn’t mention any features of the
man (neither physical nor spiritual) -> she doesn’t give an explanation why she loves
him -> she loves him because it was blessed by God

Metaphors, artistic devices: love is like a flame, love is more than all the mines of gold

This poem is very private – written directly to her husband

It is also romantic as it expresses one’s feelings

It may be seen as a letter to all the women on how to love their husbands
“Upon the burning of our house”
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
A private poem – a title makes it look more like a diary entry

This poem is a kind of narration: at night she hears voices, she describes them : first silence
then cries, first she doesn’t know that it is burning, only then she comes out and sees it

Submission to God : everything is given and taken by God, the fact that she survived is
God’s providence, she is lamenting and screaming but she screams “God!”, her heart
cries but she looks at everything in a religious way “The world no longer let me
love/my hope and treasure lies above”

Vanity -> Kohelet(Vanitat vanitatum et omnia vanitas – Marność nad marnościami I
wszystko marność) -> she realizes that everything passes but she doesn’t object

Evidence that it was written by a woman: things she remembers from the house (trunk,
chest)

Aa bb rhymes, short verses, traditional rhythm (stopa metryczna-> characteristic to an epic)
illustrate the action
“The Author to Her Book”

Conceit – the general surprising idea of the poem

An extended metaphor

Her book – her baby

She is very critical of herself and her book, she knows it’s imperfect, she uses a lot of words
showing criticism and imperfection : to trudge/wlec się, brat/bachor, irksome/drażniący, a
blemish/skaza, hobbling/kutykający

The function of this poem – farewell : the book will be published, she gives pieces of advice
to her baby, she says she loves it because it’s her child, although it’s imperfect

The reason why it is imperfect is because it is created by her feeble brain

“And for thy mother, she alas is poor/Which caused her thus to send thee out of door”- she
explains it was written to be published
c) as didactic literature
Bradstreet was a Puritan who moved to America. She was the first person to publish poetry
in the New World. The pursuit of spiritual gains rather than earthly items is a major theme
Bradstreet uses to show how important eternal salvation is for humans, especially the
Puritans of her time.
The theme of the “Upon the Burning of Our House“ poem is that materials are worthless
and the only thing that is worthy is going to Heaven in the afterlife.
The tone of this poem starts off with Bradstreet being very attached to her possessions.
However, she believes God can give or take anything because it was God who owned it.
She teaches that all possessions are worthless.
According to Bradstreet, all the riches of the Earth cannot compare to what is stored in
heaven, which contains treasures far beyond imagining. This unimaginable treasure stored in
heaven should be motivation enough to pursue God's will.
d) the use of conceits
conceit - an elaborate, usually intellectually ingenious poetic comparison or image
"The Author to her Book"
The theme Bradstreet used when calling her work her offspring continued throughout the
poem, and only emphasized her distinctive style of writing poetry. The poem expresses the
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emotions that Bradstreet felt when her most intimate thoughts were published to the world
without her consent. In this poem, Anne Bradstreet uses the conceit of the relationship
between mother and child, a common situation that many people can sympathize with and
understand. She gives the work many human characteristics to enhance the effect of the
conceit. Instead, Bradstreet had to use a situation in which her readers could comprehend the
many emotions she experienced.
II. The 18th century
1. Jonathan Edwards „Sinners in the hands of an angry God”
1) as propaganda literature (stylistic devices)
Sinners in the hands of an angry God is a sermon, but also an example of early propaganda
literature. The use of hyperboles and metaphors as well as the speaker referring to the reader
(listener) as “you” shows the assumed personalized relationship that the preacher wants to achieve.
It is supposed to be clear from the first words that he is referring to “you”, to each and every one of
the people listening to or reading the sermon. The hyperboles build up the tension, as the black
clouds burst with water, which then turns into a flood. The very construction of a sermon was
supposed to scare the congregation into a religious life. The sermon consisted of an explanation of
a chosen Biblical question, its interpretation and finally its application to the life of a colony,
and Edwards’ is no exception. They were meant to be delivered orally, and so they involve a lot of
repetition, which to a reader may seem a bit dull, and meant to be delivered by skillful orators, and
therefore reading them silently does not do them justice.
2) as illustration of man-God relations
What image evokes from those passages:

fear of God;

no power to change his destination;
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dependable on God;

whatever punishment he wants to inflict on us;

men are not yet punished;
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preventing men from falling into hell;
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people don’t care about life after death;

sinners are not aware of the God’s power;

weakness makes them as heavy as lead;

language is very descriptive;

God’s anger: BLACK CLOUDS, FLOODS, WHIRLWINDS, THE ARROW
- tension is increasing and intensification of images = hyperbole = gradation.

God’s power = something that people cannot avoid;

always a situation of danger (walking in thin air);

the image of hell is used here (flames of God’s anger – traditional image of hell.
How he is trying to persuade them:
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
making them aware that it is going to happen to them;

addressing directly: you, yours, sinner;

the people who had already died (parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends) appeal
to them;

quotations from the Bible: Sodom = unexpected punishment;

the aim of the sermon


the one who doesn’t follow will be punished;

there is still a chance for people to join the bliss of heaven;

an individual is responsible for their own condemnation -> undergoing
conversion;

contrast between heaven (happy life) and hell (sad life).
gradation of God’s anger

black clouds = metaphor;

flood = extended comparison;

the floods of God’s vengeance = metaphor;

people are spiders = comparison;

vivid picture through comparisons and metaphors.

repetitions, paraphrasing = talking about the same by means of vivid images;

exclamation = addressing the sinner;

personifications = bow and arrow;

discovery of the truths that God gave to the world
Sinners in the hands of an angry God is an illustration of a God who is vengeful and all-powerful,
and man who is a sinner, wicked and in no way considered “an equal partner”, who through his
good deeds can earn redemption. Man, as in the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, is in no way
able to change his fate, and the only thing that keeps him from Hell and damnation is the power and
mere pleasure of God. The God from the sermon is not the loving, caring Father, whom we know to
be forgiving and merciful. God is hot-tempered, all-mighty, ready to destroy any sinner who
comes his way. Man is nothing to him, man is not able to withstand his awesome power. There is
no possibility of salvation except those chosen by God, and only those will be saved. Everybody
wanted to believe that they were the chosen ones, and that they would receive signs from God
showing their special role (like success in life and business). The Puritans were in a way proud to be
a part of God’s extraordinary enterprise, and the doctrine of predestination did not evoke a feeling
of helplessness as one might have suspected. This is the American ‘moral code’: while ostensibly
reducing the importance of man’s behavior to nil, it actually forced him to be at his best all the time
for fear of admitting, or having his neighbors ascertain, his failure to gain a place among the God’s
chosen few.
2. Benjamin Franklin “Autobiography”
a) Puritan vs. Enlightened
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Puritan - Benjamin Franklin was born In 1706 in the capital of New England Puritanism,
Boston. As Puritans hoped to be made pure by God’s Grace, he tried to make himself
morally perfect by self-discipline. As a writer, he perfected the Puritan plain style (smooth,
clear and short).He wrote ‘Poor Richard’s Almanack’ He compared God to the creator,
clock maker, who has to wind a clock. The world He created is like a perfect mechanism
which is developed by men.
Though Franklin may not have been a Puritan at heart, his origins in a Puritan society are
obvious. He believed, as did many Puritans at that time, that it was important to be honest
and diligent, to work hard and to always try to be a good person. While plenty of people still
believe in these things today, the Puritans really believed in them. They lived simply,
devoting most of their energy into doing the things they hoped would please God. Franklin
did the same things—working hard and helping others, for instance—but he did them less to
honor God than to succeed in the world. This is a subtle but important difference: whereas
earlier Puritans believed that man's fate was predetermined, the Puritans of Franklin's time
increasingly came to believe that—as Franklin later put it—"God helps them that help
themselves." Franklin echoes this message in his autobiography, making what was originally
a religious idea into a secular one. He also wrote 13 moral virtues and worked hard to
introduce4 them successfully into his life.
Enlightened - intelligence, passion, strength, devotion, charisma, tenacity, perseverance,
generosity, forgiveness. Franklin possessed all of these qualities and that is why he is
considered to be one of the greatest American minds and a proud pillar of their national
heritage. However, their affinity for Franklin extends deeper. He seems to embody and
personify the American dream. Born the son of a candlemaker, few people would have
surmised that Franklin would master so many disciplines. His story proves that with
determination and dedication, success is within anyone's grasp. A leading American
statesman, inventor, philanthropist, publisher, revolutionary, and thinker, Benjamin Franklin
was truly the Enlightened America. He helped to improve city’s pavements, street lightning,
sanitation, fire companies, and police, ran a magazine and a newspaper, founded a debating
club, the American Philosophical Society, a hospital, the first circulating library in America.
He studied earthquakes, ocean currents and winds,. Improved the lightning rod, bifocal
eyeglasses. Assisted in creating declaration of independence and the constitution of the
USA, became first American millionaire.
b) Self-made man idea – (see puritan) and his virtues :temperance (to have clearness of
mind), silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation,
cleanliness, tranquillity chastity, humility. He didn’t accomplish everything at once, just one
by one. He also wrote a scheme of employment for the 24 hours of a natural day. He had
time for work, reading, rest, relax, music, conversation. He asked himself: what good shall I
do this day and ended a day asking himself: what good have I done? He had a Christian
attitude with ethical philosophy. Finally he was almost a perfect person with no bad
habits.(except for order)
c) As a prototypical American “success story”– the contrast between Franklin’s
humble beginning and his vast success has made him a symbol of America. He was
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resourceful and adaptable, a proof of the opportunities for success in America. He was
called the first American (from rags to riches). By cleverness and hard work he changed
himself from the candle- and soap- maker into a world- famous scientist, diplomat
philosopher, and writer.
d) Demonstration of pragmatism - the clearest examples of Franklin's pragmatism
are clarity, the idea of usefulness and unusual character. Everything he wrote or invented
was very useful for other people. He wished to benefit mankind and was very practical In
everything he did. Pragmatyczna teoria prawdy zakłada, że użyteczność stanowi kryterium
prawdziwości sądów i pojęć. Na przykład sądy naukowe są prawdziwe, ponieważ
przyjmując je za prawdziwe możemy bardziej skutecznie postępować.
III.
Literature of the early Republic
Washington Irving “Rip Van Winkle”
a) Legend vs. History
- As a legend

Supernatural heroes, creatures, they were mysterious and odd. Dutch settlers with
their leader Peter Sturtevant established a colony, that took about 150 years, quaint
(old fashioned) appearance, wearing hoods

Creatures and gods of Saxon suggest that it happened long time ago (the quotation at
the beginning)

It’s about old times, story about descendant makes us to be under the impression that
it was long time ago

Mystery of the description of the mountain, mountains are personified, this is a
romantic vision of the nature

Mountains are appropriate setting for romantic events, mysterious atmosphere, really
bizarre

Personification of Rip’s dog named Wolf

The language is mixed to be seen obsolete

The selection of words: a little village, a great antiquity, yellow bricks brought from
Holland, early times
- As a history


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Specific setting: Hudson River, Appalachian mountains, Indians who gave the corn to
Americans
It’s a province of Great Britain

When he woke up everything was different: bigger village, rows of houses, talks
about George Washington, elections, liberty, revolution

The inn became union hotel

Rip is now a free citizen of the USA
b) Myth-creating story
In addition to the above, the easiest way for Rip to live in the present is to accept the current
myths. To be sure, Rip's appearing in town caused no small stir. Dressed in rags of vintage fashion
while sporting an obsolete weapon were only the external evidence that Rip was out of place. Of
course, when the poor fellow declares that he is "a loyal subject of the king," Rip learns that politics
is about warfare, and no doubt would have been hanged had "the self-important man" not restored
order. The only thing that saves Rip is the villagers' belief in the myth of Hendrick Hudson. Peter
Vanderdonk spoke with authority, because "it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the
historian." Since Rip and the others were unable to account for his past, the myth about the Halfmoon with the ghostly crew playing nine-pins sufficed, and "the company broke up, and returned to
the more important concerns of the election."
Myths are useful only for suppressing the truth. This is especially true when the myth-making
is controlled by oppressors. Yet when a historian overthrows an accepted myth with
irrefutable evidence, he is accused of revisionism. Instead of denying the myth and accepting the
truth, most folks choose the easier road, because debunking an official myth takes a great deal of
courage. Of course, this is true whenever Truth is defended. Rip accepted not only the Hudson
myth, but also the new myth that "he was now a free citizen of the United States." Regarding
politics, there are only rulers and subjects. Regardless whether one can participate in choosing his
rulers, this does not negate his being subject to the will of the chosen few. Irving prophetically
reveals that the prevailing attitude of most "free citizens" would be apathy: "Rip, in fact, was no
politician; the changes of states and empires made but little impression on him." Indeed, so long as
Rip was free of the tyranny of "petticoat government," he was happy.
c) The elements of fantastic

Sleeping for 20 years

Magic liquid

Men in strange clothes

The founders of the area (came there about years ago)

All the characters sitting in front of the inn, legendary figures

Entered different world, mythical, unreal, sloppy

Nature also carries the meaning
c) Rip as a prototype of an American hero
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
He helped people a lot, usually if he wasn’t supposed to

A good, simple, keen man

He liked to commute with nature, go to the forest
IV.

He was a usual man, but likable

He was lazy and his farm was falling into decay

His wife was strict towards him

He wasn’t materialistic

He has his own pace of life, he doesn’t adjust to the society at once, individual

He refuses to work, rebellious

He’s childish, teaches children how to do kites

He’s mature when he came after years with a long, gray beard
American Transcendentalism
1. Ralph Waldo Emerson “Nature”, “American scholar”, “Self-Reliance”
a) Defining transcendentalism and Oversoul
Transcendentalism – this term came from German philosopher Immanuel Kant and the word
refers to the idea that all the matters of ultimate reality( so: God, universe, the self – ja, tożsamość)
all of them transcend ( so go beyond sth) human experience.
Human experience is based on sensual perception.
So, in other words, it is a 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 creating e.g. science and technology.
But 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.
Transcendentalists continually search for inspiration and insight. Like the early Puritans, they
affirmed the individual’s ability to experience God firsthand. Unlike the Puritans, however, they
believed that this ability was given to everyone, not just to an “elect” few. As they explored their
inner spiritual life, the transcendentalists found their deepest intuitions confirmed by evidence of a
similar spirit in nature. From this came the revolutionary perception that it is at the heart of their
writings: the spiritual unity of all forms of being, with God, humanity, and nature sharing a
universal soul.
Transcendentalists: R. W. Emerson, H. D. Thoreau, Margaret Fuller
Oversoul – so “The Universal Being”, the relation between God, human and nature. God, the self
and nature- all these elements permeate (przenikają) causing unity. (wszystkie te elementy
przenikają się, jest to jedna istota zbudowana z tego samego materiału)
b) man and nature vs. man and society
Man and society ( in Self-Reliance)
Emerson describes his vision of the individual, a man dependent on himself and refusing to
conform to social standards and expectations. The individual, according to Emerson, stands
alone against the wave of society, listening to his own heart and disregarding the thoughts of others.
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He dismisses any inter-personal connection that holds humanity together in families, friendships,
and notions, arguing that man’s only true support is himself. The true individual will follow his own
path, and not look into the past or to other people for help; he will be a monument to himself and
exclude any ideas that are not his own.
America, as a land of diversity and glorifies the “individual” and praises them because they follow
their own path. But in reality very few people choose such a way to step away from society as
humans are social creatures and social status plays important physiological and psychological role
in each individual.
Modern America embraces the idea of community, and provides many areas of life where the
individual alone would have no ability to succeed better than a group of individuals. Although men
can be independent, they must also depend on each other for essential human functioning in
contrast to Emerson’s ideal and isolated individual.
Conclusion:
While Emerson promotes individualism (throw off relationships, placing genius and truth above
simple interpersonal bonds, cutting them out of time and denying them the history and information
provided by the past), his own advice would create utter chaos if carried out, and the extend to
which his individual opposes human nature provides a persuasive reason to join with the majority
and refuse to individualize. Humankind is designed by nature to cooperate and interact, and forcing
the individual to separate from society and face the scorn of a united majority deprives him of any
sense of belonging and happiness.
In Emerson’s eyes, an individual stands alone, unsupported by community, family, and history, but
without such support, any man is doomed to failure, because of the interconnected nature of men. A
world of individuals would then be composed of isolated man each moving to their own rhythm, a
world without order or justice, each man’s inner truths being his sole guiding force. Emerson
praises individualism, but when his arguments are closely examined, they demonstrate the
weakness of acting alone and encourage people to lose rather than seek individuality.
Man and nature (in Nature)
The Introduction:
Emerson states that our energy and excitement in creating sth new has been lost because we try to
understand the world around us by using only theories and histories about nature rather than
personally observing it. We should cast off impersonal theories or descriptions that distance us from
nature and ourselves and we should direct experience with nature.
- we should focus more clearly on nature as it is the essence of all wisdom
- we should build our life on our own experience ( we must be creative) as history and tradition
are like cemetery
- we should experience God directly, God is everywhere so it is not difficult
Nature:
- Emerson states that we take stars for granted because they are always present in our lives, no
matter where we live. As a result we take too much for granted (e.g. health, possibility to
study, etc.) We should appreciate what we are given and what we have.
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- Emerson encourages us to perceive nature as an integrated whole – and not merely as a
collection of individual objects. The person who sees the whole of things is the poet,
Emerson differentiates between the poet and other people: The poet, he says, can see nature
plainly, not superficially , as most of us do. In order for us to see nature plainly, we must
cast off old ways of seeing. Instead of the theories and the past that Emerson said needed to
be discarded, the person who yearns to see with new eyes must cast off years revealing the
child within. A child accepts nature as it is rather than manipulating it into sth it is not, as an
adult would do.
Commodity:
- for Emerson “commodity” means a physical necessity. Using this definition, he discusses
briefly how nature supports our earthly existence. Different elements, ranging from
resources like metals, plants and animals to the basic elements of earth, air, fire, and water,
nourish earth’s inhabitants. All that work together to better mankind.
Beauty:
Nature as a provider of beauty. Emerson outlines three main points concerning our use of nature’s
beauty:
-its medicinal qualities- nature has medicinal and restorative powers. Walking in the woods or along
a seashore relieves the individual who is burdened by work, tedium, or a stressful urban
environment.
- its spiritual elements – nature’s beauty enhances the grandeur of noble deeds and increases
spirituality virtuous person is most open to and in harmony with nature’s beauty because nature
rewards only those people whose thoughts are noble, and who actively perform outstanding deeds.
- its intellectual properties – nature’s beauty is the pleasing to the intellect.
Language:
- words represents objects in nature; these individual objects signify spiritual realities; and
nature symbolizes spirituality.
Discipline:
- everything in nature offers lessons that we can learn. We learn from nature some rules,
everything in nature has its use ( e.g. “water is good to drink, coal to burn, wool to wear, but
wool cannot be drunk, nor water spun, nor coal eaten”)- it is a discipline as every single
thing has its use in nature; nature is made to serve us; it offers all its kingdom to the man
c) the scholar as intellectually independent
The scholar's duty or "office" is to "cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them
facts amidst appearances." So the scholar’s first and most important duty is to develop
unflinching ( niezachwiany) self-trust and a mind that will be a repository ( magazyn,
skład) of wisdom for other people. The true scholar is dedicated to preserving the
wisdom of the past and is obligated to communicating the noblest thoughts and feelings
to the public. So this duty means that scholar must always remain independent in
thinking and judgment, regardless of popular opinion. Moreover, the scholar must be
brave because he deals in ideas, a dangerous currency.
The scholar must be independent, courageous, and original; in thinking and acting, the
scholar must demonstrate that America is not the timid society it is assumed to be.
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2. Henry David Thoreau “Walden”, “Civil Disobedience”
a) Transcendentalist ideas put into practice (what and how they work in
Thoreau )
Four years before Thoreau embarked on his Walden project, his great teacher and role
model Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an enormously influential essay entitled “SelfReliance.” It can be seen as a statement of the philosophical ideals that Thoreau’s
experiment is meant to put into practice. Emersonian self-reliance is not just a matter
of supporting oneself financially (as many people believe) but a much loftier doctrine
about the active role that every soul plays in its experience of reality. Self-reliance thus
refers not just to paying one’s own bills, but also more philosophically to the way
the natural world and humankind rely on the self to exist. This duality explains the
connection between Thoreau the accountant and Thoreau the poet, and shows why the
man who is so interested in pinching pennies is the same man who exults lyrically over a
partridge or a winter sky. They are both products of self-reliance, since the economizing
that allows Thoreau to live on Walden Pond also allows him to feel one with nature, to
feel as though it is part of his own soul.
Thoreau dwells on the contentment of his solitude, on his finding entertainment in the
laugh of the loon and the march of the ants rather than in balls, marketplaces, or salons.
He does not disdain human companionship; he simply refuses to need human
society.
In economic affairs he can support himself through his own labor, producing more than
he consumes, and working to produce a profit. When everything is added up, he is a
giver rather than a taker in the economic game of life.
b) Thoreau's idea of government and individual freedom
Thoreau begins his essay Civil Disobedience by arguing that government rarely
proves itself useful and that it derives its power from the majority because they are
the strongest group, not because they hold the most legitimate viewpoint. He
contends that people's first obligation is to do what they believe is right and not to follow
the law dictated by the majority. He supports the need to prioritize one's conscience over
the dictates of laws. When a government is unjust, people should refuse to follow the
law and distance themselves from the government in general. A person is not
obligated to devote his life to eliminating evils from the world, but he is obligated not to
participate in such evils. This includes not being a member of an unjust institution (like
the government). Thoreau further argues that the United States fits his criteria for
an unjust government, given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive
war (the Mexican-American War).
Thoreau doubts the effectiveness of reform within the government, and he argues
that voting and petitioning for change achieves little. He presents his own
experiences as a model for how to relate to an unjust government: In protest of slavery,
Thoreau refused to pay taxes and spent a night in jail. But, more generally, he
ideologically dissociated himself from the government, "washing his hands" of it and
refusing to participate in its institutions. According to Thoreau, this form of protest was
preferable to advocating for reform from within government; he asserts that one cannot
see government for what it is when one is working within it.
V. American Romantic Fiction and Poetry
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1. Edgar Allan Poe “The fall of the House of Usher”, “The Raven”,
“Philosophy of composition”
a) Poe’s idea of poetry (in Philosophy of Composition, The Raven)
In that essay Poe describes the work of composing the poem as if it were a mathematical
problem. In "The Philosophy of Composition," Poe stresses the need to express a single effect
when the literary work is to be read in one sitting. A poem should always be written short
enough to be read in one sitting, and should, therefore, strive to achieve this single, unique
effect. Consequently, Poe figured that the length of a poem should stay around one hundred
lines, and "The Raven" is 108 lines. The most important thing to consider in "Philosophy" is the
fact that "The Raven," as well as many of Poe's tales, is written backwards. The effect is
determined first, and the whole plot is set; then the web grows backwards from that single
effect. "Nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its
denouement before anything be attempted with the pen" (Poe, 1850). It was important to Poe to
make "The Raven" "universally appreciable." It should be appreciated by the public, as well as
the critics. Poe chose Beauty to be the theme of the poem, since "Beauty is the sole legitimate
province of the poem" (Poe, 1850). After choosing Beauty as the province, Poe considered
sadness to be the highest manifestation of beauty. Of all melancholy topics, Poe wanted to use
the one that was universally understood, and therefore, he chose Death as his topic. Poe (along
with other writers) believed that the death of a beautiful woman was the most poetical use of
death, because it closely allies itself with Beauty. After establishing subjects and tones of the
poem, Poe started by writing the stanza that brought the narrator's "interrogation" of the raven
to a climax, the third verse from the end, and he made sure that no preceding stanza would
"surpass this in rhythmical effect." Poe then worked backwards from this stanza and used the
word "Nevermore" in many different ways, so that even with the repetition of this word, it
would not prove to be monotonous. Poe builds the tension in this poem up, stanza by stanza, but
after the climaxing stanza he tears the whole thing down, and lets the narrator know that
there is no meaning in searching for a moral in the raven's "nevermore". The Raven is
established as a symbol for the narrator's "Mournful and never-ending remembrance." "And my
soul from out that shadow, that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted - nevermore!"
b) Devices employed to create the romantic mood of the poem:
The main device used by Poe to create the mood of the poem is its symbolism. Poe uses several
symbols to take the poem to a higher level. The most obvious symbol is, of course, the raven itself.
When Poe had decided to use a refrain that repeated the word "nevermore," he found that it would
be most effective if he used a non-reasoning creature to utter the word, and because of the
melancholy tone, and the symbolism of ravens as birds of ill-omen, he found the raven more
suitable for the mood in the poem. Another obvious symbol is the bust of Pallas. Why did the
raven decide to perch on the goddess of wisdom? One reason could be, because it would lead the
narrator to believe that the raven spoke from wisdom, and was not just repeating its only "stock and
store," and to signify the scholarship of the narrator. Another reason for using "Pallas" in the poem
was, according to Poe himself, simply because of the "sonorousness of the word, Pallas, itself".
A less obvious symbol, might be the use of "midnight" in the first verse, and "December" in the
second verse. Both midnight and December, symbolize an end of something, and also the
anticipation of something new, a change, to happen. The midnight in December, might very well
be New Year’s eve, a date most of us connect with change. The chamber in which the narrator is
positioned, is used to signify the loneliness of the man, and the sorrow he feels for the loss of
Lenore. The room is richly furnished, and reminds the narrator of his lost love, which helps to
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create an effect of beauty in the poem. The tempest outside, is used to even more signify the
isolation of this man, to show a sharp contrast between the calmness in the chamber and the
tempestuous night.
Another device Poe used to give “The Raven” its gloomy romantic mood is the use of certain
vocabulary. Poe had an extensive vocabulary, which is obvious to the readers of both his poetry as
well as his fiction. Sometimes this meant introducing words that were not commonly used. In
"The Raven," the use of ancient and poetic language seems appropriate, since the poem is about a
man spending most of his time with books of "forgotten lore." (words like “Seraphim”, "Nepenthe",
"Aidenn", "Plutonian").
The setting of the poem, the night, rain and darkness, the obvious loneliness of the character and his
grief over his lost love also add to the overall romantic tone of the poem.
c) Elements of gothic romanticism: (The Fall of the House of Usher)

a haunted house,

dreamy landscape,

mysterious sickness,

storm and scary weather (see: Wuthering Heights),

doubled personality (a.k.a. Doppelganger),

vagueness of the story (where? when?),

sense of death and decay in the house,

madness and death,

the plot blurs between the real and the fantastic,


claustrophobic atmosphere,
the author as well as other characters not familiar to reader (who are they?);
d) Relationship between the house and the twins:
Poe creates confusion between the living things and inanimate objects by doubling the physical
house of Usher with the genetic family line of the Usher family, which he refers to as the house of
Usher. Poe employs the word “house” metaphorically, but he also describes a real house. Not only
does the narrator get trapped inside the mansion, but we learn also that this confinement describes
the biological fate of the Usher family. The family has no enduring branches, so all genetic
transmission has occurred incestuously within the domain of the house. The peasantry confuses the
mansion with the family because the physical structure has effectively dictated the genetic patterns
of the family.
The claustrophobia of the mansion affects the relations among characters. For example, the narrator
realizes late in the game that Roderick and Madeline are twins, and this realization occurs as the
two men prepare to entomb Madeline. The cramped and confined setting of the burial tomb
metaphorically spreads to the features of the characters. Because the twins are so similar, they
cannot develop as free individuals. Madeline is buried before she has actually died because her
similarity to Roderick is like a coffin that holds her identity. Madeline also suffers from problems
typical for women in the nineteenth century literature. She invests all of her identity in her body,
whereas Roderick possesses the powers of intellect. In spite of this disadvantage, Madeline
possesses the power in the story, almost superhuman at times, as when she breaks out of her
14
tomb. She thus counteracts Roderick’s weak, nervous, and immobile disposition. Some scholars
have argued that Madeline does not even exist, reducing her to a shared figment Roderick’s and
the narrator’s imaginations. But Madeline proves central to the symmetrical and claustrophobic
logic of the tale. Madeline stifles Roderick by preventing him from seeing himself as essentially
different from her. She completes this attack when she kills him at the end of the story.
Doubling spreads throughout the story. The tale highlights the Gothic feature of the doppelganger,
or character double, and portrays doubling in inanimate structures and literary forms. The narrator,
for example, first witnesses the mansion as a reflection in the tarn, or shallow pool, that abuts the
front of the house. The mirror image in the tarn doubles the house, but upside down—an
inversely symmetrical relationship that also characterizes the relationship between Roderick and
Madeline.
Besides the fact that Roderick and Madeline are not just twins but represent the mental and physical
components of a single being or soul, there is also a connection between the family mansion and
the remaining members who live within. Poe uses the phrase "House of Usher" to refer to both the
decaying physical structure and the last of the "all time-honored Usher race...." Roderick has
developed a theory that the stones of the house have consciousness, and that they embody the fate
of the Usher family. "He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the
dwelling which he tenanted, and whence for many years, he had never ventured forth...." Roderick
also makes another connection between a house and a person in the poem, "The Haunted Palace."
The crack in the Usher mansion which is at first barely discernible by the narrator, symbolically
suggests a flaw or fundamental split in the twin personality of Roderick and Madeline, and
foretells the final ruin of both family and mansion.
2. Nathaniel Hawhthorne “The Scarlet Letter”
a) A picture of Puritan society

the story of Boston

the society tends to reject people who are not pure

the members of society were very strict but they were also sinners

Puritan society members punish other members on religious grounds

they create theocracy

secular society connected with church authorities

you cannot do anything because you will be a sinner

their intolerance of dissenting ideas and lifestyles

repressive, authoritarian
Civilization versus the Wilderness

the town vs. the surrounding forest

the town represents Puritan civilization

the forest - natural rather than human authority. In the forest, society’s rules do not apply.

the forest permits greater honesty and an escape from the repression of Boston.
Night versus Day
15

Night is the time when inner natures can manifest themselves.

During the day secrets remain secrets.

Daylight makes people vulnerable to punishment.

visibility versus concealment

socially acceptable events vs. those which must take place covertly ( Dimmesdale’s
encounter with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold)

outer appearances versus internal states.
b) Symbolism
The Scarlet Letter
a symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester
Originally intended to mark Hester as an adulterer, the “A” eventually comes to stand for “Able.”
Finally, it becomes indeterminate: the Native Americans who come to watch the Election Day
pageant think it marks her as a person of importance and status.
a physical reminder of Hester’s affair with Dimmesdale
different shapes: Hester, in the sky, burned in the flesh ( Dimmesdale)
The Meteor
As Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl in Chapter XII, a meteor traces out an
“A” in the night sky. To Dimmesdale, the meteor implies that he should wear a mark of shame just
as Hester does. The meteor is interpreted differently by the rest of the community, which thinks that
it stands for “Angel” and marks Governor Winthrop’s entry into heaven. But “Angel” is an
awkward reading of the symbol. The Puritans commonly looked to symbols to confirm divine
sentiments. In this narrative, however, symbols are taken to mean what the beholder wants them to
mean. The incident with the meteor obviously highlights and exemplifies two different uses of
symbols: Puritan and literary.
Pearl

a sort of living version of her mother’s scarlet letter

a burden for Hester

the physical consequence of sexual sin

she is also a blessing

Pearl’s existence gives her mother reason to live

she cheers her up
Forest for Puritans
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
wild, uncivilized, uncultivated

gives freedom

people are afraid of going there ( place where witches, evil, devil, bad forces live)
The scaffold

showing Hester publicly

important meetings

place of punishment

place of confession
c) complex of sin/evil and guilt
Sin
- The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both
cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering.
-For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as “her passport into regions where other women dared not
tread”
- Hester and Dimmesdale contemplate their own sinfulness on a daily basis and try to reconcile it
with their lived experiences.
- The Puritan elders view sin as a threat to the community that should be punished and suppressed.
- Puritan society is stagnant, while Hester and Dimmesdale’s experience shows that a state of
sinfulness can lead to personal growth, sympathy, and understanding of others.
- it is important to reveal the sin (to go to Heaven )
- other people sin as well, everybody has to wear their burden
Evil
-the identity of the “Black Man,” the embodiment of evil
- Over the course of the novel, the “Black Man” is associated with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and
Mistress Hibbins, and little Pearl is thought by some to be the Devil’s child.
- The book argues that true evil arises from the close relationship between hate and love. Evil is not
found in Hester and Dimmesdale’s lovemaking, nor even in the cruel ignorance of the Puritan
fathers. Evil, in its most poisonous form, is found in the carefully plotted and precisely aimed
revenge of Chillingworth, whose love has been perverted. Perhaps Pearl is not entirely wrong when
she thinks Dimmesdale is the “Black Man,” because her father, too, has perverted his love.
d) as romance
In the Custom House preface of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne discusses part of his concept
or definition of the romance novel. He explains that life seen through moonlight is the
subject of the novel. If the writer is sitting in a room in the moonlight and looks around at
the familiar items on the floor—a wicker carriage or a hobby horse, for example—he can
discern a quality of “strangeness and remoteness” in these familiar objects. And so he has
found a territory in which the familiar becomes enchanted and “the floor of our familiar
room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land,
where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the
17
other.” Hawthorne believes that “ … at such an hour, and with this scene before him, if a
man, sitting all lone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like truth, he need
never try to write romances.”
Finally, The Scarlet Letter is a psychological romance. Hawthorne proposes to study the
effects of sin on the lives of his characters. Far ahead of his time, he delves into human
alienation and what it does to the soul. Doubt and self-torture provide psychological
shadows in the character of Dimmesdale. Rebellion and defiance in the face of repressive
laws can be seen in his heroine, Hester Prynne. She may be forced to wear the scarlet letter,
but she mocks that sentence with her elaborate embroidery. The Puritan concern with man’s
depravity and its effect on individual characters is intertwined throughout the plot. What
happens when a person has an excess of passion or intellect? When a balance of the two is
not achieved in an individual, what is the end result? Within the framework of the romance,
Hawthorne lays out his evidence of the psychological conflicts within and around his
characters.
3. Herman Mellville “Moby Dick”
a) Symbolism
a) the voyage - the symbol of man’s tragic fight with evil
b) whiteness - it represents the unnatural and threatening : albinos, creatures that live in extreme
and inhospitable environments, waves breaking against rocks. These examples reverse the
traditional association of whiteness with purity. Moby Dick is completely white and this is
what makes him so scary. Whiteness stands for the lack of color, and the lack of color
evokes fear. Whiteness is something that’s beyond human comprehension and represents the
unpredictable and unknown.
c) The Pequod - is a symbol of doom. The ship was named after a Native American tribe in
Massachusetts that did not long survive the arrival of white men. It is, in fact, marked for
death.
d) Queequeg’s Coffin - the symbolism of Queequeg’s coffin changes as the novel progresses.
Initially, the coffin represents Queequeg’s apparently impending death. However, it also
represents ongoing life when it becomes Queequeg’s sea chest after he decides not to die. It
is a symbol of hope for renewal and rebirth.
e) The White Whale – epitomizes the power of nature, something unknowable to man that
cannot be defeated, sth that cannot be reached, victory, strength, also evil.
f) The sea – represents the changeable nature and its attitude towards humans
g) The doubloon – symbolizes something that is holding the ship and the crew together, their
goal, also the center of the ship
b) the meanings of Moby Dick and his description

18
Immortal

Omnipresent (you can see him in two distant places of the world at one time)

Blood thirsty and mean, acting malevolently toward men

Intelligent and clever, knows how to fight with hunters, seems to grin after each victory

White – the most scary feature

Did a lot of harm to many ships and whalers and nobody is able to catch him

literally embodying evil

representation of an unknowable God

a myth

invulnerable to assault

powerful, grand, and mighty

cannot be defeated, only accommodated or avoided

the legend

a mythical beast

on top of whale society, the king, the strongest

wrinkled brow and crooked jaw
c) nature in the book

nature in the book is mainly the sea

the sea can be home as well as hostile territory

nature having many meanings

it greatly influences whalers, makes them daydream, reflect on their life(Ahab), the sea
scenery makes sailors’ stories exaggerated and farfetched

its gender changes often – it is surely terrifying and feminine in this novel. This image, in all
it's viciousness, resolves and focuses the entire work. Nature is feminine, evil, and
misleading. Like a whore, she hides her ugliness with pretty colors and allurements. When
viewed, she looks beautiful and attractive and fools men into her arms. Once there, however,
she is a charnel house-a place of death and murder (Tashtego is drawn to a whale’s head by
the beautiful smell, as one would be drawn to a whore by her perfume. Once in her arms,
Nature (the dead whale head) pulls him down into the charnel house. The death of the man
on watch, lured into the sea by it's very peace, also shows this. Moby Dick is also the
personification of the feminine nature. It's hard to see that because the feminine side of
nature is so overpowering and overwhelming. Almost everything that is larger than man is
female and all of it is indifferent to him.

savage, wild, and untamed, victorious over man
d) Moby Dick as American epic
a) places described :most of the book takes place on various oceans, such as the
Atlantic, the Indian, and the Pacific, in the early to mid 1800’s. A good deal of the
19
first part of the novel takes place in New England inside and around Nantucket.
There are many instances where Melville specifically states that they are near the
cities of New Bedford and Nantucket.
b) The book shows specific dates in the form of plaques that are dedicated to the
lives of men who have perished at sea. These plaques site specific dates such as
November 1st, 1836, December 31st, 1839, and August 3rd 1833.
c) the foods that the whalers eat suggest that they are in a New England type
atmosphere.
d) a lot of information about local ports as well as people, all of which point back to
a New England origin. All these facts and bits of information allow the reader to
gain a better idea of the time and place the story takes place in.
e) heroes : at that time whale hunters were considered heroes, whalers were
appreciated, well-paid, could reach undiscovered and untouched areas, thanks to
whalers a contact with Europe was made, many places were made free( Peru, Chile),
thanks to whalers missionaries could reach savage people
f) religions presented – Christianity vs paganism
g) the conquest of nature motif
h) Biblical elements: Ahab, Ishmael
i) Symbolism
j) The action is interrupted by digressions (from detailed information about
whales to general thoughts about human life)
e) the search for Moby Dick and its meaning
The book “Moby Dick” represents not only Melville's love for the sea, but also reflects
his search for religious faith (where Ahab represents Herman Melville and “Moby
Dick” represents faith).
An important difference between Ishmael's and Ahab's searches for meaning is that, for
Ahab, its elusiveness is not simply troubling but a source of torment; bottomless mystery
is simply unacceptable. The loss of his leg can be considered merely a physical instance
of the malevolence Ahab senses in the world's inscrutability. In one of the novel's most
resonant metaphors, Ahab compares the visible world to "pasteboard masks," beneath
which lies, perhaps, an ultimate truth-"If man will strike, strike through the mask!
Ishmael approaches the possibilities for knowledge more contemplatively. In lamenting
the failure of visual artists to accurately represent the whale, Ishmael concludes that,
because of its features and habitat, "there is no earthly way of finding out precisely what
the whale really looks like" (p. 289). To get close enough to the whale, "you run no
small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him" (p. 289). Is Ishmael suggesting that
Ahab's desire for some kind of ultimate truth carries with it the risk of death? The
novel's conclusion seems to support this idea. Perhaps Ishmael survives because,
although he is just as attuned as Ahab to the elusiveness of truth, his inability to grasp it
has not turned into self-consuming madness.
4. Walt Whitman “Song of myself”
20
a) an originally American poem (Emerson’s idea of the poet)
Emerson wrote in 1844 that The United States is ready for the appearance of its great poets.
When they arrive, he predicted, they will come with a “new thought”, a ‘whole new experience
to unfold” – an American thought, an American experience. And they will have to break away
from European forms and seek American techniques, because really great poetry has “a thought
so passionate and alive, that, like the spirit of a plant, or an animal, it has an architecture of its
own, and adorns nature with a new thing” .
An originally American poem clears away the past and sets a new direction for the nation.
b) Language
Whitman is concerned for both content and form. He is creating new poetic forms himselfforms which will reflect his new insights, his new wisdom, his identity as a representative
person in a new nation. So he makes his poetry expansive, large, pluralistic, he makes it free
from so many of the poetic limits of the past. He makes it sensual, stimulating, even sexual. He
makes it spiritual, it sounds at times almost like a bible for the new world and he makes it
cyclical.
Whitman does not reject poetic devices, especially those he learned from a careful reading of
the Bible. He loves repetition and assonance and alliteration; he loves lists – catalogs, he lows
rhythmic ebb flow in his lines. But he uses these devices in new ways for poetry in English, the
ways which broke all existing conventions.
c) subject matter
Whitman touches upon many different subjects. In his “Song for myself” he broke all existing
conventions in that area. During Victorian times, Whitman broke taboos: he wrote about
slaves, prisoners, prostitutes, sexuality, his love for men, and his vision for a utopian America.
However, he also wrote about religion and spirituality. He touched upon equality of body and
soul. This union is shown as an intercourse – sexual fulfillment.
He also speaks about death, which is perceived as a miracle by him. The body disappears but
the poetry stays.
Whitman creates intimate relationship with the reader so he flatters him. He wants to create an
aura of mutual trust.
“All truths wait in all things”. He writes the truth. To tell the truth, you have to mention all the
things, enumeration is in truth. That’s why everything is true. The truth is in thing. Whitman
also permits nature to speak.
d) ideas of democracy and independence
21
Whitman sees himself as a representative democratic person., as a microcosm of all that is
America, so in offering us Leaves of Grass (the book of poems), he is offering us himself – and
he is offering us America as well.
Whitman admires that the United States are still one nation. There is democracy and unity. They
are diversed but one. (He enumerates various states, different jobs. Nature and religion is also
present) He cherishes diversity of society – he discovers freedom in such pluralism. That
freedom expresses itself in both the content and the form of a poem.
This identity and freedom is dependent not only on a great pluralism and a great freedom but
upon an awareness of the beauty, the wonderfulness, the “miracle” of human body. It is,
Whitman believes, part of the genius of all which is best in his America – unwillingness to
continue any longer on a new continent what he sees as fatal European separation between the
physical and the spiritual.
e) the form of a poem
- broke all existing conventions
- irregular form, lines, sections
- no rhymes (rhymes restrain the poem and there should be no restrains)
- the thought determines the line, not the opposite
- nature in his poetry is allowed to speak but after he permits it
- he describes himself as a nature scholar
- he’s writing for both men and women, he’s sex and race blind
f) the dissolution of the poetic self
As Walt Whitman, the specific individual, melts away into the abstract "Myself," the poem
explores the possibilities for communion between individuals. Starting from the premise that
"what I assume you shall assume" Whitman tries to prove that he both encompasses and is
indistinguishable from the universe.
There is an escape from the clear distinction between the real self as biographically constructed
and the poetic self as constituted in the poetic text.
5. Emily Dickinson
1) the originality of the poems: novel poetic devices (metaphorical
imagination, verbal ambiguity, paradox and irony)
22
Emily Dickinson is such a unique poet that it is very difficult to place her in any single
tradition--she seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Her poetic form, with her
customary four-line stanzas, ABCB rhyme schemes, and alternations in iambic meter
between tetrameter and trimeter, is derived from Psalms and Protestant hymns, but
Dickinson so thoroughly appropriates the forms--interposing her own long, rhythmic dashes
designed to interrupt the meter and indicate short pauses--that the resemblance seems quite
faint. Her subjects are often parts of the topography of her own psyche; she explores her own
feelings with painstaking and often painful honesty but never loses sight of their universal
poetic application; one of her greatest techniques is to write about the particulars of her own
emotions in a kind of universal homiletic or adage-like tone ("After great pain, a formal feeling
comes") that seems to describe the reader's mind as well as it does the poet's. Dickinson is not a
"philosophical poet"; unlike Wordsworth or Yeats, she makes no effort to organize her thoughts
and feelings into a coherent, unified worldview. Rather, her poems simply record thoughts and
feelings experienced naturally over the course of a lifetime devoted to reflection and creativity:
the powerful mind represented in these records is by turns astonishing, compelling, moving, and
thought-provoking, and emerges much more vividly than if Dickinson had orchestrated her
work according to a preconceived philosophical system.
Of course, Dickinson's greatest achievement as a poet of inwardness is her brilliant,
diamond-hard language. Dickinson often writes aphoristically, meaning that she
compresses a great deal of meaning into a very small number of words. This can make her
poems hard to understand on a first reading, but when their meaning does unveil itself, it often
explodes in the mind all at once, and lines that seemed baffling can become intensely and
unforgettably clear. Other poems--many of her most famous, in fact--are much less difficult to
understand, and they exhibit her extraordinary powers of observation and description.
Dickinson's imagination can lead her into very peculiar territory--some of her most famous
poems are bizarre death-fantasies and astonishing metaphorical conceits--but she is equally deft
in her navigation of the domestic, writing beautiful nature-lyrics alongside her wild flights of
imagination and often combining the two with great facility.
The poem “The Soul selects her own Society” is an excellent example of Dickinson's tightly
focused skills with metaphor and imagery; cycling through her regal list of door, divine
Majority, chariots, emperor, mat, ample nation, and stony valves of attention, Dickinson
continually surprises the reader with her vivid and unexpected series of images, each of which
furthers the somber mood of the poem.
2) the universal themes in the poems and the unconventional approach to
them
She might be called a miniaturist, since most of her poems have fewer than 30 lines, yet she
deals with the profoundest subjects in poetry: death, love, humanity's relations to God and
nature. Her poetry impresses by its constantly amazing freshness and vitality. Not only does she
approach her subjects in unique ways, but her use of language itself is highly idiosyncratic. She
makes nouns serve as verbs, adjectives as nouns, and abstractions as concrete objects. Her
images startle by their unexpectedness and their supreme rightness as well. For her, death can be
courteous ("BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH") or terrifying ("I FELT A
FUNERAL IN MY BRAIN"): it can be perceived through what the dead person has left undone
("HOW MANY TIMES THESE LOW FEET STAGGERED") or through the trivial details one
might focus on while dying ("I HEARD A FLY BUZZ WHEN I DIED"). Nature has its terrors
(the snake in "A NARROW FELLOW IN THE GRASS") as well as its glories ("THE DAY
CAME SLOW") and sensual delights ("I TASTE A LIQUOR"). Her dramatic monologues,
always with herself as persona, convey rich complexities of human emotion--elation and
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depression, faith and doubt, hope and despair Her direct, first-person voice makes much of her
poetry easily accessible, yet her unusual word usages and oblique approaches to a subject call
for multiple readings and sometimes multiple interpretations. Her density and imaginativeness
hark back to the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century, while her play with language and her
psychological and philosophical insights, many quite unusual for the largely conservative 19th
century, brought her a wide audience only posthumously.
In one of her later poems, Dickinson says, "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant". This is as good a
summary as any of what her poetical purpose was. She has the keenest of eyes for the material
and moral features of the world, but her perspective is always oblique. She is profoundly
psychological, but she often captures the experience of mood or emotion through strange
narratives, improbable images and unlikely juxtapositions of different worlds or ideas.
Consider her astounding account of the sensation of nervous breakdown through the account of
one witnessing, from the darkness of her coffin, her own funeral and burial (I Felt a Funeral in
my Brain). Or her unconventional depiction of the strangeness and mysteriousness of the natural
world by referring to a snake under the disarmingly off-hand title of "a narrow fellow in the
grass''.
The unorthodoxy of her ideas is reflected in the eccentricities of form in her poems. She mostly
uses the rhythms of the Christian hymn, yet her vision is far from being traditionally Christian.
The soul, for her, is an almost tangible thing that seeks to discover the unity of things, but this is
much more a philosophical and emotional quest than a religious activity.
The technical irregularities in Dickinson's poems are there for a purpose. Again it has to do with
approaching the world in a "slanted" or oblique way. Her departures from standard grammar,
her almost arbitrary use of capital letters, her heavy dependence on imperfect rhyme, and her
occasional breaks from regular metre - all of these have the effect of constantly defying
expectation, of making the world new by refusing to be predictable, of forcing the reader to be
alert and to imagine the different, the exotic, even the impossible. Her poetic voice is unique,
and her reputation as one of the great poets of modernity is safe.
„Success”
- it consists of stanzas and deals with the problem of becoming successful;
- two people compared: one (the winner) who tastes the success and the other (the looser) who
comprehends a nectar, who reflects upon the success;
- he is defeated and comprehension comes to him;
- the person who wins, who succeeded, did it in a battle;
- you can appreciate the sweet taste of success only when you first failed; you lose it and then
understand this;
- this defeated character feels depressed, miserable, hopeless, he is suffering.
“Because I could not stop for death”
- the speaker is a woman who is dead for centuries;
- she revives the wholestory of her life or actually the whole process of dying;
- Mr Death: he’s a gentleman, this is like a date, she’s dressed up, they enjoy themselves;
- he is attractive;
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- they are driving this journey like around the city;
- she realizes that it is not going to end well;
- they aren’t moving; they reach a grave, pass children, schools, which mean going through life;
- in eternal circle, eternal journey.
“I felt a Funeral, in My Brain”
Poem Summary
Lines 1-4
"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" is a poem in which Dickinson attempts to render into formal
poetic language the experience of a mind facing its own collapse; the opening stanza
presents the metaphor of a funeral that is used throughout the poem to convey the sense of
this breakdown to the reader. Brain here refers to both the concrete physical organ and to
the abstract idea of the speaker's mind; such dual meanings are used throughout the poem to
convey the physical and mental effects of the breakdown. Losing one's reason is like a
funeral: the final interment and burial of rational thought. The mourners can be read as
symbols of the events or ideas that bring on the speaker's collapse; such events or ideas are
incessant (they keep "treading—treading") and continue until the speaker begins to realize
what is happening. Her "sense" (or knowledge) of what is occurring begins "breaking
through.....
Themes
Madness and Sanity
"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" is a poem that, in part, presents the impending mental
collapse of its speaker, a collapse that Dickinson likens to the rituals of a funeral to
ultimately explore the figurative "death" of the speaker's sanity. The word felt in the poem's
opening line suggests that the first throbbings of the collapse could be physically perceived;
this merging of physical sensation and mental perception is sustained throughout the poem.
By comparing the speaker's mental breakdown to a funeral,Dickinson suggests the horror
and finality of such an event.
The funeral's participants and rites can be read as metaphors for the speaker's impending
collapse; as the figurative funeral proceeds through its recognizable stages, the speaker's
sanity becomes more endangered until it finally "dies."
- she imagined her death;
- the speaker is dead and lies in a coffin;
- the speaker knows that because of sounds, senses;
- mourners to and from her saying goodbyes;
- then they are sated in a chapel during the service;
- bells ring, drum, echo;
- she doesn’t feel lifted but hears that, she (her soul) is now separated from the body;
- they lift the box and go to the graveyard;
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- on the one hand there are bells, and on the other hand there is silence;
- they put her into the grave;
- and there is nothing but emptiness;
- totally strange: a World, a box, a funeral (as a model)
“My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close”
Poem Summary
Line 1:
The poem begins with a powerful statement: The speaker's life has already "closed" two
times. Here, the use of the verb "closed" might be interpreted in two ways. One meaning
might be "finished or concluded," but another could be "closed on all sides; shut in." Either
or both meanings seem appropriate, inasmuch as Dickinson’s poetry is often concerned with
both the theme of death and the theme of isolation. "Before its close" most likely means
"before its conclusion," or before that final closing act of every life—the concrete, physical
death of the body.
Lines 2-4:
In these lines, the speaker expresses concern about what the future might hold. The poem's
speaker, having already suffered two life "closes," is left to deal with whatever will happen
next. "Immortality" is the only capitalized word in the po.....
Themes
Permanence
With its use of the word "Immortality," this poem presents a contrast that seems simple at
first but more complex as it is examined more closely. The poem deals with the fact that life
ends—one of the few things that is certain about life. The speaker of the poem says that her
life has been cut short twice, and that she expects it to happen at least once more at life's
end. The ironic thing is that life will eventually be limited by the soul's limitlessness—its
immortality. The word "Immortality" is used in the poem, for the most part, in the same way
that it is used in common discourse. There is a key difference, however. Dickinson
capitalizes it, and relates it to God and heaven. In Christian doctrine, heaven is where those
who have died in this world will go to join God and to live eternally. To reach this state of
permanence in heaven requires going through the troubles associated with life's uncertainty.
- the state of being alive, fate;
- she experienced two tragedies and the third event is going to happen, “its close”= death;
- she feels miserable;
- she experienced hell and now she needs separation from hell;
- she only knows about heaven that this parting is possible;
- this is only in her mind, she doesn’t know that.
“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”
- in the room there is stillness, silence;
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- but there were other people who couldn’t cry any more;
- the atmosphere was very solemn and respectful;
- she wrote her will and died, she was preparing for it and is ready to celebrate the parting;
- the speaker is dead;
- Fly is between the light and life;
- buzzing was sad, hesitating;
- the flies go to a dead and stinky body, lapse;
- she couldn’t finish her journey because the fly appeared too early;
- even if you plan sth, you can’t be sure of that (irony)
- blue: death, sadness
“Grass”
Poem Summary
Lines 1-4:
In the opening quatrain, Dickinson cleverly disguises the subject of the poem, a snake. This
creature sounds harmless enough as it is introduced in line one. The term "narrow Fellow"
is a nice use of colloquial language, "narrow," meaning small in width as compared to
length, and "fellow" being a familiar term for a man or a boy, with an undertone that
suggests commonness. The choice of the word "rides" is also interesting because it sounds
like "glides" and "writhes" but gives the impression that the snake is being carried, or that it
is floating along. In addition, the word can also mean torment, harass, or tease, and this
definition fits the snake’s reputation as a sly tempter. The speaker goes on to ask readers if
they, too, have ever encountered snakes, noting that these "narrow fellows" always seem to
take people by surprise.
Themes
Appearances and Reality
"A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" is built around the contrast between what appears to be and
what is. Dickinson wrote several "riddle" type poems, where she uses an extended metaphor
to compare her subject to something, without coming right out and telling the reader what
she is describing. Each stanza offers "clues" in the form of imagery, vivid word pictures
such as the "spotted shaft" that divides the grass "as a comb."
Dickinson describes her object—in this case a snake—by hinting at what it resembles. The speaker
falsely recognizes the object, taking it for something else. There is a split between what it appears to
be and what it actually is. This theme of appearances versus reality comes through most strongly in
the fourth stanza. The speaker is recalling time spent walking through the grass barefoot.
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