The Wild Honey Suckle.doc

1.“The Wild Honey Suckle” His nature poem, The Wild Honey Suckle , is considered an early seed to the later Transcendentalist movement taken up by William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.In this poem the poet expressed a keen awareness of the loveliness and transience of nature. He not only meditated on Mortality but also celebrated nature. The poem implies that life and death are inevitable law of nature.The wild honey suckle is Philip Freneaus most widely read natural lyric with the theme of transience.The central image is a native wild flower, which makes a drastic difference from eliteflower images typical of traditional English poems.The poem showed strong feelings for the natural beauty, which was the characteristic of romantic poets.The poem was written in regular 6-line tetrameter stanzas, rhyming: ababcc. The structure of the poem is regular, so it has the neoclassic quality of proportion and balance.The line the space is but an hour contains a hyperbole stressing the transience of life. The tone of the poem is both sentimental and optimistic2.To a WaterfowlBryants poem begins with a waterfowl in flight and a hunter below. The birds instinct allows it to fly to safety. In spite of the danger, hardships and temptations on the way, the bird continues its flight to its destination. As the speaker watches the bird, he ponders the mysteries of migration. Bryant parallels the birds instinct to a Power. Even though humans have no real instinct to guide them to safety, there is a Power or God that will guide them to safety.In the last paragraph of the poem Bryant seems to be comparing our life with God to that of a waterfowl. He says: He who from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright.He is saying that throughout our life wherever we go God is going to be with us guiding us down the right path. And in times when we think we must go alone, he too will be with us then. He never leaves us long enough for us to fall, just long enough for us to learn from what we do3.To Helen a poem about the ideal woman that can only exist by imagination, a woman that was the Goddess of the soul. Poe uses an allusion to refer to Helen. Helen can refer to the Greek goddess of light or Helen of Troy who is considered to be the most beautiful woman ever alive. In the poem, beauty, death (of a beautiful woman) and the past are combined together. The places where western civilization originated, such as the Mediterranean Sea, Greece and Rome, and the Holy Land (Christianity) are referred to in each of the three stanzas respectively, which may indicate the decease of the past glory and grandeur of the civilization.4.Annabel Lee: In the poem, Poe examines a theme which he examines in many of his works: the death of a beautiful woman. It is a poem written in memory of his deceased young wife Virginia Clemm. The poem is permeated with melancholy. The poem coincides with Poes poetics. It is readable at one sitting. In the poem, Poe examines a theme which he examines in many of his works: the death of a beautiful woman, which, according to him, is unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world. The poem is permeated with melancholy as he believes melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tones. And it is rhythmic.The poem has got the elements of a fairy tale.1) It has the beginning of a fairy tale (1st stanza).2) The couples love originated from their childhood.3) Annabel Lee died because the angels envied the couples great love and, with a cold wind, they killed Annabel Lee, who was then carried away and buried in a sepulchre in the kingdom by the sea.4) However, unlike The Raven, in which the narrator believes he will nevermore be reunited with his love, Annabel Lee says the two will be together again.5) On moonlit nights, the speaker will go and lie down by the side of his deceased young wife.5.A Psalm of LifeThe lyrical form of this poem is abab.The psalmist is thus the poet himself. Literally, the psalmist is of course King David.This is a very inspirational poem. This psalm brings out feelings of confidence - strength and belief in oneself. The message is very clear. Just live. Dont be hindered by the fear of oncoming, certain death, or whatever mistakes you may have made before, live by the second and only plan ahead that far. Make of life what you can, strive to accomplish your dreams, work hard for self gratification, learn to love and to be loved.6 Thanatopsis (view of death)- masterpiece of American poetryThis poem had three main points it wished to make, the final one being the most important:1) Live life fully in order to die well and comfortably.2) In death, all are joined with Nature and with each other for eternity.3) This comfort and togetherness in death may only be obtained through death.-Thanatos (death) Opsis (seeing).The title presents the poem as a way of seeing death.-The tone in the first part of the poem is forbidding, stern, final and then shifts to one of comfort. How is this poem an example of a historical piece?-It represents part of the view of the time period.Bryant attempts to make death a comfortable feeling, referring to the word couch as something you can simply curl up and feel good in.The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a short story by Washington Irving. The story is set in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a priggish schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham Brom Bones Van Brunt, a buff and tough man, for the hand of eighteen-year-old Katrina Van Tassel. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows a tradition of folk tales and poems involving a supernatural wild chaseThe Fall of the House of Usher is a short story of Gothic horror written in first-person point of view.Major characters1. Narrator, a friend of the master of the House of Usher. When he visits his friend, he witnesses terrifying events.2. Roderick Usher, the master of the house. He suffers from a depressing malaise characterized by strange behavior.3. Madeline Usher, twin sister of Roderick. She also suffers from a strange illness. After apparently dying, she rises from her coffin.Main ThemeThe central theme of The Fall of the House of Usher is terror that arises from the complexity and multiplicity of forces that shape human destiny. Dreadful, horrifying events result not from a single, uncomplicated circumstance but from a collision and intermingling of manifold, complex circumstances.The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is a Gothic American romance novel. The finest example is the recreation of Puritan Boston, “The Scarlet Letter”. In this novel each word, image, and event works toward a single effect. It is a complex story of guilt, its effects upon various persons, and how deliverance is obtained for some of them. Everybody was sinner. Sinning is universal.Major themes1) The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychological effects of sin on people and its redemption.2) The Scarlet Letter is a cultural allegory, in which the author indirectly tells the future of Puritanism.3) The Scarlet Letter is an example in which American Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritanism.CharacterizationHester Prynne - the visible AArthur Dimmesdale - the invisible ARoger Chillingworth - the maker of APearl - the living ASymbolic meanings of the “A”1) Pearl - Angel2) Roger Chilling worth- Avenge3) Hester Prynne-a). Adultery; b). Agony or Anguish; c). Alone or Alienation;d). Art; e). Arrogance; f).Admirable; g). Affection; h). Ablei). Amazon (Greek Mythology: A member of a nation of women warriors reputed to have lived in Scythia.); j) Angel4) Arthur Dimmesdalea) AD - adultery; b) the inner A (Adultery - Agony or Anguish); c) Alienation.Features1) depicting psychology2). symbolism3). supernatural elements4). excellent craftsmanship (delicate structure; refined language)1.American Puritanismit comes from the American puritans, who were the first immigrants moved to American continent in the 17th century. Original sin, predestination（预言） and salvation（拯救） were the basic ideas of American Puritanism. And, hard-working, piousness（虔诚,尽职）， thrift and sobriety（清醒） were praised.2.Local colorism: as a trend became dominant in American literature in the 1860s and early 1870s，it is defined by Hamlin Garland as having such quality of texture and background that it could not have been written in any other place or by anyone else than a native stories of local colorism have a quality of circumstantial(详细的) authenticity(确实性), as local colorists tried to immortalize(使不朽) the distinctive natural, social and linguistic features. It is characteristic of vernacular(本国语) language and satirical(讽刺的) humor3.American Realism: In American literature, the Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concern for commonplace and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience4.The Lost generation： it refers to a group of young intellectuals who came