American romantic poets

1、Walt Whitman(1819-1892) vBrought up in a farming community on long Island, New YorkvGrew up in a microcosm of working class America: 5-6 years of formal schooling, then as an office boy in a law firm, then for a doctor, and afterwards in printing, then an elementary school teacher.vFrom 1838, return

2、ed to long island, and founded the Long Islander, a weekly newspaper.vIn 1842, back to Brooklyn as an editor of “The New York Aurora” vFrom then on he worked as editor for six successive newspapersvDuring the civil war, served as a correspondent for The New York Times, and as a volunteer nurse.vDied

3、 on March 26, 1892.vHe was poor all his life and never married.Whitman the poetvA catalog of American and European thought, a great acceptorvSusceptible to many influences:The enlightenment and the ideals of the rights and dignity of the individual, toleration, humanitarianism, and cosmopolitanism.

4、idealism and transcendentalism Science, both Newtonian and evolutionaryPantheism, the theory of “the great chain of being”The ideal of progress,The current American life with its western frontier spiritJacksonian laissez-faire individualismCivil war Unionism and democracyEven orientalism found their

5、 way into his poetryLeaves of GrassvFirst printed in 1855, and went through nine editions together with 400-odd poems in free verse formvViews from critics: “noxious weeds”, “poetry of barbarism” and “a mass of stupid filth” VS “buried masterpiece of American writing”, “the most extraordinary piece

6、of wit and wisdom”vThe title implies rebirth, renewal, or green life as leaves of grass are fresh, common and numerous. From a blade of “curling grass” the poet sees into the mystery of death and birth and concludes that “the smallest sprout shows there is really no death,” and that “all goes onward

7、 and upward, nothing collapses”vHe tried to blend the world of science, the philosophy of democracy, and the spiritual feeling into one, to incorporate these into his poetry.The features of Whitmans poemsA daring experimentalist: complete break with traditional poetics. He broke free the traditional

8、 iambic pentameter and wrote “free verse”vParallelism or a rhythm of thought in which the line is the rhythmical unitvHis versification is phonetic recurrence, i.e. the systematic repetition of words and phrases at the beginning of the line, in the middle or at the end.vOrganic principle: art should

9、 be based on originally on nature; the poets work grows out of nature and cosmic processesO Captain! My Captain! vA poem to commemorate Lincolns death in 1865. famous for the simple allegory, the powerful emotions, and the musical effect by the sound patternvThe first two lines establish the group o

10、f metaphors that unifies the whole poem: the Captain is the president, the ship is the Union led by him, and the fearful trip is the Civil War that had just concluded with the Unions victory, that is, the “prize we sought.” the following lines describe the waiting crowd cheering and exulting, which

11、forms a sharp contrast with the image of the Captain lying cold and dead on the deck.vIn the second stanza, Whitman successfully blends two contrasting scenes: one in which crowds gather to receive and celebrate the captain upon his return from victory; another in Which people gather together to lam

12、ent him as a fallen hero. The Bells can be understood at once as the bells rung in celebration of military victory and the funeral bells tolled in mourning. Similarly the flag is flown in honor of the Captain both as a symbol of rejoicing and victory and as a symbol of lamentation. The bulge alludes

13、 to both military victory and to “Taps” the requiem traditionally played at funeral a fallen soldiers. Bouquets and wreathes are also common to both celebratory receptions and funerals. Finally, the crowd can be both the happy throng who rejoiced at the victory as well as the public who gathered acr

14、oss the nation to mournfully view Lincolns coffin as it was taken by train from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois.vApart from the images, the Strength of the poem lies also in its sound effect created by the metrical pattern: most of the lines are iambic, which imitates the tempo of a funeral

15、 march; all the three stanzas follow a rhyming pattern of “aabbcded” and the repetition of the last sentence of each stanza, which not only keeps the poem in unity but emphasizes the deep grief (“fallen cold and dead”) at the core of the elergy.Emily Dickinson(1830-1886)vBorn into a Calvinist family

16、 in MassachusettsvA shy, sensitive, sometimes rebellious female, but not a reclusevShe settled down to a normal New England village life, reading and writing and baking bread for the familyvDressed in white and avoiding visitors as much as possible, she wanted to live simply and as a complete indepe

17、ndent person. her two passions were her garden and her poetryvWrote altogether 1775 poems, of which only seven appeared in print in her lifetime.vDickinson was rediscovered in the 20th centuryHer PoetryThe themes of her poetryvDeath and immortality. Death leads to immortality, as is illustrated in p

18、oems like Because I could not stop for death. Death comes as imperceptibly as grief and marks the beginning of a higher life. But she was skeptical and ambivalent about the possibility of achieving immortality.vLove. Love is expressed in an unabashed manner. (Wild Night-)vNature as both gaily benevo

19、lent and cruel. vAlienation of man from naturevOn the ethical level, free will and human responsibility of renouncing anything low or hostile to mans spiritual heritage and self-respect.Success is Counted Sweetestviambic trimeter with the exception of the first two lines of the second stanza. The po

20、em highlights aphoristic truths that are universal. vIn the first stanza, Emily Dickinson endeavors to define the true essence of success. The general impression is that success can be counted by only those who have experienced it numerous times. Nevertheless, it is more precisely evaluated or count

21、ed by those who have never succeeded as they can apprehend its true value. Success also tastes sweeter to the person who has persevered very hard for it, than to a person who has found success effortlessly. The former is also more thankful to God, and cherishes his accomplishment. The word nectar he

22、re implies water. However, it is perception that renders it nectar. To the thirsty ones with parched throats, a drop of water tastes as sweet as nectar. Only the one in the direst need, can treasure any sort of sanction. vSome people define success by virtue of positions that they acquire and assume

23、 in life. The poetess asserts how none of the purple leaders who took the flag to-day could describe what victory actually meant. The act of victory in such a stance of winning a battle is limited to the act of taking away a flag. It also points to the worldly act of hoisting a flag. The poetess highlights the word to-day to underline the presentness and transiency of the situation. vIn the last lines, the poetess exemplifies the frenzy of success, that one loses consciousness in. He loses the ability t