LITR 4232 American Renaissance

Emily Dickinson, introduction + "I like a look of Agony"; "Wild Nights"; "There's a certain slant of light"; "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"

Tuesday, 18 April: Project due. Emily Dickinson, introduction +

"I like a look of Agony"

"Wild Nights"

"There's a certain slant of light"

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"

Reader: Elena Trevino

Thursday, 20 April: Dickinson

"I never lost as much but twice"

"These are the days when Birds come back--"

"Come Slowly--Eden!"

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?"

"I reason, Earth is short--"

"The Soul selects her own Society--"

"It sifts from Leaden Sieves--" [riddle poem]

letters to T. W. Higginson

reader: Heidi Gerke

Tuesday, 25 April: Dickinson

"There came a Day at Summer's full"

"Some keep the Sabbath going to Church--"

"A Bird came down the Walk--"

"I know that He exists."

"After great pain, a formal feeling comes--"

"Dare you see a Soul at the white heat?"

"A Route of Evanescence" [riddle poem]

Reader: Miriam Rodriguez

Thursday, 27 April: Dickinson

"I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--"

"This World is not Conclusion."

"I started Early--Took my Dog--"

"I cannot live with You--"

"Because I could not stop for Death--"

"A narrow Fellow in the Grass"

Tuesday, 2 May, 10:00am-12:50pm: final exam

What images of Dickinson prevail in popular mind? How do people think of her?

Somewhat divided response:

some find Dickinson and her poetry fascinating

some dismiss her and her poetry as odd

What are attractions / repulsions of both Dickinson and her poetry?

What do our attractions / repulsions reveal about ourselves?

Dickinson style handout (print copies forthcoming Tuesday)

broader questions on Dickinson

Why are people fascinated / troubled by Emily Dickinson's image, lifestyle, legend, etc.?

(Classes often divide between people fascinated by Dickinson and others who wish she'd lived a normal life so they wouldn't have to read her poetry)

Can the poetry be read apart from the legend of Dickinson's life? (compare Poe, Sylvia Plath)

Research projects

projects due Tuesday; submit by email

but a "window" of submission time

please submit them on time, but not officially late until lunchtime Friday, 21 April

If you're late beyond that, be in touch with me and let me know what's going on--don't make me ask you!

I'll acknowledge receipt of email within 24-36 hours

projects posted to webpage

model assignments

final exam

standard 4 questions, as previewed from beginning of semester

student chooses 2

possible 5th question, free-form in nature: "What have you learned that you didn't expect to learn? How did you learn it? What applications?"

model from grad version of course:

5. Write an essay concerning some persistent or occasional issue, problem, or theme significant to the course but overlooked by the previous four questions. You are welcome to use aspects of the course objectives. Your choice for this question may overlap with other questions above. If your topic appears to range beyond the course's evident subject matter, defend or rationalize your topic. Relate your topic to the larger subject of American Romanticism--what relevant insights does your discussion reveal or suggest? Refer to at least three writers and their texts.

Even if 5th question is added, you still only need to choose two.

But in case you're interested in developing your own topic for 5th question, 

Introduce Dickinson

Whitman as "America's greatest poet," but Dickinson may be a better poet, a finer poet

Whitman as "greatest": 

changed nature of poetry in style and content

style: free verse

content: incorporated "non-poetic elements" and elevated to poetry

influence on many later writers

courage in exploring public or national identities

unity of diverse experience of America; one nation of individuals (e pluribus unum)

*also, in events of history, Whitman seemed to find the action. 1840s-50s in New York City, emerging American metropolis with bohemian subculture

*1860s in Washington (near border of conflict in Civil War)

Dickinson

far more private poet, seems to exist outside of time--like lyric poetry?

enormous number of high-quality poems (compare to Whitman, who writes more bad poetry than good poetry)

but readers often divide

some find her work automatically entrancing, fascinating, compelling

some find her work inscrutable, odd, annoying

teaching danger: if you dive into the poems too directly, threat of losing 2nd group

or, if you focus too much on her life, disaffected students may dismiss her as a screwed-up chick and seal her off

(as classes progress, deal with her life more directly, but not at expense of poetry)

one strategy: approach poems more indirectly, set up learning experience

even if some students may not like Dickinson, they can at least learn something from her study

today:

genre > lyric

Emily Dickinson's unique characteristics > application

lyric

"lyric" can be categorized as a genre

"genre" = type, class, category of literature

"What kind of book are you reading there?"; "What kind of movie do you want to see?" = genre

study of genre always involves super-genres and sub-genres

"movie" is either a genre or a super-genre

"what kind of movie?" > "comedy," "romantic comedy," "romance," "action / adventure," "thriller," "kid movie," "drama," "spoof" are all either genres or sub-genres of "movies"

Distinguish genres and movements or periods (though they often overlap)

Romanticism = movement or period

romance = genre

romance can be divided to sub-genres: historical romance (Last of the Mohicans, Scarlet Letter), tear-jerker romance (Terms of Endearment), romance of the high-seas (Master and Commander, Lord Jim, Moby-Dick)

The romance-novel and the lyric (plus or minus the essay) tend to be the dominant genres of the Romantic movement / American Renaissance

back to the lyric, sort of

review genres (or sub-genres) of poetry (last class)

When most people say "poetry," they mean "lyric poetry"

But study of literature involves becoming more self-conscious about genres, categories, relationships, history

Traditionally (from Plato and Aristotle down) "poetry" can mean virtually any kind of creative literature. (The term "poetry" derives from a Greek word involving "making," which implies that, compared with other kinds of literature, poetry involves creating something that was not there before)

sub-genres of poetry

epic poetry -- Iliad, Odyssey, Paradise Lost (for a number of formal reasons, the "epic" is often considered the prototype of the modern novel)

narrative poetry -- "Paul Revere's Ride"

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea . . . .

dramatic poetry -- plays, theater, Shakespeare, O'Neill

lyric poetry

--usually briefer, an instant of images, impressions, sensations, emotions

--compare "song lyrics"

exercise: analyze a song lyric

"argue from the definition"--standard literary analysis

i. e., apply the definition to the example

**handout**

Emily Dickinson, summary of subjects and styles

*The genre of Dickinson’s poetry is “lyric poetry.” (This term is also applicable to Poe, Whitman, and others.)

“Lyric: The Greeks defined a lyric as a song to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre (lyra).  The words to a popular song are still known as "the lyrics," but students of literature also use the term loosely to describe a particular kind of poem distinct from narrative or dramatic verse.  A lyric is usually fairly short . . . and it usually expresses the feelings and thoughts of a single speaker (not necessarily the poet himself) in a  personal and subjective fashion. (A Dictionary of Literary Terms)

“Lyric: A brief subjective poem strongly marked by imagination, melody, and emotion, and creating for the reader a single, unified impression. . . .  No longer primarily designed to be sung to an accompaniment, the lyric nevertheless is essentially melodic since the melody may be secured by a variety of rhythm patterns and may be expressed either in rhymed or unrhymed verses.  Subjectivity, too, is an important element of a form which is the personal expression of personal emotion imaginatively phrased.  It partakes, in certain high examples, of the quality of ecstasy.” (A Handbook to Literature)

Question: What qualities from the definition do you apply to "Lonely Coming Down?"

Willie Nelson: air time

Poe: one sitting for the reader

"Argue from the example"

Question: What other qualities that mark a lyric poem do you find in the example?

Russian formalism: poetry "defamiliarizes" or "makes strange" normal language

repetition, refrains, choruses

songs: explicit repetition

poetry: subtle repetition, variations (Whitman's parallelism)

images

figures of speech, metaphors

Lonely Coming Down

by Porter Wagoner

I woke up this morning in a strange place
I looked into the mirror at a strange face
Then I looked for you but you could not be found
And then I felt the lonely comin' down

I walked across the room to the empty bed
Saw the imprint on the pillow where you laid your head
The presence of you still lingered all around
And once again I felt the lonely comin' down

Then I felt the lonely dripping down my face
As I realized no one could take your place
I wondered where the love had gone that we had found
And then again I felt the lonely comin' down

I wondered where the love had gone that we had found
And again I felt the lonely comin' down

Mmm...

lyric poem . . . . 

personal, subjective

intimate: I, You; personal space

rhymes, melody

end approaches ecstasy

single, unified impression (x-narrative)

single voice (x-dramatic)

Read Dickinson poems, answer two broad questions:

1. How fit the definition of "lyric poetry?"

2. How fit (or exceed) the characteristics listed on the style sheet?

"I like a look of Agony" p. 3049

confrontation with death, intrusion of infinite into everyday

"Wild Nights" p. 3049

sexual union (+ metaphors)

slant or half rhymes: port / Chart

"There's a certain slant of light" p. 3050

slant or half rhymes: Afternoons / Tunes

Paradoxical combinations: Heft of Cathedral Tunes . . . Heavenly Hurt

personification:
the Landscape listens

subject of death

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" p. 3051

subject of death

slant or half rhymes: fro / through, down / then

definite beginning, open ending:
I felt a funeral . . . Finished knowing--then--

Paradoxical combinations: 
creak across my soul
Boots of Lead
a Plank in Reason

2975 "I never lost as much but twice"

never . . . but twice (paradox)

Buglar! Banker--Father! (sudden shift)

2976 "These are the days when Birds come back--"

Paradoxical combinations:
sophistries of June, blue and gold mistake
fraud . . . bee, seeds . . . witness
Sacrament of summer days

+ mystical vision: communion (Eucharist) + nature

2977 "Come Slowly--Eden!"

slant rhymes:
hums . . . Balms

sexual union
fainting Bee . . . Round her chamber hums

2977 "I like a look of Agony"

confrontation with death, intrusion of infinite into everyday

2977 "Wild Nights"

sexual union (+ metaphors)

slant or half rhymes: port / Chart

2978 "There's a certain slant of light"

slant or half rhymes: Afternoons / Tunes

Paradoxical combinations: Heft of Cathedral Tunes . . . Heavenly Hurt

personification:
the Landscape listens

subject of death

2979 "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"

subject of death

slant or half rhymes: fro / through, down / then

definite beginning, open ending:
I felt a funeral . . . Finished knowing--then--

Paradoxical combinations: 
creak across my soul
Boots of Lead
a Plank in Reason

2979 "I'm Nobody! Who are you?"

slant or half rhymes: too / know

Paradoxical combinations:
public--like a Frog
admiring Bog

Review Lincoln, Whitman

Dickinson style & subject sheet

Questions for Dickinson

Questions for Dickinson

What is the experience of reading a Dickinson poem? How does a Dickinson poem work?
(formalist interpretation of literature--literary texts as autonomous, timeless works of art, only marginally limited to history)

Can Dickinson be connected to the American Renaissance?
(Dickinson born 1830, Twain b. 1835, James 1843, Wharton 1862, Crane & Dreiser 1871)
(historicist interpretation of literature--literary texts as reflections of or contributors to literary and / or social movements, periods)

Can the poetry be read apart from the legend of Dickinson's life? (compare Poe, Sylvia Plath)
(autobiographical interpretation of literature--generally frowned on by scholars, but irresistible)

Why are people fascinated / troubled by Emily Dickinson's image, lifestyle, legend, etc.?
(fusion of literary history and autobiographical interpretation--human life as text)

Review Lincoln

"Second Inaugural Address"

2010 slavery: to strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest . . . restrict the territorial enlargement of it

2011 both read the same Bible

For "culture wars" over whether USA is "a Christian nation" or a secular government with religious people, what does Lincoln deliver?

1. Biblical Christianity is recognized and appealed to as a common interest, heritage, and source of moral lessons.

2. But different readers can come to different conclusions, which "relativizes" the truth of its morality. One truth may appear superior to another but "judge not"--even of slavery! Consequences: careful humility rather than triumph of absolute right and wrong? Cf. Melville, Hawthorne, even Whitman as tragic visionaries: truth may be glimpsed, but humans can only partly bear it.

Resolution? USA as nation with definite religious background but developing pluralistic ethos

Review Whitman

Always more to say about Whitman: sign of great classic author

Whitman matters--great influence, in touch with important issues, events

*free verse revolution

*expansion of subject matter (style change permits content change)

*unity of diverse experience of America; one nation of individuals (e pluribus unum)

*also, in events of history, Whitman seemed to find the action. 1840s-50s in New York City, emerging American metropolis with bohemian subculture

*1860s in Washington (near border of conflict in Civil War)

From Whitman's Specimen Days (1882)--writings on his life and esp. concerning the Civil War period.

I see very plainly ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S dark brown face, with the deep-cut lines, the eyes, always to me with a deep latent sadness in the expression. We have got so that we exchange bows, and very cordial ones. . . . Sometimes one of his sons, a boy of ten or twelve, accompanies him, riding at his right on a pony. Earlier in the summer I occasionally saw the President and his wife, toward the latter part of the afternoon, out in a barouche, on a pleasure ride through the city. Mrs. Lincoln was dress'd in complete black, with a long crape veil. The equipage is of the plainest kind, only two horses, and they nothing extra. They pass'd me once very close, and I saw the President in the face fully, as they were moving slowly, and his look, though abstracted, happen'd to be directed steadily in my eye. He bow'd and smiled, but far beneath his smile I noticed well the expression I have alluded to. None of the artists or pictures has caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man's face. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed.

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"

last class: discussion elegy and "universalization" of death, meaning--Lincoln's death & significance > all soldiers' death and significance > life and significance of the living (life and death of individual > life and death for whole nation)

conclusion of class: discussion of symbols

image + cultural or traditional meaning (dove = peace, flag = freedom, imperialism, idolatry, re-elect Bush)

conclusion: symbols aren't necessarily stable in meaning. 

symbols send out many different signals at once, to different readers and on different levels to same reader (Compare political figures to diverse audiences)

Appearances and meanings of symbols can change over time.

Meanings of symbols change according to cultures.

In "Lilacs," the symbols phase into and out of each other. The star goes behind the cloud. The poet hears the song of the bird, which becomes his song. The parties of the "trinity" continue to change.

This can be seen as another development of Whitman's process of "identification, absorption, and expression" of others with himself. Also recall "trinity" as expression of individuality and multiplicity. 

Summary: Whitman continues to develop poetic means to explore the meaning of the individual in relation to the community or nation.

Questions for Dickinson

What is the experience of reading a Dickinson poem?

Can the poetry be read apart from the legend of Dickinson's life? (compare Poe, Sylvia Plath)

Can Dickinson be connected to the American Renaissance?
(Dickinson born 1830, Twain b. 1835, James 1843, Wharton 1862, Crane & Dreiser 1871)

genre: lyric poetry

lyric poem . . . . 

personal, subjective

intimate: I, You; personal space

rhymes, melody

end approaches ecstasy

single, unified impression (x-narrative)

single voice (x-dramatic)

(2004 class) Web-highlighter: Jennifer Horner

2003 Final

Essay Question 1. Describe the characteristics and significance of the Gothic as well as some variations on it in our course readings.  To what different purposes do the various authors use the Gothic? (Objective 2, the Gothic)

·        Briefly refer to Irving and Cooper

·        Refer more extensively to Poe and Hawthorne

·        Additionally refer to at least one other text or author (in these additional cases the Gothic may appear only briefly or tangentially, and we may not have gotten around to discussing these manifestations thoroughly in class, but there are plenty of examples in our readings).

·         As a conclusion, consider the purposes or significance of the Gothic.

Emily Dickinson is another writer who can be linked to the gothic in many ways.  I do not consider her a gothic writer but she definitely has tendencies to lean in that direction, and writes about it so well, that I thought I’d include her.  Her life was a mystery, too, which engrosses many readers and may help to aid her gothic tendencies.  She experiments with death, which is a theme of hers when dealing with the gothic.  In “I heard a Fly buzz” she writes from the viewpoint of a dead person, which is more grotesque and ingenious than just writing about death from a second hand point of view.  The fly is an animal that feeds on death and decay, and she brings in the insect after just three words of the poem.  Her use of syntax helps to mold the Gothicism of the poem.  She writes that the stillness around her was like the “Heaves of Storm” indicating tension and a deadly calm in the room.  She writes of the King of terrors coming upon her, leaving an allusive meaning for the audience of the excessive amount of death in the room.  She deals with the gothic in a completely different style than that of these other authors, and tackles the issues differently, but leaves the reader shuddering, just like a good gothic writer can do. [SS]