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LITR 4328: American Renaissance  |
Final Exam Essays 2015 Sample answers
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Nathan Mesloh
Comparing the Three Major Poets
The following
essay is to compare the poetry styles between three of the greatest poets of the
American Renaissance who are Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson.
These three poets made such a major impact on the literary world with their
works, and are each unique in their styles. To begin this essay, the three poems
given to analyze are each lyric poems. A lyric poem is one which are very close
to song in nature, and focus on sensory beauty, specifically sound. They also
focus on imagery of descriptions, impulsiveness to focus on the moment, and
intensity of the words.
The first poem
given is The City in the Sea by Poe. The first few lines in itself give
itself away as a poem by Poe, as it is describing a gothic surrounding. It tells
of Death securing a throne in “a strange city lying alone far down within the
dim West.” As is fairly standard for Poe, his settings tend to be gothic as a
european style according to his style sheet. This is especially shown in line
1.7 which tells of time eaten towers, which fits with the european gothic style
regarding old decaying structures. This poem is also easily recognizable as Poe
as it is a formal verse poem, which Poe was frequently writing in. The poem
could be considered a lyrical poem from it’s sensory beauty in lines 2.6-8 where
Poe repeats the word “up” several times, in regards to the rise of large and
important structures such as kingly halls and babylon like walls. In addition to
this, it also has the needed imagery in the last section describing the sinking
towers into the water. This is something fairly easy to imagine and something
that would be breathtaking to see.
The second poem
is When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman. This poem has
some characteristics of Whitman in that according to his style sheet Whitman
tends to shift relations between soul and nature, and the individual and the
masses. In just 8 lines, Whitman manages to do both of these. He shifts relation
from individual and the masses in lines 4 through 6 where he tells of leaving
the classroom and being sick of being in there when the rest of the audience is
cheering and applauding the lecture. He also shifts between soul and nature in
lines 6 through 8 where he changes focus of the narrator to the stars up in the
sky. It is also an apparent Whitman poem as it is a free verse poem where there
are no rhymes or metered verses. Further more this poem meets the requirements
of a lyric poem through it’s use of imagery and impulsiveness. It has the
imagery through the classroom with the figures, columns, charts, and diagrams.
It also has imagery in the last lines and makes it easy to visualize a clear
night sky. The impulsiveness comes from taking advantage of the moment of
leaving the classroom to instead go out and be one with nature and look on the
night sky.
The third poem
is [I heard a Fly Buzz when I Died] by Emily Dickinson. This poem only
takes a moments glance to realize it is a Dickinson poem from the use of her
dashes for unapparent reasons, and capitalization at points that normally would
not be capitalized, as told by Dickinson’s style sheet. In addition to this, her
style is a mixture of free verse and formal verse, where she has four measured
stanzas but not much rhyming if any. This poem fits as a lyric poem from it’s
use of imagery, and impulsiveness. The imagery comes in from the laying in a
room dying and the only sense you have is the sound of a fly buzzing. The
impulsiveness is that a moment such as that only lingers for a moment, and then
it is completely gone.
These three
poets all have their comparisons of their similarities and differences in
several things. For instance Poe has an extremely formal way of writing with
measured verses, each of them rhyming in a standard pattern. In contrast,
Dickinson has a mixed style between free and formal verse. Normally Dickinson
does not go out of her way to make sure her poems rhyme, but if it is convenient
she will put it in. In addition she tends to make her poems into four verse
stanzas. And then there’s Whitman. Whitman is the American author who
revolutionized the free verse style of poetry writing where he simply writes
what comes to him, and does not focus on rhyming. In addition to this the
settings also tend to differ between Poe and the others, but Dickinson and
Whitman have some similarities. While Poe tends to make his settings in a gothic
setting in foreign lands. Whitman and Dickinson however tend to make theirs in
more domestic or urban settings which are more common to readers. Furthermore
while searching for more similarities, April Bucy pointed out in her 2012 final
that the two poets show a mutual interest in the combination of human life and
nature, and also the presence of mystical or sexual transcendence.
These three
poets have used each of their styles and talents to leave their mark on the
literature world. Poe uses his formal verse and gothic settings to take on a
darker setting and explore death and how it affects people. Whitman uses free
verse to be able to express his thoughts as they come to him without having the
constraints of making sure they fit a certain format. And then Dickinson uses a
combination of both formal and free verse to create her own unique style. With
these strengths these three poets managed to make their mark and become icons of
the American Renaissance.
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