Michelle Glenn
Dr. White
LITR 5535
5 July 2002

Final Exam

Question 2-

            American Romanticism, which is a literary movement that occurred roughly between the 1820’s and 1860’s, is often viewed as being replaced by the literary movements of both Realism and Modernism.  Though this may be true to some degree, American Romanticism did not end as abruptly as this mindset seems to insinuate.  Though Post-Romantic writers bring new and innovative ideas to the literary scene, the ideals that were present in Romantic writing are still recognizable.  This is because Post-Romantic writers constantly question, revive, and revise these ideals in their writing.  Though each Post-Romantic writer does this in his/her own way, the revision of these romantic ideals can be seen most clearly in examining how literature of this time period began to incorporate images of both nature and the industry, how literature began to use fragmentation as a tool for developing individualism, and the spin that literature often put on instances of looking back into the past. 

            Free verse, a style of writing where there is no fixed verse or meter, is often used in Post- Romantic literature.  Walt Whitman is generally considered the father of this particular method of writing.  Free verse consists of things such as long lines, parallelism, and cataloging.  In using this style of writing, Whitman and other Post-Romantic writers were able to simultaneously free their form and their content.  At first glance, this may sound insignificant.  Yet, in focusing on the content matter of writers from the Realistic or Modern Movements, one can see remnants of Romanticism’s nature scenes, though they seem to be slightly revised to include images of the industry. 

            In Romantic literature, for instance, the city seems to be entirely written out.  Pieces of literature from this time period that centered on issues of nature, such as Anne Bradstreet’s “Contemplations” and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature” were quite common.  The reason for this is because Romantics place a great deal of emphasis on nature, believing that it is the place where important events such as sublime instances and transcendence are said to occur.  Post-Romantic writers, though they continue to discuss nature, also include a glimpse into city life.  This has much to do with the fact that the audience of the time was complicated to write for, in that the liked to read about nature, yet, most lived in the city.  

            This new content matter of incorporating both nature and the city can be seen when examining the work of Walt Whitman.  Whitman’s most famous work, “Song of Myself,” is quite reminiscent of Emerson’s nature theory that the universe is comprised of both nature and the soul.  The Romantic tendencies in this work can be seen in his poetic and mystical phrases discussing nature, such as “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars” (1078).  This phrase, seems to be commenting that the smallest piece of nature is connected to the biggest piece of the cosmic process.  Though discussions of nature similar to this one show up time and time again in this work, industrialized images are also present.  In reading through various catalogs of this work, the reader seems to be jerked along from status to status.  This can be seen in the lines that read “The machinist rolls up his sleeve, the policeman travels his beat, the gatekeeper marks who pass” and “The clean hair’d Yankee girl works with her sewing-machine or in the factory or mill” (1066).  With statements such as these, the reader is flooded with a parade of images that are quite realistic, depicting how the industry and American culture have become intertwined.  Another Post-Romantic writer, Allen Ginsberg, seems to be experimenting with the presence of both nature and another aspect of American culture, commercialism.  Much along the lines of Whitman, he uses the catalog to do so.  In his poem, “A Supermarket in California,” the cataloging technique gets transported from nature to the produce isle.  It is interesting to me that he continues to talk about products of nature such as “peaches,” “avocados,” and “tomatoes,” (2705) yet they are not in a natural setting.  Instead, these natural images are placed in a market.  This underlying mention of commercialism is an occurrence that the reader would not encounter in literature of Romanticism.  In Romantic literature, I have noticed that images of nature are always presented in their natural setting. 

            Cataloging , however, is not the only method that allows Post-Romantic writers to incorporate both nature and the new industrialized images of American culture in their writing.  The author of “A White Heron,” Sarah Jewett, does this simply through the discussion of her characters.  Her story seems to be the most Romantic of the Post-Romantic writers, as the whole tale is centered around Sylvia and her love of nature.  There are several phrases that seem to speak very Romantically about nature, such as “Sylvia’s face was like a pale star” and “The tree seemed to lengthen itself out as she went up, and to reach farther and farther upward.”  Though the images of nature continue throughout the story, the visitor brings a whole different perspective to the story.  With the entrance of the gentleman, the reader gets an introduction to urban industrial society, as he totes along jackknifes, guns, and money.  The visitor, representing the materialism of society, is a perfect contrast to the little girl who can be trusted to keep nature’s secrets.

            Just as Post-Romantic writers discuss nature but do not emphasize it as much as Romantic writers, so too is the notion of the individual.  Post-Romantic literature seems to address notions of the individual almost indirectly, through its fragmentary language.  This phenomenon can be seen when examining Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.”  In this poem, he states, “It avails not, time nor place-distance avails not, I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence, Just as you feel when you look on the river or sky, so I felt. . .” (1034).  In this instance, he discusses a feeling but never directly tells the reader what this feeling is.  Instead, he leaves a gap for the reader to fill in.  This tactic is a powerful one because it allows all readers to share in his feeling, yet, not naming the feeling allows readers to individualize it.  The same is true of Hawthorne’s short story entitled “The Minister’s Black Veil.”  In this story, the minister feels led to wear a black veil, due a sin that he has committed.  Hawthorne, so that his audience can both share and individualize the experience, never names the sin.  If he had named the sin, the reader might have said, “I haven’t done that,” and he might have lost some of his audience.  Hawthorne is aware of the fact that everyone has some secret that he/she is hiding and are perhaps ashamed of.  In not naming the sin, he allows each reader to insert their “secret sin” and go through the experience with the minister.  Another way that the fragmentary language of Post-romantic writers stresses individualization is because it does not tie up the loose ends to the fragments.  The only continuity between the choppy scences that occur is the individual, or the reader.  For example, in Toomer’s “Fern,” the reader is not sure what happens to Fern at the end of the story.  There are no explanations given.  The only unity that is present in the story is that we all went through the experience with her and are left to form our own personal interpretations of it.  

            Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” is also a prime example of the revision of Romantic ideals.  This poem is Romantic in the fact that it discusses a common man looking back on the past.  Yet, this is where the Romanticism ends.  The man is certainly not idealizing nature, as he describes it quite realistically with phrases such as “blueblack cold” and “I’d wake and hear the cold splintering” (2631).   With the repetition of the phrase “What did I know,” (2632) there does seem to be a hint of guilt in the narrator’s tone.  Yet, the reader can be certain that the man does not seem be looking back on the relationship with his father nostalgically.  This is evident as he describes the “chronic angers of that house” (2631).  Instead, it seems as if the man is attempting to recover only the essence of the past and not the past itself.  This is a staple of modernism, which is quite different from the nostalgia of Romanticism.

Question 5-

            Correspondence, a literary term that we encountered this semester, is defined as a mirroring situation in which there is some sort of a reflection between an inner and an outer state.  The reason that I chose to write an essay on this topic was because it seemed to be a very prominent technique in the literature of writers from both the Romantic and Post-Romantic periods.  I believe that the reason for the amount of correspondence during this time period was because the writers were attempting to comment on the complexity of the relationship between individuals and nature.  If so, correspondence was an excellent tool for doing this, as it seemed to leave the reader wondering what caused certain changes- the individual or the environment?

            Among the literary pieces that we read in class, the most obvious example of correspondence was probably Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil.”  In this story, the  minister, Mr. Hooper, is feeling guilt for his sin and decides to wear a black veil over his face.  Mr. Hooper is described as being a “good preacher, but not an energetic one” (631-2).  However, something about his first sermon with the black veil is different.  In commenting on his sermon, the narrator states, “The sermon which he now delivered, was marked by the same characteristic of style and manner, as the general series of his pulpit oratory.  But there was something, either in the sentiment of the discourse itself, or in the imagination of the auditors, which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their pastor’s lips” (632).  Has Mr. Hooper changed his enthusiasm or has the audience’s perception of his enthusiasm changed because of the veil he is wearing?  Hawthorne does not answer this question.  In fact, there is no straightforward answer.  Yet, this is exactly what the language of correspondence is designed to do: it makes the reader think about a very complex issue. 

            Though I was initially going to answer the question on desire and loss, Thomas Wolfe’s “The Lost Boy” is actually what persuaded me to change my mind.  In reading “The Lost Boy” for class, I was struck by the beautiful instances of correspondence that occurred in this piece.  I underlined each of the instances in my passage and was eager to talk about them in class.  Yet, when we got to the selection, the issues of correspondence in the work never came up.  Either I was caught up in what we were discussing or I was too unconfident to bring it up, I am not sure which.  In any case, I would like to take the chance to do that now.  The instances of correspondence that take place in Wolfe’s writing are spectacular.  “The Lost Boy” starts out with a very vivid description of the scenery.  Then, the reader is introduced to Robert, a good-hearted little boy who is roaming around town and wanders into a candy shop.  After Mr. Crocker, the owner of the candy shop, will not return the extra stamp that Robert has given him for payment, the narrator states that “something had gone out of the day” (1695).  In Robert’s mind, the day is no longer full of beauty, bustle, and excitement.  He no longer notices the “people passing by,” but only that the “brightness had gone out of the day” (1695).  His attitude has changed and it changes the environment for himself and the reader.  Yet, the correspondence does not end here.  After Robert’s father stands up to Mr. Crocker, the narrator says that “Light came again into the day” (1697).  With Robert’s happiness, the sun is able to shine on the day once more. 

            In Chesnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine,” correspondence is still evident, though it seems to take on more of a comedic role in accordance with the local color genre.  In this selection, correspondence takes place in terms of Henry’s hair.  This can be seen when examining the passage that reads: “Befo’dat, Henry had tol’able good ha’r ‘roun’ de aidges, but soon ez de young grapes begun ter come Henry’s ha’r begun ter quirl all up in little balls, des like dis yer reg’lar grapy ha’r, en by de time de grapes got ripe his head look des like a bunch er grapes” (1644).  As in most instances of magic, the magic here works through correspondence.  Rather than a voodoo doll or some other object, Henry’s hair is morphing because of the grapes.  As previously stated, this is a more comedic spin on correspondence.  Though the comedy is present as a trademark of this genre, I also believe that it functions to grasp the reader’s attention to the event and the more serious issue behind the correspondence: can a person’s life be so closely related to the environment that the two seem to mirror each other?  A grape may be something little in the scheme of life, but it is used here as a tool for making the reader see the bigger issue at hand. 

            Most people would probably agree that the ideals of the Romantics such as being “separate from the masses” and falling into a far off “dreamy” state give Romantic literature an escapist appeal.  I agree with this perspective, but I also believe that the literature of American Romanticism works on an intellectual level as well.  Somewhere in my notes from the lecture, I have it written down that Romanticism comments on universal issues.  In my opinion, correspondence is present in American Romanticism because it is a tool for commenting on a very universal question: what is the relationship between the individual and nature?  Far after the time of Emerson, this issue is still being debated.  Though Romantic literature offers no answers in terms of this question, I believe that it accomplishes its task of allowing the reader to realize the complexity of this issue and to develop his/her own philosophy concerning it. 

My exam log:

Wednesday I worked on the exam before my other class from 2:00 to 4:00.  I worked on and finished the exam today (Thursday) from 2:00 to 3:12.  Total time spent: 3 hours 12 minutes.