transcendentalism and the New Poetry Flashcards
- He was known as the “Sage of Concord”
- He excelled in fixing his thoughts in pointed, epigrammatic sentences, which have become proverbs
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In this tale, Emerson tells us to not judge others and try to understand that people unlike us also have qualities that we don’t have.
A Fable
It is about relying on one’s own sense of oneself and having confidence in one’s ideas and opinions.
Self-reliance
By nature, he was highly individualistic and liked to be alone. At Walden Pond, in a deep forest, he set up his own Utopia and lived alone in a small hut for over 2 years.
Henry David Thoreau
uses the ants and their battle as a satirical allegory for human conflict.
The Battle of Ants
most loved poet in America during his lifetime. He has been called America’s household poet. He writes about the beauty of simple affections and the pleasures of the home; he tells us to have faith and confidence in God.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
uses the themes of lost and renewed hope, youth, and grief to show how much our past and future experiences affect our lives and how though we face multiple struggles in life we can overcome them.
The Rainy Day
- a lyric poet who celebrated an idealistic love of life and humanity in a highly original, bold, and powerful manner.
- He had an encompassing love for all forms of nature and all conditions of humanity.
- He was equally affected by a blade of grass, a glimpse of the sea, or a dying soldier.
Walt Whitman
expresses a profound sorrow over the death of Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. president during the country’s Civil War.
O Captain, My Captain!
Her manner of expression is that of a child who is worldly wise. Her poems pertain to personal experiences and adventures of the soul with nature, love, God, time, and eternity.
Emily Dickinson
It argues that many of the things people consider “madness” are perfectly sane —and that the reverse is also true: many of the things that people consider normal are, in fact,
totally mad.
Much Madness is divinest Sense
It plays upon the familiar adage “Time heals all wounds,” but changing the saying perceptibly.
They say that Time Assuages
The poem may be summarized very simply as being about how it is quite nice to be a Nobody rather than a Somebody – that anonymity is preferable to fame or public recognition.
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
This poem is about isolation and communication: the speaker expresses deep frustration that he or she is unable to communicate with the “World.”
This is My Letter to The World
The poem’s speaker celebrates the power of literature, marveling that no splendid ship or noble steed has the power a book does to carry people to another world.
There is no Frigate like a Book
