Transcript Document

American Literature
Book II
Table of Contents
 New England Transcendentalism
 Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Henry David Thoreau
 Herman Melville
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 Walt Whitman
 Emily Dickinson
 Mark Twain
 Stephen Crane
 Henry James
New England
Transcendentalism
1. It is the summit of American
Romanticism.
2. Leaders: Emerson and Thoreau
3. Manifesto: Nature written by
Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1836,
which is regarded as the Bible of
New England Transcendentalism.
4. Club: Transcendentalist Club
5. Journal: The Dial
6. Sources: German idealism,
Transcendentalism, and American
Puritanism.
7. Major features ( ideas):
1) Placing emphasis on spirit,
or the Oversoul, as the most
important thing in the universe.
--a new way of looking at the
world
2) Stressing the importance of the
individual—self-reliance.
--a new way of looking at man
3) Offering fresh perception of nature as
symbolic of the spirit or God. (Nature
was not purely matter. It was alive,
filled with God’s overwhelming presence.
It was the garment of the Oversoul.)
“The Universe is composed of Nature
and the Soul.”
“Spirit is present everywhere.”
The individual soul communed with the
Oversoul and was therefore divine.
8. Influence
New England Transcendentalism
was important to American
literature.
It inspired a whole new
generation of famous authors as
Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne,
Melville, Whitman and Dickinson.
And it inspired one of America’s
most prolific literary periods in its
history.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
American
philosopher, poet
and essayist
The most
eloquent
spokesman of
New England
Transcendentalis
m.
Works

Essays:
1. Nature
1836
2. American Scholar
1837
3. Divinity School Address 1838
4. Essay (two series) 1841 1844
5. Representative Men
1850
6. English Traits
1856
7. The Conduct of Life
1860
8. Society and Solitude
1870
9. Letters and Social Aims 1876
10. Self-Reliance
1841
Poems:
1.Poems
2.May Day
3.Concord Hymn
4.The Rhodora
5.The Humble Bee
6.Days
1847
1867
1837
1846
1847
1857
Life
 Waldo was born May 25,
1803, the fourth of eight
children.
 His father, William
Emerson, distinguished
minister of First Church,
Boston, had drawn his
congregation with him
into Unitarianism.
 His father died when Waldo was eight,
leaving the family without financial
support.
 His mother Ruth sold her husband's
library (which became the Boston
Athenaeum), took in boarders and
worked as a maid. They often had not
enough to eat. Waldo and his brother
Charles had only one overcoat between
them. Taunting schoolfellows asked,
"Whose turn is it to wear the great-coat
today?"
 Waldo entered Harvard at 14. He began then
to keep a journal, a practice he continued for
the rest of his life, later calling its volumes—all
long since published—his "savings bank."
After graduation from the
College in 1821, at the age
of 18, Emerson taught
school for his uncle in
Waltham and later opened
a finishing school for girls,
but he did not enjoy school
teaching.
 In 1825, Emerson gave up his teaching to
enter Harvard Divinity School to study
theology.
 Both Emerson’s older brother and his
youngest died in 1834 and 1836 after
Emerson himself had recovered from two
years of tuberculosis in 1827.
 In 1829 Emerson was ordained as junior
pastor of Boston’s prestigious Second
Unitarian Church in 1829.
 That same year he married Ellen Tucker
who died only 6 months later.
 Yet in 1832, in a radical departure from
common practice, Emerson resigned his
pulpit and never served another
congregation.
 That same year Emerson toured Europe,
meeting such major English poets as
Wordsworth, Carlyle, and Coleridge.
Through his acquaintance with these men
he became closely involved with German
idealism and Transcendentalism.
 In 1833 Emerson began a new career as a
lecturer. He made Concord his home and
lived there for the rest of his life.
 In 1835 he married Lydia Jackson. Lydian,
as he called her, took a keen interest in his
ideas and his work. They had four children.
The loss of their first, Waldo, who died in
1842 at the age of five, was very hard. Their
other children were Ellen, Edith and Edward
Waldo.
The sum-up of Emerson’s ideas
 The transcendence of the Oversoul.
Emerson advocated a direct intuition of a
spiritual and immanent God in nature. In
his opinion, man is made in the image of
God and is just a little less than Him. His
Nature, which is generally regarded as
the Bible of Transcendentalism, records
his “moment of ecstasy” （妙悟时刻） ,
the moment of losing one’s individuality.
 The infinitude of man and human perfectibility.
Emerson believes that the possibilities for man
to develop and improve himself are infinite. Man
should and could be self-reliant. Everyone
makes himself by making his world, and he
makes the world by making himself. The world
exists for the individual and man should decide
upon their own destinies. The regeneration of
the individual leads to the regeneration of
society. Emerson’s idea was an expression of
the spirit of his time, the hope that man can
become the best person he could hope to be.
 Nature as symbolic of God. In the eyes of
Emerson, “nature is the vehicle of
thought,” and “particular natural facts
are symbols of particular spiritual facts”.
Thus everything bears a secondary and
an ulterior sense. A flowing river
indicates the ceaseless motion of the
universe. The seasons correspond to the
life span of man. The ant is the image of
man himself, small in body but mighty in
heart. This is why Emerson called his
most important work Nature rather than
anything else.
Emerson’s aesthetics
 Emerson believes that good poetry and true art
should teach, serve as a moral purification.
 Emerson emphasizes ideas, symbols and
imaginative words.
 Emerson advocates that American writers
should write about America here and now.
America itself is a long poem that is worthy of
celebrating.
 Emerson possesses a cheerful optimism. He
believes that there is force that can make the
bad good and the good better. Good is a good
doctor, and Bad is a better doctor. Angels must
always be stronger than demons.
Emerson’s influence
 Emerson’s importance in the intellectual
history of America lies in the fact that he
embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle
to assert its own identity in its formative period.
 His aesthetics brought about a revolution in
American literature. It marked the birth of true
American poetry.
 He called for an independent culture, which
represented the desire of the whole nation to
develop a culture of its own.
 Nature , the Bible of Transcendentalism
 “The American Scholar”, regarded as
“Declaration of Intellectual Independence”
 “The Poet”, the job of a poet to the seer, the
sayer and the namer
 “Self-Reliance”, the importance of cultivating
oneself
 “Each and All”, a poem in celebration of the
wholeness. “Each is part of all, and all is in each.”
 “Rhodora”, a poem that argues that beauty is its
own excuse of being
Evaluation
 During his lifetime he was
considered one of the two or three
best writers in America, and
certainly the most influential among
his contemporaries.
 Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson,
Hawthorne, Melville, Frost and
Wallace Stevens and many others
were indebted to him in varying
degrees.
 His influence extended
beyond his own
century.
His reputation has
fallen somewhat in the
present century.
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4) Questions
a) What did Emerson and Thoreau
deny?
b) What did they strongly affirm?
c) How has Transcendentalism
been defined?
d) What is “Understanding”/
“Reason”?
e) Why was he not invited back
to Harvard for 30 years?
f) How did Emerson envisioned
religion?
g) Where did Emerson’s greatest
fame come from?
Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862)
 American writer,
philosopher, and
naturalist
 American essayist
and poet
 Leader of
American
Transcendentalis
m
Works
1.
2.
3.
4.
Walden, or Life in the Woods 1854
Civil Disobedience
1849
Life Without Principle
1863
A Week on the Concord and
Merrimack Rivers
1849
5. The Maine Woods
1864
6. Cape Cod
1865
7. Slavery in Massachusetts
1854
Life
 Henry David Thoreau was born on
July 12, 1817, in Concord,
Massachusetts.
 Thoreau grew up in Concord and
attended Harvard, where he was
known as a serious though
unconventional scholar. During his
Harvard years he was exposed to the
writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
who later became his chief mentor
and friend.
 In 1845 Thoreau built himself a
small cabin on the shore of
Walden Pond, near Concord;
there he remained for more
than two years, “living deep and
sucking out all the marrow of
life.” Wishing to lead a life free
of materialistic pursuits, he
supported himself by growing
vegetables and by surveying
and doing odd jobs in the
nearby village.
 He devoted most of his time to observing
nature, reading, and writing, and he kept a
detailed journal of his observations,
activities, and thoughts. It was from this
journal that he later distilled his
masterpiece, Walden.
 One of Thoreau’s most important works,
the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849),
grew out of an overnight stay in prison as
a result of his conscientious refusal to
pay a poll tax that supported the Mexican
War.
 Thoreau’s advocacy of civil
disobedience as a means for the
individual to protest those actions
of his government that he considers
unjust has had a wide-ranging
impact—on the British Labour
movement, the passive resistance
independence movement led by
Gandhi in India, and the nonviolent
civil-rights movement led by Martin
Luther King in the United States.
 After graduation, Thoreau worked
for a time in his father’s pencil shop
and taught at a grammar school,
but in 1841 he was invited to live in
the Emerson household, where he
remained intermittently until 1843.
 He served as handyman and
assistant to Emerson, helping to
edit and contributing poetry and
prose to the transcendentalist
magazine, The Dial.
 Thoreau is also significant as a
naturalist who emphasized the
dynamic ecology of the natural world.
Above all, Thoreau’s quiet, one-man
revolution in living at Walden has
become a symbol of the willed
integrity of human beings, their inner
freedom, and their ability to build
their own lives. Thoreau’s writings,
including his journals, were
published in 20 volumes in 1906.
Evaluation
He became one of the
three great American
authors of the 19th century
who had not contemporary
readers and yet became
great in this century, the
other two being Herman
Melville and Emily
Dickinson.
 His influence goes beyond
America. His statue was placed in
the hall of Fame in New York in
1969 alongside those of other
great Americans.
 Thoreau has been regarded as a
prophet of individualism in
American literature. He was very
critical of modern civilization.
“Civilized man is the salve of
matter.”
Comment on Walden
Between the end of March 1845 and
July4, Thoreau constructed a cabin
on the shore of Walden Pond, near
Concord. There he lived alone until
September 1847, supplying his
needs by his own labor and
developing and testing his
transcendental philosophy of
individualism, self-reliance and
material economy for the sake of
spiritual wealth.
 He sought to reduce his physical
needs to a minimum, in order to free
himself for study, thought, and
observation of nature, himself.
Therefore his cabin was a simple
room and he wore the cheapest
essential clothing and restricted his
diet to what he found.
 Walden can be many things and can
be read on more than one level. But
it is, first and foremost, a book about
man, what he is, and what he should
be and must be.
 Thoreau has faith in the inner
virtue and inward, spiritual grace
of man. He holds that the most
important thing for men to do with
their lives is to be self-sufficient
and strive to achieve person
spiritual perfection. Thoreau was
very critical of modern civilization.
“Civilized man is the slave of
matter,” he said on one occasion.
 Considered one of the all-time great books,
Walden is a record of Thoreau's two year
experiment of living at Walden Pond. The
writer's chief emphasis is on the
simplifications and enjoyment of life now.
It is regarded as
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1. a nature book.
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2. a do-it-yourself guide to simple life.
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3. a satirical criticism of modern life
and living.
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4. a belletristic achievement.

5. a spiritual book.
The Reputation of Henry
David Thoreau
 Emerson: "He was bred to no
profession; he never went to church;
he never voted; he refused to pay a
tax to the State; he ate no flesh; he
drank no wine; he never knew the
use of tobacco; and, though a
naturalist, he used neither trap nor
gun."
 Ellery Channing (poet, friend, and
biographer): "Thoreau was the PoetNaturalist, a sweet singer of
woodland beauty."
 Frank Sanborn (young Abolitionist
friend and biographer): He was a
Concord warrior, a later embattled
farmer."
 John Macy (early Socialist critic):
"A powerful literary radical, but a
little too selfish and aloof to be a
good Socialist."
 Paul Elmer More: "He was one of
Rousseau's wild men, but moving toward
the higher self-restraint of neohumanism's inner-check."
 Lewis Mumford: "He was the Father of
our National & State Parks."
 James Russell Lowell: "He was a
Transcendentalist crackpot and phony
who insisted on going back to flint and
steel when he had a matchbox in his
pocket; a fellow to the loonies who
thought bran or wearing of the
substitution of hooks and eyes for
buttons would save the world."
Thoreau’s Involment in
Public Affairs
 Writing Walden was the high point
of Thoreau's life and his main
manifesto. Yet there were other
important things that involved him.
He believed that a writer's work
and his life should be one, though
he sometimes asserted the
opposite. At any rate, he devoted
both his writing and his life
increasingly to public issues.
 With word and deed he had fought
against the Mexican-American war
of the mid-1840s. And in the next
decade he became totally involved
in the struggle against slavery. In
John Brown he found his only hero:
he became Brown's friend and
ardent defender, and after Brown's
raid on Harpers Ferry Thoreau
spoke out for him in the most fiery
words he ever used.
 Thoreau always marched to the sound
of his own drum, as he said in one of
his most enduring aphorisms, and yet
the changing times had some effect
on him. In the 1840s he was still
advising the abolitionists to free
themselves before trying to free the
slaves, but by the time he stood up for
John Brown, he had become a
confirmed abolitionist himself.
 In the 1840s he still opposed war
both in theory and practice. Yet
when the Civil War came, he
welcomed it. The thing that
distinguished him was a matter of
degree: he demonstrated, far more
than most men, that his actions
resulted from a consistent
application of his personal
philosophy.
Emerson's Assessment
 The best analysis of Thoreau's
character was Emerson's funeral
elegy for him. Emerson was well
aware of Thoreau's devotion to his
principles and said that he "had a
perfect probity." Emerson also
realized, perhaps better than
anyone else, that Thoreau gave an
edge to his probity by his
willingness to say no, to dispute, to
deny.
 Emerson characterized Thoreau as
a hermit and stoic but added that he
had a softer side which showed
especially when he was with young
people he liked. Furthermore,
Thoreau was resourceful and
ingenious; he had to be, to live the
life he wanted. He was patient and
tenacious, as a man had to be to get
the most out of nature.
 He could have been a notable leader,
given all those qualities, but,
Emerson remarked sadly, Thoreau
chose instead to be merely the
captain of a huckleberry party.
Nevertheless, Thoreau was a
remarkable man, and Emerson gave
him the highest possible praise by
calling him wise. "His soul, " said
Emerson in conclusion, "was made
for the noblest society."
Questions
1. What are the two notable
contributions Thoreau made?
2. Who were influenced by
Thoreau’s ideas of non-violent
resistance to injustices?
3. What is Thoreau’s style?
4. What is Thoreau’s masterpiece?
5. What did Thoreau want to
illustrate through his writing?
6. What is the difference between
Franklin and Thoreau?
Herman Melville
(1819-1891)
His life represents:
one of the greatest
tragedies in the North
American literary history,
one of the greatest
losses to American
literature,
one of the most
disgraceful episodes of
critical stupidity in the
United States
Works
1. Redburn
2. Typee
3. Omoo
4. Moby Dick
5. Mardi
6. White Jacket
7. Pierre
8. Billy Budd
1849
1846
1874
1851
1849
1850
1852
1924
Life
Melville was born in New
York City. Both his
parents came from wellto-do families, but later
their family business
failed.
Melville’s childhood was
happy to the age of 11,
when his father died in
debt.
 Herman Melville was born August
19, 1819 into a slightly eccentric,
established New England family.
 His father Alan imported clothes
and other goods from France,
providing Herman with a
comfortable and happy childhood in
New York.
 After Herman's father died in 1832,
the family relied on financial
assistance from his mother's
wealthy family and Herman left
school to go to work.
 Herman educated himself while
working a variety of jobs
throughout teens.
 In 1839, Melville began his affair
with sea when he joined the crew
of the St. Lawrence and set sail for
Liverpool England.
 In 1840, Melville set sail aboard the
Acushnet, a whaling ship headed
for the South Pacific. The rough
conditions of the sea toughened
the romantic New Englander and he
took such a liking to sea life that he
sailed around the globe four years
aboard various ships.
 Navy. Melville was welcomed home
by his family who was entertained
by his tales of the high seas and
encouraged him to write them
down. Herman wrote Typee quickly
in 1845, and published it the next
year. Typee became a critical and
financial success
 in 1847, Melville married Elizabeth
Shaw, daughter of the Chief Justice
of Massachusetts.
 To make himself more financially
stable for his impending marriage,
Melville sought a position with the
U.S. Treasury and took on extra
work writing book reviews.
 Moby Dick published in November
1851, received poor reviews and
did not sell.
 Despite this continued output and
the fact his earlier novels
continued to be reprinted and sold
fairly well, Melville's literary
reputation was in rapid decline.
 His death from a heart attack on
September 28, 1891 went entirely
unheeded by the general public.
 Melville's literary reputation
remained in decline until he was
rediscovered in the 1920's, when a
generation, disillusioned by the
Great War began to appreciate the
depth of Melville's spiritual
struggles and the 'modern'
experimental style of his stories.
Moby Dick
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Type of work: symbolic novel
First publication: 1851
Author: Herman Melville
Setting :Most of the book takes
place on various oceans, such as
the Atlantic, the Indian, and the
Pacific, in the early to mid 1800’s.
However, a good deal of the first
part of the novel takes place in New
England inside and around
Nantucket.
 Principal Characters :
 Ishmael
schoolteacher and part-time sailor;
a Presbyterian, like Melville, he
projects Calvinistic thinking
tempered by his background in
literature and philosophy. He
discusses such issues as free will,
predestination, necessity, and
damnation. He is the sole survivor
of the Pequod.
 Captain Ahab
A man who is obsessed with the
killing of a white whale that has
maimed him. He has a scar which
extends from his head to his leg.
Starbuck
He the first mate, is bold enough to
criticize Ahab's vengeance,
considers mutiny but fails.
Stubb
He is the second mate who is
carefree, indifferent, and fatalistic.
 Moby Dick
It is the White Whale; the world’s
largest creature. It is powerful,
legendary image of nature. It
swims peacefully in the sea until
disturbed by humans, then shows a
terrible fury and anger. For Ahab,
Moby Dick is the symbol of evil.
Themes of Moby Dick
 1. Search for truth
The story deals with the human
pursuit of truth and the meaning of
existence.
2. Conflict between Good and Evil.
3. Conflict between Man and
Nature.
4. Isolation between man and man;
man and nature; man and society.
5. Solipsism.
Symbols
 1. The Pequod
The Pequod is a symbol of doom. It
is painted a gloomy black and
covered in whale teeth and bones,
literally bristling with the
mementos of violent death. It is, in
fact, marked for death. Adorned
like a primitive coffin, the Pequod
becomes one.
2. Moby Dick
Moby Dick possesses various symbolic
meanings for various individuals.
1) Symbol of nature for human beings,
because it is mysterious, powerful,
unknown.
2) Symbol of evil for the Captain Ahab.
3) Symbol of good and purity because of
its whiteness.
3 Voyage of the Pequod
Symbol of the pursuit of ideals,
adventure, and the hunt in the vast
wilderness.
4) Ahab
Symbol of solipsism, revenge and
then evil.
5) Starbuck
Symbol of good and noble.
6) the Doubloon
Symbol of the lure of evil and
enticements to greed.
7) Sea
Symbol of vastness, loneliness, and
isolation.
Evaluation
 Moby Dick is, critics have
agreed, one of the world’s
greatest masterpieces. To get
to know the 19th century
American mind and America
itself, one has to read this book.
 One of the classics of American
Literature and even world
literature.
 Moby Dick is an
encyclopedia of
everything,
history,
philosophy,
religion, etc. in
addition to a
detailed account
of the
operations of
the whaling
industry.
Questions
Who was Herman Melville?
What is Melville’s masterpiece?
What does Moby Dick symbolize?
Why did Melville’s popularity begin
to wane as he changed from writing
adventure stories to philosophical
and symbolic works?
 When did Melville’s work again
come to the attention of literary
scholars and the public?
 Why is Moby Dick difficult to read?
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Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (1807-1882)
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in
Portland, Maine
His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a Portland
lawyer and congressman
His mother, Zilpah, was the daughter of General
Peleg Wadsworth
Longfellow was early fond of reading Washington Irving's Sketch-Book was his
favorite
Among Longfellow's classmates at Bowdoin
College was Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom he
helped later reviewing warmly his Twice-Told
Tales.

Before leaving the college, Longfellow had
planned to become a writer, and wrote to
his father: "The fact is, I most eagerly
aspire after future eminence in literature;
my whole soul burns most ardently for it,
and every earthly thought centers in it..."
 Longfellow's translation of Horace earned
him a scholarship for further studies.
 After graduating in 1825 he traveled in
Italy, France and Spain from 1826 to 1829,
and returned to the United States to work
as a professor and librarian in Bodwoin.

In 1831 he married Mart Storer Potter, and made with
her another journey to Europe, where he studied
Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and the Dutch language
and literature.
 Longfellow's wife died at Rotterdam in 1835
 In 1836 Longfellow began teaching in Harvard
 Longfellow was married twice - after the death of his
first wife he married in 1843 Frances Appleton
 Frances died tragically in 1861 by burning - her
dress caught fire from a lighted match. Longfellow
settled in Cambridge, where he remained for the rest
of his life
 Queen Victoria, who was his great admirer, invited
him to tea

The poet's 70th birthday in 1877 was
celebrated around the country
 Longfellow died in Cambridge on March 24,
1882. In London his marble image is seen in
Westminster Abbey, in the Poet's Corner
Works of Longfellow
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Voices of the Night
Earlier Poems
Ballads and other Poems
Poems on Slavery
The Belfry of Bruges and other Poems
Evangeline: a Tale of Acadie
The Seaside and the Fireside
The Song of Hiawatha
The Courtship of Miles Standish
Birds of Passage
Tales of a Wayside Inn
Ultima Thule
In the Harbor
Fragments
Christus: a Mystery
Translations
Longfellow’s Influence

Longfellow also influenced America's artistic and
popular culture.
 His works inspired artists and composers, and
his poems were read and recited not only in
parlors and schoolrooms, but also at civic
ceremonies.
 Schools, geographic locations, and ordinary
products, even cigars, were named for him and
for characters from his poems. In the 1870s,
schoolchildren celebrated his birthday as if it
were a national holiday.

His poetry has been a continuous presence in our
language ever since.
 He is quoted by merchants and manufacturers on
their products, by journalists and preachers in
their articles and sermons, and by ordinary men
and women in their daily lives.
 Some of his lines and phrases - "A boy's will is the
wind's will," "Ships that pass in the night,"
"Footprints on the sands of time" - are so well
known that they have entered the American
language.
 Today they are often quoted without the speaker
even knowing Longfellow penned the words.
Poetic Features
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Longfellow was greatly influenced by the
German Romanticism
One of the reasons why he was loved best in
his time is his optimistic attitude in his poetry
he was one of the “schoolroom poets” or
“fireside poets”
His reputation as a major American Poet
declined between the two wars for the
gentleness and sweetness, and the common
subjects
He is lacking in passion and high imagination
His style and subjects are conventional
compared with modern poets
Commentary

Probably the best loved of American poets the
world over is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
 There are two reasons for the popularity and
significance of Longfellow's poetry
1. He had the gift of easy rhyme.
2.He wrote on obvious themes which appeal
to all kinds of people

He made a great contribution to "the flowering
of New England
 Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow
because he was among the first of American
writers to use native themes
Longfellow Quotations
1.All things come round to him who will but wait.
2. All things must change to something new, to
something strange.
3. Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human
breast, that however high we reach we are never
satisfied.
4. Build today, then strong and sure, with a firm and
ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall
tomorrow find its place.
5. If you only knock long enough and loud
enough at the gate, you are sure to wake
up somebody.
6. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave
is not its goal; dust thou art, to dust
returnest, was not spoken of the soul.
7. Music is the universal language of
mankind.
8. People demand freedom only when they
have no power.
9. Sometimes we may learn more from a
man's errors, than from his virtues.
10.The talent of success is nothing more
than doing what you can do well, and
doing well whatever you do without
thought of fame. If it comes at all it will
come because it is deserved, not
because it is sought after.
11. Trust no future, however pleasant! Let
the dead past bury its dead! Act - act in
the living Present! Heart within and God
overhead.
Questions
 Who
was the most popular and the best
loved poet in the 19th century ?
 Why was Longfellow often loved by
common people?
 On what kind of subjects does
Longfellow’s poetry put its emphasis?
 Which of Longfellow’s poems was first
translated into Chinese?
Hymn to the Night
I
heard the trailing garments of the Night
 Sweep through her marble halls!
 I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
 From the celestial walls!
I
felt her presence, by its spell of might,
 Stoop o'er me from above;
 The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
 As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
 The manifold, soft chimes,
 That fill the haunted chambers of the Night
 Like some old poet's rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
 My spirit drank repose;
 The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,-
From those deep cisterns flows.
O
holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
 What man has borne before!
 Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
 And they complain no more.
 Peace!
Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this
prayer!
 Descend with broad-winged flight,
 The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most
fair,
 The best-beloved Night!
The Secret of the Sea

 Ah!
what pleasant visions haunt me
As I gaze upon the sea!
All the old romantic legends,
All my dreams, come back to me.
 Sails
of silk and ropes of sandal,
Such as gleam in ancient lore;
And the singing of the sailors,
And the answer from the shore!
 Most
of all, the Spanish ballad
Haunts me oft, and tarries long,
Of the noble Count Arnaldos
And the sailor's mystic song.
 Like
the long waves on a sea-beach,
Where the sand as silver shines,
With a soft, monotonous cadence,
Flow its unrhymed lyric lines:--
 Telling
how the Count Arnaldos,
With his hawk upon his hand,
Saw a fair and stately galley,
Steering onward to the land;--
 How
he heard the ancient helmsman
Chant a song so wild and clear,
That the sailing sea-bird slowly
Poised upon the mast to hear,
 Till
his soul was full of longing,
And he cried, with impulse strong,-"Helmsman! for the love of heaven,
Teach me, too, that wondrous song!“
 "Wouldst
thou,"--so the helmsman
answered,
"Learn the secret of the sea?
Only those who brave its dangers
Comprehend its mystery!"
 In
each sail that skims the horizon,
In each landward-blowing breeze,
I behold that stately galley,
Hear those mournful melodies;
 Till
my soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me.
Walt Whitman
• One of the great innovators in
•
American literature
He gave America its first genuine epic
poem: Leaves of Grass
Life
• Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman
was the second son of Walter
Whitman, a house-builder, and
Louisa Van Velsor.
• At the age of twelve Whitman began
to learn the printer's trade, and fell in
love with the written word.
• Largely self-taught, he read
voraciously, becoming acquainted
with the works of Homer, Dante,
Shakespeare, and the Bible.
• In 1836, at the age of 17, he began his career
as teacher in the one-room school houses of
Long Island. He continued to teach until
1841, when he turned to journalism as a
full-time career.
• In the fall of 1848, he founded a "free soil"
newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman, and
continued to develop the unique style of
poetry that later so astonished Ralph Waldo
Emerson.
• In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on
the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which
consisted of twelve untitled poems and a
preface.
• He published the volume himself, and sent a
copy to Emerson in July of 1855.
• Whitman released a second edition of the
book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems,
a letter from Emerson praising the first
edition, and a long open letter by Whitman
in response.
• Whitman struggled to support himself
through most of his life. In Washington he
lived on a clerk's salary and modest
royalties, and spent any excess money,
including gifts from friends, to buy supplies
for the patients he nursed.
• He had also been sending money to his
widowed mother and an invalid brother. From
time to time writers both in the states and in
England sent him "purses" of money so that
he could get by.
• In the early 1870s, Whitman settled in
Camden, where he had come to visit his dying
mother at his brother's house.
• after suffering a stroke, Whitman found it
impossible to return to Washington. He stayed
with his brother until the 1882 publication of
Leaves of Grass gave Whitman enough money
to buy a home in Camden.
• In the simple two-story clapboard house,
Whitman spent his declining years working
on additions and revisions to a new edition
of the book and preparing his final volume
of poems and prose, Good-Bye, My Fancy
(1891).
• After his death on March 26, 1892,
Whitman was buried in a tomb he designed
and had built on a lot in Harleigh Cemetery.
Works
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Poetry
Drum Taps (1865)
Good-Bye, My Fancy (1891)
Leaves of Grass (1855)
Leaves of Grass (1856)
Leaves of Grass (1860)
Leaves of Grass (1867)
Leaves of Grass (1870)
Leaves of Grass (1876)
Leaves of Grass (1881)
Leaves of Grass (1891)
Passage to India (1870)
Sequel to Drum Taps (1865)
• Prose
• Complete Prose Works (1892)
• Democratic Vistas (1871)
• Franklin Evans; or, The Inebriate (1842)
• Memoranda During the War (1875)
• November Boughs (1888)
• Specimen Days and Collect (1881)
Poetic Features
• Walt Whitman was one of the most
•
important American poets in the
nineteenth century and one of the great
innovators in American literature. In the
preface to his Leaves of Grass, he says
that one of his focuses is on the sort of
poet America required and the sort of
poetry America needed.
The great American poet would create
both new forms and new subject matter
for poetry.
• In terms of content, American poetry
would not echo the sad complaints of
the Graveyard school nor follow the
moral preaching of didactic poets. As
a matter of fact, Whitman himself
was that poet and his Leaves of
Grass is an example of that poetry.
• Whitman’s poetry is typical of
America’s.
• Leaves of Grass grew and changed as
he and his nation, America, grew and
changed.
• He saw reality as a continuous flow,
without a beginning or end. He
disliked the nineteenth-century
poetic forms that are stiff and
patterned. Most of the poems in
Leaves of Grass are about man and
nature, especially common people
and ordinary Americans.
• He wanted his poetry to be for the
common people. He was determined
“to meet people and the States face
to face, to confront them with an
American rude tongue”.
• In the area of poetic form, Whitman
made his great contributions.
Through him, American poets finally
freed themselves from the old
English traditions. Throughout his life
he advocated a completely new and
completely American form of poetic
expression.
• The poetic form he employed is now
called free verse ---- the verse that
does not follow a fixed metrical
pattern, the verse without a fixed
beat or regular rhyme scheme.
• Whitman thought that message was
always more important than form. So
he always developed his style to suit
his message and the audience he
hoped to reach.
• He abandoned conventional and
hackneyed poetic figures and drew
his symbolism freely from his
experience. He remains one of
American most important poets
because he announced and
instructed a completely new age.
Poem Appreciation
•
O Captain, My Captain
• The following is a three-stanza poem
by Walt Whitman. The poem was
published in Sequel to Drum-Taps in
1865. The poem is an elegy on the
death of President Abraham Lincoln
and it is noted for its regular form,
meter, and rhyme, though it is also
known for its sentimentality verging
on the maudlin.
• The poem is highly popular among
American people. It portrays Lincoln
as the captain of a sea-worn ship
which represents or symbolizes the
Union that had experienced the
American Civil War and triumphant at
last.
• While “The ship is anchored safe and
sound, its voyage closed and done”,
the captain lies on the deck, “Fallen
cold and dead.”
• The poem expresses Whitman’s deep
sorrow for the death of Abraham
Lincoln who was assassinated on April
14 1865, five days after the declaration
of the triumphant close of the Civil War.
• The poem contains three stanzas, each
of which consists of 8 lines. The first
four lines are two couplets and the last
four are in the form of a regular ballad
with the fifth and seventh lines iambic
tetrameter and the sixth and eighth
lines iambic trimeter. The rhyme
scheme is aabbcded.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we
sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all
exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and
daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! My Captain! Rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the
bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths –for you
the shores a crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass ,their eager
faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and
still.
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse
nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage
closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with
object won:
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Come up from the Fields Father
• The following is one of Whitman’s best
poems. It is a short, well-written epic
that tells a story about one family
expecting a letter from their son who is
fighting in the battlefields during the Civil
War
• But when his letter comes, the mother
finds that “a strange hand writes for our
dear son”, “the only son” of the family.
• The stricken mother grieves deeply for
the death of her son and wants “to
follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead
son.” We feel a strong affection of the
mother, of the family for the son, and the
indelible effect of the American Civil War
on one of the common families.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Come up from the fields father, here’s a
letter from our Pete,
And come to the front door mother, here’s
a letter from thy dear son.
Lo,’tis autumn,
Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and
redder,
Cool and sweeten Ohio’s villages with
leaves fluttering in the moderate wind,
Where apples ripe in the orchards hang
and grapes on the trellis’d vines,
(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?
Smell you the buckwheat where the bees
were lately buzzing?)
•
•
•
•
Above all, lo, the sky so calm, so transparent
after the rain, and with wondrous clouds,
Below too, all calm, all vital and beautiful,
and the farm prospers well.
•
•
•
•
•
Down in the fields all prospers well,
But now from the fields come father, come
at the daughter’s call,
And come to the entry mother, to the front
door come right away.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fast as she can she hurries, something
ominous, her steps trembling,
She does not tarry to smooth her hair nor
adjust her cap.
Open the envelope quickly,
O this is not our son’s writing, yet his name
is signed,
O a strange hand writes for our dear son,
O stricken mother’s soul!
•
•
•
•
All swims before her eyes, flashes with
black, she catches the main words only,
Sentences broken, gunshot wound in the
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ah now the single figure to me,
Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio with
all its cities and farms,
Sickly white in the face and dull in the
head, very faint,
By the jamb of a door leans.
breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to
hospital,
• At present low, but will soon be better.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Grieve not so, dear mother, ( the just-grown
daughter speaks through her sobs,
The little sisters huddle around speechless
and dismay’d,)
See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon
be better.
Alas poor boy, he will never be better, ( nor
may be needs to be better, that brave
and simple soul,)
While they stand at home at the door he is
dead already,
The only son is dead.
•
•
•
•
•
•
But the mother needs to be better,
She with tin form presently drest in black,
By day her meals untouch’d, then at night
fitfully sleeping often waking,
In the midnight waking, weeping, longing
with one deep longing,
O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent
from life
• escape and withdraw,
• To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead
son.
Spirit that Formed This Scene
• In the autumn of 1879, Whitman was
invited to Lawrence to participate in
the celebration of the 25th
anniversary of the Kansas Peasant
Uprising. After that he went to
Denver, Colorado where he viewed a
canyon.
• He saw “heaven-ambitious peaks”
and “turbulent-clear streams”, which
were majestic in all different forms.
• These formless mountains and rivers
have been formed for the “reasons of
their own”. Suddenly he realized that
his poems have also been created for
the reasons of their own. After that
he wrote the following poem in
which he draws comparison between
the canyon and his work.
• Whitman’s poetry was criticized in
his day for being rather rough and
uncivilized and this poem is an
example that justifies that criticism.
•
•
•
•
Spirit that form’d this scene,
These tumbled rock-piles grim and red,
These reckless heaven-ambitious peaks,
These gorges, turbulent-clear streams,
this naked freshness,
• These formless wild arrays, for reasons
of their own,
• I know thee, savage spirit --- we have
communed together,
• Mine too such wild arrays, for reasons of
their own;
• Was’t charged against my chants they
•
•
•
•
•
had forgotten art?
To fuse within themselves its rules
precise and delicatesse?
The lyrist’s measure’d beat, the
wrought-out temple’s grace
---- column and polish’d arch forgot?
But thou that revelest here ---- spirit
that formed this scene,
They have remember’d thee.
Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886)
life


Emily Dickinson was born into one of Amherst,
Massachusetts’ most prominent families on 10
December 1830.
She was the second child born to Emily
Norcross (1804-1882) and Edward Dickinson
(1803-1874), a Yale graduate, successful lawyer,
Treasurer for Amherst College and a United
States Congressman.


Emily had an older brother named William
Austin Dickinson (1829-1895) (known as
Austin) who would marry her most intimate
friend Susan Gilbert in 1856.
The Dickinsons were strong advocates for
education and Emily too benefited from an
early education in classic literature,
studying the writings of Virgil and Latin,
mathematics, history, and botany.


Dickinson proved to be a dazzling student
and in 1847, though she was already
somewhat of a ‘homebody’, at the age of
seventeen Emily left for South Hadley,
Massachusetts to attend the Mount Holyoke
Female Seminary.
She stayed there less than a year and some
of the theories as to why she left are
homesickness and poor health.


She was in the midst of the college town’s society
and bustle although she started to spend more
time alone, reading and maintaining lively
correspondences with friends and relatives.
Emily Dickinson died on 15 May 1886, at the age
of fifty-six. She now rests in the West Cemetery of
Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Not
wishing a church service, a gathering was held at
the Homestead.
Emily Dickinson’s Poetry

Emily Dickinson had no abstract theory of poetry.
It is not certain if she was familiar with the poetic
theories of Edgar Allan Poe, Coleridge, Emerson,
Whitman and Matthew Arnold. When editor
Thomas Higginson asked her to define poetry,
she gave a subjective, emotional response: "If I
read a book and it makes my whole body so cold
no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.
If I feel physically as if the top of my head were
taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the
only ways I know it. Is there any other way?"
The Character of Her Verse



1. Highly compressed, compact,
shy of being exposed.
2. Her style is elliptical - she will
say no more than she must suggesting either a quality of
uncertainty or one of finality.
3. Her lyrics are her highly
subjective. One-fifth of them
begin with "I" - she knows no
other consciousness.


4. Ambiguity of meaning and syntax.
Wrote Higginson: "She almost
always grasped whatever she
sought, but with some fracture of
grammar and dictionary on the
way."
5. Concreteness - it is nearly a
theorem of lyric poetry that it is as
good as it is concrete. Even when
she is talking of the most abstract
of subjects, Emily specifies it by
elaborating it in the concreteness of
simile or metaphor.


6. Use of poetic forms such as
alliteration, assonance, and
consonance; also onomatopoetic
effects
7. Obscurity. Higginson said " ...
she was obscure, and sometimes
inscrutable; and though obscurity
is sometimes, in Coleridge's
phrase, a compliment to the
reader, yet it is never safe to
press this compliment too hard."
Themes In Emily Dickinson's Poetry


A few themes occupied the poet: love, nature, doubt
and faith, suffering, death, immortality - these John
Donne has called the great granite obsessions of
humankind.
Love: Though she was lonely and isolated, Emily
appears to have loved deeply, perhaps only those
who have "loved and lost" can love, with an
intensity and desire which can never be fulfilled in
the reality of the lovers' touch.

Nature: A fascination with nature consumed
Emily. She summed all her lyrics as "the
simple news that nature told," she loved
"nature's creatures" no matter how
insignificant - the robin, the hummingbird,
the bee, the butterfly, the rat .Only the
serpent gave her a chill.

Faith And Doubt: Emily's theological orientation
was Puritan - she was taught all the premises of
Calvinistic dogma - but she reacted strenuously
against two of them: infant damnation and God's
sovereign election of His own. There was another
force alive in her time that competed for her
interests: that was the force of literary
transcendentalism. This explains a kind of
paradoxical or ambivalent attitude toward
matters religious. She loved to speak of a
compassionate Savior and the grandeur of the
Scriptures, but she disliked the hypocrisy and
arbitrariness of institutional church.

Pain And Suffering: Emily displays an
obsession with pain and suffering; there is
an eagerness in her to examine pain, to
measure it, to calculate it, to intellectualize
it as fully as possible. Her last stanzas
become a catalog of grief and its causes:
death, want, cold, despair, exile. Emily says
"I like a look of Agony."

Death: Many readers have been intrigued
by Dickinson's ability to probe the fact of
human death. She often adopts the pose of
having already died before she writes her
lyric. She can look straight at approaching
death
Structural Patterns


Major pattern is that of a sermon:
statement or introduction of topic,
elaboration, and conclusion. There are three
variations of this major pattern:
1. The poet makes her initial announcement
of topic in an unfigured line.


2. She uses a figure for that purpose.
3. She repeats her statement and its
elaboration a number of times before
drawing a conclusion.
Poem Appreciation


Success
Emily Dickinson thought that she had never
achieved success and considered failure her
constant companion. But she really wished
for success and believed that only those who
never achieved success value it most and
counted it sweetest.

The poem also expresses a sense of distance.
The thing that one has experienced will not
leave a deep impression in his or her mind.
Only does one keep a distance from what he
or she wishes he or she will feel it most and
therefore knows its value and real worth.








Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag today
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,




As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.
I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed
Emily Dickinson was greatly influenced by Emerson’s
transcendentalism. She had a profound love for nature
and was often intoxicated with the beauty of nature.
The following poem is a fine example. The poet
compares nature to liquor that has never been brewed
and herself to a debauchee who loves wine more than
her life. The image the poet uses to suggest
drunkenness epitomizes her deep love for nature.








I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vast upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!
Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.








When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove’s door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!
Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!
I’m Nobody! Who Are You?

Although the following poem is short, only
consisting of two stanzas, the image is clear and
vivid and pregnant with meaning and it calls for
deep thought. The poem might explain the reason
why Emily Dickinson preferred solitude to public
life and was contented to become a recluse and
stayed away from the bustle and clamorous society
which she thought to be material-oriented and
fame-driven.

The poem sketches three different types of
people: nobody, somebody and snobs. Clearly
the poet identifies herself with nobody who
she thought to be simple and honest. The selfimportant somebody is always boasting and
advertising just like a frog and the snob
admires him as a bog admires the frog whose
mere merit is to blow his own trumpet and
indulge in self-glorification.








I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us ---- don’t tell!
They’d banish us. You know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910.
He was an American author,a humorist, narrator,
and social observer.
Twain is unsurpassed in American literature.
His novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a
masterpiece of humor, characterization, and realism,
has been called the first (and sometimes the best)
modern American novel.
 After the death of his father in 1847, young Clemens
was apprenticed to a printer in Hannibal, Mo., the
Mississippi River town where he spent most of his
boyhood.
 He first began writing for his brother’s newspaper
there, and later he worked as a printer in several
major Eastern cities.
 In 1857, Clemens went to New Orleans on his way to
make his fortune in South America, but instead he
became a Mississippi River pilot—hence his
pseudonym, “Mark Twain,” which was the river call
for a depth of water of two fathoms.
 The Civil War put an end to river traffic,
and in 1862 Clemens went W to Carson
City, Nev., where he failed in several getrich-quick schemes.
 He eventually began writing for the
Virginia City Examiner and later was a
newspaperman in San Francisco.
 Soon the humorist “Mark Twain” emerged,
a writer of tall tales and absurd anecdotes.
 He first won fame with the comic
masterpiece “The Celebrated Jumping
Frog of Calaveras County,” first published
in 1865 in the New York Saturday Press
and later (1867) used as the title piece for a
volume of stories and sketches.
 When he returned from a trip to Hawaii
financed by the Sacramento Union in 1866,
Twain became a successful humorous
lecturer.
 He set out world tour, traveling in France
and Italy. His experiences were recorded in
1869 in The Innocents Abroad, which
gained him wide popularity, and poked fun
at both American and European
prejudices and manners.
 Its success gave Twain enough financial
security to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870.
They moved next year to Hartford., where
the family remained, with occasional trips
abroad, until 1891.
 Huckleberry Finn (1884) was first
considered adult fiction. Huck Finn, which
painted a picture of Mississippi frontier
life, was intended as a sequel to Tom
Sawyer. Huck, who could not possibly
write a story, tells us the story.
 Both works stand high on the list of
eminent writers like Stevenson, Dickens
who honestly depicted young people
without any condescension or moralizing.
 In the 1890s Twain lost most of his
earnings in financial speculations and in
the downhill of his own publishing firm.
 Twain closed Hartford house, and to
recover from the bankrupt, he started a
world lecture tour, during which Suzy, his
favorite daughter, died of meningitis.
 Twain toured New Zealand, Australia,
India, and South Africa, and returned to
the U.S. in 1900.
 The death of his wife in 1904 in Florence and
his second daughter darkened the author's
later years, which is also seen in writings and
his posthumously published autobiography
(1924).
 Twain died on April 21, 1910.
His Major works
 1.The Notorious Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County (1865)
 2.Innocents Abroad (1869)
 3.Roughing It (1872)
 4.The Gilded Age (with Charles Dudley
waenner,1873)
 5.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
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6. A Tramp Abroad (1880)
7. The Prince and the Pauper (1882)
8.Life on the Mississippi (1883)
9.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
10.The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894)
11. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
(1889)
 12. The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900)
 13.What Is Man? (1906)
 14. The Mysterious Stranger (1916)
 15. Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
(1896)
 16. Following the Equator (1897)
The Mississippi River
 "Half twain! Quarter twain! M-a-r-k
twain!”
 For most people, the name "Mark Twain" is
virtually synonymous with the life along the
Mississippi River immortalized in the
author's writing. Clemens first signed his
writing with the name in February 1863, as
a newspaper reporter in Nevada.
 "Mark Twain" (meaning "Mark number
two") was a Mississippi River term:
the second mark on the line that
measured depth signified two fathoms,
or twelve feet—safe depth for the
steamboat.
 In 1857, at the age of twenty-one, he
became a "cub" steamboat pilot. The
Civil War ended that career four years
later by halting all river traffic.
 Although Clemens never again lived in the
Mississippi valley, he returned to the river
in his writing throughout his life. And he
visited a number of times, most notably in
1882 as he prepared to write Life on the
Mississippi, his fullest and most
autobiographical account of the region
and its inhabitants, and again in 1902
when he made his final visit to the scenes
of his childhood.
Life on the Mississippi
 0riginally published in 1883, Life on the
Mississippi is Mark Twain's memoir of his
youthful years as a cub pilot on a steamboat
paddling up and down the Mississippi River.
 Twain used his childhood experiences
growing up along the Mississippi in a
number of works, including The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, but nowhere is the river
and the pilot's life more thoroughly
described than in this work.
 Told with insight, humor, and
candor, Life on the Mississippi
is an American classic.
 Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twain’s
memoir of his youthful years as a cub
pilot on a steamboat paddling up and
down the Mississippi River.
 Twain used his childhood experiences
growing up along the Mississippi in a
number of works, including The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
 but nowhere is the river and the
pilot's life more thoroughly
described than in this work
 Told with insight, humor, and
candor, Life on the Mississippi is an
American classic
Book Review
 Life On the Mississippi is perhaps his
middle-aged, nostalgic look-back to the
long gone days of his youth.
 Twain looks back from a distance of
twenty years, back to his days as a
steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River.
 From 1857 to 1861 Twain learned and
worked and lived on steamboats
traveling the river from St. Louis to
New Orleans.
 Yet a mere twenty years later, he must
have surely recognized that the 'glory
days' of the steamboat on the
Mississippi were already gone, for him
and for his country
 Life on the Mississippi is full of stories.
 Stories of the geological history and the
discovery and exploration of the river
by man.
 Stories of Twain's early days as a boy on
the river and the characters known and
admired or censured from those early
days.
 Stories from his days living and working on the
river, as a 'cub pilot', as a respected working
pilot,
and—returning
twenty years
later—as a
visitor seeing
for himself the
changes
wrought on
the river.
 Stories of the changes produced by the
hand of man, straightening and
deepening and channeling the river;
changes forced by the development of
tow-boats and railroads; changes
perhaps best seen from the distance of
time.
Stephen Crane
(1871-1900)
American author, whose second book, The
Red Badge of Courage (1895), brought him
international fame.
Crane's first novel, Maggie:
A Girl of the Streets,
was a milestone in the
development of literary
naturalism.
life
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Stephen Crane was the youngest of fourteen
children.
His father was a strict Methodist minister,
who died in 1880, leaving his devout, strong
mother to raise the rest of the family.
Crane lasted through preparatory school,
but spent less than two years in college,
excelling at Syracuse in baseball and
partying far more than academics.
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After leaving school, he went to live in
New York, doing freelance writing and
working on his first book Maggie, A Girl of
the Streets.
His times in New York City were split
between his apartment in the Bowery
slum in Manhattan and well-off family in
the nearby town of Port Jervis.
Crane published Maggie in 1893 at his
own expense.
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He published The Red Badge of Courage
in 1895, The Red Badge was quite
different from Maggie in style and
approach, and brought Crane
international fame and quite a bit of
money.
Bolstered by the success of The Red
Badge and his book of poetry The Black
Riders, Crane became subsumed with
ideas of war.
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
He was hired to go to Cuba as a journalist
to report on the rebellion there against the
Spanish.
On the way to the island, Crane was in a
shipwreck, from which
he was originally reported
dead.
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He rowed to shore in a dinghy, along with
three other men, having to swim to shore
and drop his money in the sea to prevent
from drowning.
This experience directly led to his most
famous short story "The Open Boat"
(1897).
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For various reasons, Crane stopped
writing novels during this time and moved
primarily to short stories probably
because they could sell in magazines
better but also because he was constantly
moving.
When staying in Jacksonville,
Florida, he met the owner of
a brothel, Cora Taylor.
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Cora, by chance, had just been reading
his novel George's Mother. When she
presented the book to Crane for his
autograph, he inscribed it "To an
unnamed sweetheart."
This meeting was the beginning of a love
affair and she accompanied him to
Greece as he reported on the GrecoTurkish War for New York newspapers;
and stayed with him until the end of his
life.
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At this point, rumors abounded about
Crane, few of them good.
There was talk of drug addiction, rampant
promiscuity, and even Satanism, none of
them true.
Crane was disgusted with them and
eventually relocated to England.
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After reporting on the Spanish-American
War, Crane returned home to England.
He then drove himself deeply into debt by
throwing huge, expensive parties.
While he could now count Joseph Conrad,
H. G. Wells, and other
authors in his circle, most
people sponged off of Crane
and his lavishness.
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He worked on a novel about the Greek
War and continued writing short stories
and poetry, at this point to pay off his
large debts.
The stress of this life, compounded by an
almost blatant disregard for his own
health, led to his contracting tuberculosis.
He died while in Baden, Germany, trying
to recover from this illness.
He was not yet 29 years old.
His Major Works
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Novels
Active Service 1899
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets 1893
The Red Badge of Courage 1895
The Little Regiment 1896
The O’Ruddy 1903
The third Violet 1897
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Short Stories
The Open Boat 1898
The Monster 1899
Wilomville Stories 1900
Men, Women and Boats 1921
Poems
The Black Riders
1895
War is Kind 1899
Historical book
Great Battles of the War 1901
Major Themes
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In his themes and styles, Crane is an
avant-garde writer.
Crane writes about extreme experiences
that are confronted by ordinary people.
His characters are not larger-than-life, but
they touch the mysterious edges of their
capacities for perception, action, and
understanding.

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The New York City sketch, "A Detail," was
reprinted in 1898 with "The Open Boat,"
and the two works express parallel
naturalistic themes.
In both, individuals are shown to struggle
for communication while being buffeted
by tumultuous forces.
Significant Style
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Crane's works reflect many of the major
artistic concerns at the end of the
nineteenth century, especially naturalism,
impressionism, and symbolism.
His works insist that we live in a universe
of vast and indifferent natural forces, not
in a world of divine providence or a
certain moral order. "A Man Said to the
Universe" is useful in identifying this
aspect of Crane.
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Crane's vivid and explosive prose styles
distinguish his works from those by many
other writers who are labeled naturalists.
Many readers (including Hamlin Garland
and Joseph Conrad, who were personal
friends of Crane) have used the term
impressionist to describe Crane's vivid
renderings of moments of visual beauty
and uncertainty.

Even Crane's "discontinuous" rendering
of action has been identified as
impressionist.
The red Badge of Courage

Commonly considered Stephen Crane's
greatest accomplishment, The Red Badge
of Courage (1895) ranks among the
foremost literary achievements of the
modern era.
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When Crane signed a contract with D.
Appleton and Co. to publish Red Badge,
he was not well-known enough to
command an advance, and agreed to a flat
10 per cent royalty on the retail price of all
copies sold.
Published in the autumn of 1895, Red
Badge went through two editions before
the end of the year.
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By March of 1896 the novel was in eighth
place on the international booksellers' list
and had gone through fourteen printings;
remarkably enough, Red Badge has never
been out of print.
With the publication of Red Badge, Crane
achieved almost overnight celebrity.
Character List
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Henry Fleming
The novel’s protagonist; a young soldier
fighting for the Union army during the
American Civil War. Initially, Henry stands
untested in battle and questions his own
courage.
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As the novel progresses, he encounters
hard truths about the experience of war,
confronting the universe’s indifference to
his existence and the insignificance of his
own life.
Often vain and holding extremely
romantic notions about himself, Henry
grapples with these lessons as he first
runs from battle, then comes to thrive as a
soldier in combat.
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Jim Conklin
Henry’s friend; a tall soldier hurt during
the regiment’s first battle. Jim soon dies
from his wounds, and represents, in the
early part of the novel, an important moral
contrast to Henry.
Wilson
A loud private; Henry’s friend in the
regiment. Wilson and Henry grow close as
they share the harsh experiences of war
and gain a reputation as the regiment’s
best fighters.
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The tattered soldier
A twice-shot soldier whom Henry encounters
in the column of wounded men. With his
endless speculation about Henry’s supposed
wound, the tattered soldier functions as a
nagging, painful conscience to Henry.
The lieutenant
Henry’s commander in battle, a youthful
officer who swears profusely during the
fighting. The lieutenant develop sympathy
for each other, often feeling that they must
work together to motivate the rest of the men.
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Henry’s mother
Encountered only in a brief flashback,
Henry’s mother opposed his enlisting in
the army.
Though her advice is only briefly
summarized in Henry’s flashback, it
contains several difficult themes with
which Henry must grapple, including the
insignificance of his life in the grand
scheme of the world.
Major Themes
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Courage
Given the novel’s title, it is no surprise
that courage—defining it, desiring it, and,
ultimately, achieving it—is the most
salient element of the narrative.
Manhood
Throughout the novel, Henry struggles to
preserve his manhood, his understanding
of which parallels his understanding of
courage.
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Self-Preservation
An anxious desire for self-preservation
influences Henry throughout the novel.
The Universe’s Disregard for Human Life
Henry’s realization that the natural world
spins on regardless of the manner in which
men live and die is perhaps the most difficult
lesson that Henry learns as a soldier.
Youth and Maturity
Although the novel spans no more than a few
weeks, the reader witnesses a profound
change in the characters of both Henry and
Wilson.
3. Henry James (1843-1916)
• novelist, literary
critic, playwright
and essayist
1) Works
•
•
•
•
•
1865-1881
international
novel/theme
Daisy Miller 1879
The American
1877
The Portrait of a Lady 1881
The Bostonians
1886
The Princess Casamassima
1886
1882-1895
tales of inter-personal
relationships.
1895-1916
novellas and tales dealing with
childhood and adolescence;
international novel
•
•
•
•
•
“What Maisie Knew”
The Wings of the Dove
The Ambassadors
The Golden Bowl
“The Art of Fiction”
Literary
criticism
1897
1902
1903
1904
2) Life
• Henry James was born into a wealthy
cultured family of New England.
• His father, Henry James, Sr. was an eminent
philosopher and reformer, and his brother,
William James, was to be the famous
philosopher and psychologist.
• Henry James was one of the few authors in
American literary history who did not have
to worry about money.
• He was exposed to the cultural influence of
Europe ate a very early age.
• Later he met and developed a life-long
friendship with William Dean Howells.
• For a while he attended the Harvard Law
School.
• He toured England,
France and Italy, and met
Flaubert and Trugenev
who was then staying in
Paris.
• He settled down in
London in 1876 and spent
the rest of his life there. In
1915, he became a
naturalized British citizen.
3) Evaluation
• Henry James was a prolific writer. He
composed novels, travel papers, critical essays,
literary portraits, plays, autobiographies and
a series of critical prefaces on the art of
fiction.
• Henry James produced a number of
international novels. He was fascinated with
his “international theme”.
• Daisy Miller won him international fame.
• The last 3 ones represent the summit of his
art.
• James’ contribution to literary criticism is
immense.
• In his whole writing career James was
concerned with “point of view” which is at
the center of his aesthetic of the novel. The
author should avoid artificial omniscience as
much as possible.
• He is, today, a world literary
figure, one of the “largest” to
come out of America during the
19th century and the early 20th
century, a remarkable New
World bridge.